Filter Semester: What Happens If You Don't Pass? Related Courses and Plan B

If you don't pass the filter semester (Italy's semestre filtro) you have three routes, depending on how many exams you passed. Pass all three but miss a Medicine place and you automatically enter the ranking for related courses. Pass 1 or 2 and you are still in the ranking (sections 5-9). With no passing grades at all you can enrol on any other degree course by 6 March, without losing the year.

In this guide:

• The three possible situations after the results
• All three passed but no Medicine place: the related course
• You passed 1 or 2 exams: what are your real chances?
• No passing grades: plan B by 6 March
• Is it worth retaking the filter semester?
• How to decide: the four questions I ask my students
• FAQ

The three possible situations after the results

Once the ranking is published there are three distinct situations. Students who passed all three exams without securing a place enter the ranking for related courses. Students who passed 1 or 2 exams stay in the ranking in sections 5-9, with a chance of admission and of making up the missing CFU. Students with no passing grades can enrol on any other degree course by 6 March.

Last January, in the days between the publication of the ranking and the enrolment deadline, I spent more time on the phone with students and parents than in the classroom. The question was always the same: "and now what?". The answer depends entirely on which of the three situations applies to you — and on a couple of numbers worth having clear before you decide.

For how scores, sections and wait-list movements work, I'll point you to the complete guide to the filter semester: here I take the mechanics as read and concentrate on the decision. Just one piece of context, because it cuts a lot of misplaced hope down to size: in the first cycle the first wait-list movement reassigned roughly 707 places in Medicine, 4.2% of the total, with a withdrawal rate of 4-5%. Wait-list movements exist, but they are not a plan.

The dates I quote in this article are those of the first cycle (ranking on 8 January, related courses on 28 January, final deadline 6 March). The 2026/2027 calendar will be set by decree, but the shape of the deadlines will be the same.

All three passed but no Medicine place: the related course

Students who pass all three exams without securing a place automatically enter the ranking for the related courses chosen at enrolment: Biotechnology (L-2), Biological Sciences (L-13), Pharmacy (LM-13), Animal Sciences (L-38) and some Health Professions degrees. The 18 CFU from the filter semester are recognised automatically, so the semester has not been wasted and the path continues without a break.

This is, paradoxically, the most painful situation — you did everything you were supposed to, and it wasn't enough — but also the one with the best options. My advice, almost always, is to accept the place on the related course. For three concrete reasons.

First: turning it down gives you nothing in return. A further attempt at the filter semester stays open either way, enrolled or not. Giving up the related course only means spending a year with no CFU, no structure and no fallback if the second attempt goes badly too.

Second: related courses are not dead ends. Biological Sciences and Biotechnology keep the whole biomedical field open — research, laboratory work, master's degrees in the bio-health area. Pharmacy is a single-cycle degree leading to a genuine healthcare profession. And the Health Professions degrees are clinical degrees in their own right: for more than one student I have worked with, what began as a fallback became the chosen path — not straight away, but it did.

Third: you can retake the filter semester the following year while staying enrolled on the related course. The rules allow up to 3 enrolments in a lifetime, in non-consecutive years too, and being enrolled on another degree course doesn't rule it out. In the meantime you are studying chemistry and biology at university level — which is, in effect, preparation for the second attempt paid for in CFU.

One warning from a tutor, though: the related course only works if you genuinely attend it. Students who treat it as a holding pen arrive in September with no exams passed on the new course and exactly the preparation they had twelve months earlier. Students who sit the exams turn up to the second attempt with firmer foundations and, if they get into Medicine, can apply for recognition of the overlapping exams.

You passed 1 or 2 exams: what are your real chances?

With 1 or 2 exams passed you enter the ranking in sections 5-9, with bonuses of 300 points and below. If your score is enough for a university, you make up the missing CFU in the second semester through at least two make-up exams per subject. If it isn't, the real choice is between enrolling elsewhere by 6 March and preparing a new attempt.

Honesty is needed here, because the numbers are blunt. A fifth section with two good grades — say 300 + 25 + 24 — comes to 349 points. In the first cycle, the competitive band for the most sought-after universities ran between 740 and 770, all of it in the first section. The lower sections only get in where places are left over after the higher ones: possible, not probable. My suggestion is to treat any admission as excellent unexpected news and to build the plan as if it were not coming.

The genuinely useful question in this situation is a different one: which exam are you missing? In the first cycle the answer was almost always the same. Physics was passed by roughly 11,000 students, against over 24,000 in Chemistry and 21,000 in Biology, with a 9-17% pass rate at the first sitting. If you have two exams passed and Physics is the one missing, you are not "someone who didn't make it": you are in the statistically most common position in the entire system, and you already know precisely where to invest the next few months. I come back to this in the section on retaking, because this is the profile for which a second attempt makes most sense.

