ARCHED Test: Architecture Admission in Italy Explained

Short answer: ARCHED is the shared test Italian public universities use for admission to architecture and building engineering-architecture. It has 50 questions, lasts 100 minutes and is marked out of 50. There is no national pass mark: each university ranks candidates by score and fills its places in order. Most universities run it online from home, so you can sit it from your own country.

Which programmes require ARCHED?

The test is delivered by CISIA, the consortium that runs Italy's university entrance tests. Its rules are set each year by a decree of the Italian Ministry of University and Research (MUR); for 2026/27 this is D.M. 706/2026. ARCHED is used for:

Architecture, 5 years (Architettura, LM-4 c.u.): a combined bachelor's and master's programme
Architectural sciences, 3-year bachelor's (Scienze / Progettazione dell'architettura, L-17)
Building engineering-architecture, 5 years (Ingegneria edile-architettura, LM-4 c.u.)

Not every architecture programme uses ARCHED; universities that are not on CISIA's list may use a different test. Design programmes use their own tests, not ARCHED. Always read the call for applications (bando) of the programme you want.

Universities that used ARCHED in 2026 include Politecnico di Milano, Sapienza, Roma Tre, Bologna, Padua, Florence, Naples Federico II, IUAV Venice, Politecnico di Bari, Genoa, Pisa, Pavia and Trento. The full list is on the CISIA website.

Test structure

The test has 5 sections, each with 10 questions and 20 minutes:

Text comprehension
General knowledge and history (including art history)
Logical reasoning
Drawing and representation: topics such as perspective, projection and scale
Physics and mathematics

Each question has 5 options and one correct answer. When a section's time runs out, the test moves on to the next one. If you finish a section early, the remaining time does not carry over and you cannot go back. Every candidate gets a different set of questions.

Scoring: what score do I need?

Correct answer: +1
No answer: 0
Wrong answer: -0.25

There is no fixed pass mark. According to the 2026/27 calls of Politecnico di Milano and Sapienza, rankings are based only on your test score and your stated preferences. When the places are filled, the score of the last admitted candidate becomes that year's cut-off, so it changes every year, at every university and for every programme. Ties are broken first by the logical reasoning score, then by text comprehension; candidates who answer no questions are not ranked.

Important if you are applying from outside the EU: students who live outside the EU and need a visa compete for a separate, smaller quota of places. For example, in 2026/27:

Sapienza reserved 15 places for these students in the 5-year Architecture programme and 7 in the 3-year Architectural Sciences programme.
Politecnico di Milano reserved 55 places in its 3-year programme on the Milan campus, 50 of them in the English-taught track.

With such small quotas, a strong score and the right choice of university both matter.

How to sit ARCHED from abroad

From home (TEST@CASA): taken online in a supervised Webex virtual classroom. You need a stable internet connection, a laptop and a phone or tablet with a camera. You may use blank sheets and a pen for notes. In 2026, Sapienza and Politecnico di Milano ran the test only from home.
At the university (TEST@UNI): some universities run it in their computer labs in Italy.
You book with the university, not with CISIA. Your result is valid only at the university where you took the test. To try more than one university, book each test separately; this works only if their test dates differ.
Fee: paid to the university. In 2026, Politecnico di Milano charged €35 and Sapienza €45.
Universitaly pre-enrolment: students who need a visa must also pre-enrol on Universitaly. In 2026, Sapienza's deadline for this was 30 June.
Language: for Italian-taught programmes, applicants from outside the EU need B2 Italian, shown with a certificate or the university's language test. If you choose an English-taught programme (for example at Politecnico di Milano or Politecnico di Bari), the test is in English and no Italian is required.

Dates

There is no single national date; each university sets its own. In 2026 most tests took place on 23–24 July and on 2, 9 and 16 September. Politecnico di Milano held its English test on 23 July and its Italian test on 24 July; Sapienza held tests on 23 July and 9 September. Registration usually opens in mid-June. The 2027 dates will be known once the Ministry publishes its decree in spring 2027 and universities publish their calls.

Our advice if you need a visa: aim for the July test. The September tests can leave very little time for the visa and enrolment steps.

How to prepare

Choose your target university early: the test language, date, number of places and language requirement differ from one university to another.
Give drawing and representation extra time: it is the section international students are least used to. Practise perspective, projection and scale questions.
Review history and art history with a focus on Italy and Europe.
Use past papers: the Ministry's past tests and CISIA's practice area are free.
Practise against the clock and learn when to skip: you have 20 minutes per section, about 2 minutes per question. Leaving a question blank costs fewer points than a wrong answer.

Bottom line

ARCHED has a clear structure and learnable content; the real challenge for applicants from outside the EU is the small number of reserved places. We can check which universities test in which language, how many places they reserve and how past rankings looked, and build a preparation timeline for you. Fill in the free assessment form to get started.

Last checked: 30 October 2026. Compiled from the CISIA website and the official 2026/27 calls of Politecnico di Milano and Sapienza. We will update this article when the 2027 dates are announced.

The ARCHED Test: Your Guide to Studying Architecture in Italy