Maturità 2025, two papers and the oral for half a million students: everything you need to know

The countdown to the 2025 Baccalaureate has begun, affecting just over 500,000 students, 524,415 to be exact. The state exam will kick off tomorrow, 18 June, with the Italian test, which lasts a maximum of six hours and is common to all subjects. The following day, 19 June, it will be the turn of the second test on the disciplines characterising the individual study paths, which in some cases (e.g. in the music and dance high schools) may last two or three days.

The first step in approaching the tests was the preparation by the class council, and its subsequent publication, of the so-called '15 May document' describing the pupils' educational path. This document, in fact, illustrates the contents, methods, means, spaces and times of the educational pathway, the criteria, the assessment tools adopted and the objectives achieved, and any other element that the class council itself deems useful and significant for the purposes of conducting the examination. For the disciplines involved, the specific learning objectives are also highlighted.

The next step was the establishment of the commissions, which, for the past couple of years, have been mixed again, i.e. they are composed of three external teachers, three internal ones, and the external chairman. Each commission works on two classes. At the preliminary meeting (usually two days before the start of the exam), the final organisational details (e.g. the timetable of exam operations, analysis of the documentation submitted by the class council for each candidate, criteria for the preparation and choice of interview materials, and so on) were finalised.

The first real novelty this year concerns the admission requirements, with two important changes resulting from the latest regulatory interventions. The first is that in addition to attending at least three quarters of the customised annual number of hours and a six in all subjects, including conduct (with a five, admission is decided by the class council, which must justify it), it will be necessary to have taken part in the Invalsi tests (Italian, mathematics, English) and, this time, also in the school-to-work courses (the Pcto for at least 90 hours in the last three years of high schools, 150 in technical schools, 210 in vocational schools). Also valid are the 'assimilable activities' that for external candidates (for whom preliminary examinations are envisaged, ed.) are ascertained and assessed by the class council.

The second novelty concerns the conduct grade, as a result of the innovations sought by law 150/2024. If the conduct mark is six tenths, during the oral interview the candidate must discuss a critical paper, defined by the class council, on the subject of active citizenship and solidarity based on respect for constitutional principles. The behaviour mark also affects credits for admission to the State exam. In fact, the highest mark can only be awarded to pupils who have obtained nine tenths or more. This provision also applies to the calculation of credit for students attending the third-last and penultimate year in the current school year.