How Many Hours Does the Filter Semester Take? A Weekly Plan

The filter semester (Italy's semestre filtro) takes an average of 15-25 hours of study a week, on top of the university lectures: around 15-20 hours if you come from a scientific high school with solid foundations, 22-28 hours if you come from a classical or language high school. In both cases the largest share goes to Physics, the subject that failed more students than any other in the first cycle.

In this guide:

• How many hours a week you really need
• How the total changes according to your high school
• How to split the hours between Chemistry, Physics and Biology
• The week-by-week plan (September to November)
• How to use those hours: timed practice and fill-in-the-blank
• The time-management mistakes we see most often
• FAQ

How many hours a week you really need

The honest answer is a range, not a number: 15-25 hours a week of study devoted to the exams, on top of attending lectures. The reason there is no single figure is structural. You have to bring three subjects of 6 CFU each up to the threshold in about 10-12 weeks, there is no compensation between grades, and one of the three — Physics — weighs far more than the others in terms of the hours it takes.

If you remember how the first cycle went, you understand why I keep pressing on the total. Of 54,313 students enrolled, only 25,450 obtained at least one passing grade, and barely 10-15% passed all three exams at the first sitting. There was a single bottleneck: Physics, with around 11,000 passes against over 24,000 in Chemistry and over 21,000 in Biology. We see the same thing on our courses — students who miss out almost always stumble on one subject, and it is that one. The total has to be calibrated on that fact, not spread out in equal parts.

A word of context, in case you have landed here from Google without knowing what I'm talking about: from 2025/2026 there is no longer a multiple-choice entrance test. You enrol in the semester (€250, a maximum of 3 times in a lifetime), attend Chemistry, Physics and Biology from September to the end of November and sit standardised national exams — 31 questions per subject in 45 minutes, a threshold of 18/30, a -0.10 penalty for each wrong answer. The full mechanics are in the guide Medicine Filter Semester: How It Works. Here we are talking only about hours and the calendar.

How the total changes according to your high school

Your starting point shifts the total by 7-10 hours a week. Students coming out of a scientific high school have already met mechanics, thermodynamics and electricity: they don't start from zero in Physics and can manage on 15-20 hours a week if those hours are well distributed. Students from a classical or language high school have a real gap in Physics — at school they saw little or nothing of it at problem-solving level — and realistically need 22-28 hours a week, with almost all of the difference loaded onto that subject.

The number behind this distinction is clear: in the old entrance test Physics was worth about 4 questions out of 60, a detail. In the filter semester it is worth exactly one-third of the selection. For anyone who has never studied it seriously it is a structural leap, not a quick revision. That is why a classical high school student who enrols in September with the idea of giving "a couple of hours per subject" reaches November with Chemistry and Biology in order and Physics below the threshold — and with Physics below the threshold you don't get in, full stop.

If you aren't sure which profile you fit, the test is concrete: try solving a basic problem such as "a body falls from 5 metres, at what speed does it hit the ground?" without looking up the formula. If you get stuck, you are in the second profile, whatever the grade on your school report said. Better to know in September than in November.

How to split the hours between Chemistry, Physics and Biology

There is only one allocation rule: Physics takes almost twice the hours of each of the other two. Not because the syllabus is longer, but because it requires you to formalise problems and do calculations against the clock, and that is a skill built only through dozens of exercises — you don't read it, you train it. Chemistry and Biology rely more on recognition and structured memory, which makes reaching the threshold quicker.

Here is how I distribute the weekly hours across the two profiles, in the central phase of preparation:

In the last 3-4 weeks before the first sitting the total rises by 3-5 hours to make room for full mock exams, which have to be done separately and timed. Subject-by-subject strategies — which topics are most likely to come up, how to study for each paper — are in the guide Chemistry, Physics & Biology: Filter Semester. The point here is only the balance: if you give the three subjects the same time, you are under-training the one that decides the outcome.

The week-by-week plan (September to November)

The real calendar is compressed: from the start of lectures to the first sitting (20 November in the first cycle) there are about 10-12 weeks, then a three-week window until the second sitting (10 December). It has to be used in phases, because the same hours pay off differently depending on when you spend them.

