Maturità, we start with the Italian essay. One in six students think about help from AI too

On 19 June, the Maturità 2024 exam begins. The exam, whose pattern has returned to normal, and includes two written papers and an oral, sees 526,317 students engaged, of which 512,530 are internal and 13,787 external candidates. At the beginning of June, the students got to know all the names of the professors of the 14,072 exam commissions - which since last year have gone back to being mixed, i.e. with half internal and half external professors as the president, ed - that will examine 28,038 classes..

Where there is no preparation, there is help: this is what 17% of high school seniors, one in six, are thinking, and these days, in addition to studying, they are organising aids and strategies for copying. Cheat sheets hidden everywhere sit alongside the latest technology, from smartphones to ChatGpt. This was revealed by a survey conducted by the Skuola.net portal on a sample of 1,000 high-school pupils. And if at one time it was above all the mythological Italian subject that frightened them, today the real nagging for more than half (59%) is the second address paper. 41% of potential scripts already start with the idea of using aids. 59%, on the other hand, have a more conservative approach: they are preparing but will only actually use the prepared aids if really necessary. Not least because those caught in the act risk exclusion from the examination.

It will begin on 19 June at 8.30 a.m. with the Italian written test, which consists of writing a paper of different types and themes: MIM will provide seven tracks for all courses of study in the artistic, literary, historical, philosophical, scientific, technological, economic and social fields. Among the seven papers, which will be sent simultaneously by electronic envelope to all the institutes concerned, students can choose the one they feel best suits their preparation and interests.

On the following day, i.e. Thursday 20 June, again at 8.30 a.m., it is the turn of the second written test, the addressable one, which is again national. At the end of January, the address subjects were identified. The main novelty is that after five years at the classic, Greek is back. At the scientific institute, mathematics is confirmed, as is, for the technical institutes, business economics for the 'Administration, Finance and Marketing' address. They then move on to the oral exam.

The final grade is expressed in hundredths. School credit will weigh up to a maximum of 40 points. The remaining 60 points will be divided 20 maximum per test (two written and the oral). One passes the baccalaureate with 60 and a unanimous judgement of the committee is required for honours.