In the meantime, the window until 6 March to enrol on another degree course applies to you too: no year lost, whatever the ranking decides.

No passing grades: plan B by 6 March

With no passing grades you don't enter the ranking, but you can enrol on any degree course — even past the universities' ordinary deadlines — by 6 March. The filter semester fees (€250) cover the first semester, so the academic year is not lost. The real decision is which course to choose, especially if you are thinking about another attempt.

If Medicine is still the goal, not all plan Bs are equal. I use two criteria with my students: how far the course makes you study the same subjects as the filter semester, and how good a destination it leaves you with if the second attempt never comes or doesn't work out.

On those criteria, three choices make most sense. Courses in the chemistry and biology area (Biology, Biotechnology, Chemistry, Pharmacy and CTF, with entry arrangements that vary from university to university): a year of university general chemistry and biology is direct preparation for the new attempt. The Health Professions degrees, which have an admission test of their own: if what draws you to Medicine is clinical work with patients, consider them as a destination and not as a fallback. And the private universities — San Raffaele, Cattolica, Campus Bio-Medico, Humanitas, LUM — which are not part of the filter semester and select with their own tests, on separate calendars: for anyone aiming at Medicine this is a parallel track that stays open, to be checked university by university.

One last thing, the hardest to say on the phone in January: no passing grades out of three exams almost never means "bad luck". It means the preparation had a structural problem — of foundations, of method or of time. Before putting another €250 on the table, that problem needs naming precisely. That is what the next section is about.

Is it worth retaking the filter semester?

Retaking is worth it if you can explain precisely why it went wrong and if you can give months — not weeks — to your weak point. In the first cycle only 9-17% passed Physics at the first sitting: if that is where you stopped, the second attempt turns almost entirely on that subject. You have up to 3 attempts in a lifetime.

When a student asks me whether to retake, I always ask the same question back: name me three precise topics where you lost marks. A student who answers "circuits, calorimetry, the problems where I have to set up the equations myself" has a diagnosis, and a plan can be built on a diagnosis. A student who answers "a bit of all of Physics" hasn't yet worked out what happened — and repeating the same semester with the same preparation produces the same result, only with one attempt fewer out of the three available.

The profile for which a second attempt makes most sense is clear-cut: two exams passed with respectable grades and Physics below the threshold. There the problem is contained, and the solution is known even if it is uncomfortable: exercises, not re-reading. The fill-in-the-blank questions in Physics ask for a numerical result, and you only get there by having solved dozens of similar problems against the clock. For students coming out of a classical or language high school the work is structural and takes months: it is the difference between revision and building a method. Subject-by-subject strategies are in the guide to preparing for Chemistry, Physics and Biology.

On the practical side: a new attempt costs €250 again, it can be done while enrolled on another degree course, and the 2026/2027 subjects are confirmed (Chemistry, Physics, Biology) even though dates and regulations will come by decree. Anyone deciding to retake therefore has many useful months ahead — and that is exactly the time it takes. At Up to Ten we build preparation paths calibrated on the initial diagnosis, with a dedicated tutor per subject: for most of our filter semester students that means intensive work on Physics alongside consolidation of Chemistry and Biology. As an investment, a 12-hour package starts at €36/hour — full details are on the pricing page.

How to decide: the four questions I ask my students

The choice between a related course, plan B and a new attempt comes down to four questions: how close you came, why it went wrong, how much real time you can invest in your weak point, and which option leaves you the most routes open. Answering these four questions in writing clarifies the decision more than any generic advice.

1. How close did you come? Three exams passed, or two with Physics missed by a few points: the second attempt starts from a real base. No passing grades: before "whether to retake" comes "what to rebuild", and the honest answer takes more humility than enthusiasm.

2. Why did it go wrong? Missing foundations, the wrong method and too little time are three different problems with three different solutions. If you can't name the topics where you lost marks, the first thing to buy isn't a course: it's a diagnosis.

3. What does retaking really cost? Not a year: enrolled on a related course or on another course you accumulate CFU while you prepare, and overlapping exams can be recognised later. The real cost is the double load — university plus preparation — for many months. It should be budgeted for in advance, not discovered in October.

4. Which option is reversible? A related course plus a new attempt keeps everything open: Medicine, the alternative degree, the private universities with their own tests. Turning down the place and retaking from outside keeps a single door open. When the doubt is evenly balanced, choose the option that leaves you more choices tomorrow.

If after these four questions the picture is still tangled — it happens, every path has its own variables — tell us about your situation: half an hour of thinking it through with someone who has already guided students through this decision is worth more than another ten articles.

FAQ