The A2 Italian test at the CPIA: how it works and who runs it

You request the A2 Italian language test from the Prefettura, but you almost always sit it at a CPIA — the Centro provinciale per l'istruzione degli adulti, your province's state school for adults. The two things must be kept apart: the Prefettura (the government office of the province) receives the request and summons you, while the CPIA hosts the test and marks it with a commission of its own (Ministerial Decree of 7 December 2021, arts. 3 and 6). Confusing the two roles is why so many people turn up at the wrong counter.

Who does what

Body	Role
Prefettura of your province	Receives the online request, designates the venue, summons you within 60 days
Designated CPIA	Hosts the test, provides the room and the computers
The school's commission	Identifies you, invigilates the test and marks it
Ministry of the Interior	Records the outcome in its own information system
Questura (the provincial police headquarters)	Reads the outcome when it processes your permit application

There is one operational point to remember: you book nothing at the CPIA. The request is filed online with the Prefettura, through the services portal of the Department for Civil Liberties and Immigration, using SPID or CIE. The CPIA appears only afterwards, in the summons, as the address to report to. The full procedure is in our booking guide.

What a CPIA is

CPIAs are state schools dedicated to adult education: they run literacy and Italian-language courses and award lower-secondary qualifications. They are the public network the Ministry of the Interior relies on to organise the test, and that explains two things people often find surprising:

• the test takes place inside a school, not in a police office or at the Prefettura;
• the people assessing you are school staff, sitting as a commission chaired by the head teacher (art. 6 of the decree).

The commission and how it works

The commission is made up of school staff and is chaired by the head teacher. Its job is to identify you, administer the test and mark it. The two comprehension papers — listening and reading — have closed answers, so marking is mechanical; written interaction is the only point where judgement comes in, and it is assessed in completion bands: up to 35 points if you respond coherently to every piece of information requested, up to 28 if your answers are partial, 0 if the paper cannot be assessed.

One practical consequence of this set-up: the session calendar is not national. Sessions are agreed between each CPIA and the Prefettura, and organised through the year as needed. That is why there is no single date for the whole of Italy, and why searching for "the next A2 test session" makes no sense: there is only your summons.

CPIA courses and the test: two different things

Many people attend an Italian course at a CPIA and then sit the test there: it is convenient, but it is not the same path. They are two separate tracks that meet only in the building.

There is, however, one connection that genuinely matters, and it is an exemption: anyone who has completed a course of study at a CPIA with a qualification at level A2 or above does not have to sit the test. The same applies to anyone holding an Italian certificate at A2 or above issued by one of the bodies listed in Annex A of the decree, anyone with an Italian lower- or upper-secondary school diploma, and other categories. So before booking it is worth checking whether you fall into one of these cases: the full list is in our guide on who is exempt from the test.

The CPIA test that is NOT this test

The CPIA also runs the integration agreement test, and the two are constantly confused precisely because they happen in the same place. They are different exams, with different purposes:

	A2 test (this guide)	Integration agreement test
What it is for	EU long-term residence permit	Keeping your first permit, through the agreement's credits
What it assesses	Listening comprehension, reading comprehension, written interaction	Spoken Italian at A2 level + civic culture
How it runs	Written, on a computer (on paper if you ask)	A face-to-face interview of two to five minutes

If someone has told you "you already did the test at the CPIA", it is worth checking which of the two: recognition of level A2 within the integration agreement's credits is itself grounds for exemption from the A2 test, but merely attending the civic session is not.

What awaits you in the room

The test lasts 60 minutes of actual working time and is worth 100 points: listening 30, reading 35, written interaction 35. You pass with at least 80 points on the total, with no minimum on any single paper. It is sat on a computer, with a paper version available if you ask for it: the decree guarantees that content, assessment criteria and time are identical in both formats.

The detail of what to bring, how the day unfolds and how long each paper lasts is in the day of the test. To arrive trained in the right format, use the free practice tests and the writing trainer with AI feedback; the most common doubts are gathered in the FAQ.

The information in this guide is for general information only and is not legal advice. How sessions are organised depends on the individual Prefettura and the individual CPIA: always check the current guidance on the official pages and with the Prefettura of your province.