Weeks 1-4 — foundations. Here the total can sit at the low end of your range (15-22 hours), but with Physics already in the lead. The aim is not to "get ahead on the syllabus", it is to close the basic gaps: mechanics and forces in Physics, stoichiometry and the mole in Chemistry, the cell and macromolecules in Biology. If you're coming from a classical high school, Physics can take up half your time in this phase — that is normal and it is fine. Weak foundations here are paid back with interest in November.

Weeks 5-8 — topic blocks. You move towards the upper end of the range (18-26 hours). One block at a time per subject: in Physics fluids, thermodynamics, electricity; in Chemistry equilibria, pH, organic chemistry; in Biology metabolism, genetics, cell division. From this phase on, every block you close ends with a timed mini mock of 8-10 questions. Don't wait until you "know everything" to start using a stopwatch: time management is a skill separate from the content and has to be trained alongside it.

Weeks 9-12 — mock exams and polish. Total at its maximum (20-28 hours). At least one full mock a week per subject: 31 questions, 45 minutes, penalty applied. The hours now serve mainly to analyse mistakes, not to pile up new theory. Every mistake should be classified: conceptual (go back to the theory), calculation (more exercises), timing (read and set the problem up faster). Three different problems with three different remedies.

The three weeks between the two sittings. If at the first sitting you stayed below the threshold in one subject — almost always Physics — this window should be concentrated almost entirely there. One caution, though: rejecting a grade that is already a pass in order to chase half a mark is a risk to weigh with a clear head, because the rules for recovering a rejected grade were introduced mid-cycle and may not be confirmed. When in doubt, a grade of ≥18 in your pocket is worth more than a bet.

How to use those hours: timed practice and fill-in-the-blank

The hours only count if you spend them in the right format. With 31 questions in 45 minutes you have less than 90 seconds per question: if you prepare by reading the textbook and nothing else, on exam day the speed isn't there and you leave blank questions you could have solved. From halfway through your preparation, every session should alternate targeted theory and practice against the clock, with the -0.10 penalty always applied so that you also train the "answer or skip" decision.

A point I repeat constantly on our courses: the 16 fill-in-the-blank questions cannot be salvaged at the last minute. The 15 multiple-choice questions have five options, and with the penalty as low as -0.10 even guessing has a slightly positive expected value — a cushion. The fill-in-the-blank questions don't: they ask for an open result, often a number, especially in Physics, and either you can reach it with the working or you score zero. There is no lucky option. That is why the "calculation" side of Physics has to be trained from week 1 and not put off: it is exactly what separated the students who scored 18 from those who stopped at 15 in the first cycle.

In practice: keep the calculator for the real arithmetic, but train fast mental maths — orders of magnitude, unit conversions, fractions. Gaining 5-10 seconds per question across 31 questions means 2-5 extra minutes for the hard ones. In an exam where the threshold sits a single point above the minimum, those minutes count.

The time-management mistakes we see most often

The first is starting in September with the hours split evenly. It looks fair, but it leads straight to the most common profile among those who fail: Chemistry and Biology above the threshold, Physics below. With no compensation between subjects, that imbalance cannot be made good with a strong grade elsewhere.

The second is putting off timed mocks until "when I've finished the syllabus". In the first cycle the Ministry published no sample papers, and many students turned up having never done a real 45 minutes on the full format. The result is that they pay for the exam twice: on the content and on time anxiety. Time management is a skill in its own right and should be trained from week 5, not discovered in the exam room.

The third is planning the hours but not tracking them. On our paths every lesson is logged on the Up to Connect platform — topics covered, exercises set, mock results — so that in mid-October you can see in black and white whether Physics is climbing or stuck, and correct the distribution before it's too late. A plan you don't measure is just a good intention.

If you want to work out where you really stand and how many hours you need in your specific case, tell us about your situation: we'll look together at the high school you come from, the time left before the sitting and your real gaps in Physics. From there we build a bespoke weekly plan, and you can book your first lesson with a Chemistry, Physics or Biology tutor who knows the filter semester format (our tutoring costs are transparent, with no contractual commitment). We start from a serious diagnosis, not from a standard programme.

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