Orals kick off with the spectre of 'masterpiece' still hovering: one in three students prepared it for the exams

The written exams of the Maturità are going down in the archives with an all in all positive balance: 1 out of 2 school-leavers brought home an average mark of more than seven tenths. However, not even time to metabolise the results of the first two tests, it is already time to think about the orals, given that 1 out of 2 classes will begin them right now and, more generally, 90% within this week. With a spectre still hovering, despite the denials of the Ministry first and then of Minister Valditara: 1 in 3 school-leavers has prepared his or her "Masterpiece" because he or she has been told that it could be taken into account during the interview. Which, according to the regulations, must not and should not happen. This picture emerges from a survey carried out by the portal Skuola.net - on a sample of more than 4,000 graduating students - precisely in the days between the written and oral exams.

Going step by step, the investigation starts from the analysis of the first and second test. The correction by the profs was very quick. As many as 7 out of 10 Matura students knew the outcome of both papers over the weekend. In this case, the support of technology was crucial: over 90% were able to view the test scores via the electronic register. Goodbye, then, to the collective ritual of the boards posted on the way out of the school to be consulted rigorously with one's classmates.As for the results, most can be decidedly satisfied: more than half achieved a score that, translated into tenths, exceeds a generous 7. However, only 6% can boast of having achieved a perfect score (40/40). The range of high marks, however, does not end there: 19% scored between 35 and 39 points (a generous 9), while 26% scored between 30 and 34 points (between 7 and 8). There is no shortage of those, 32%, who scored in the vicinity of an abundant sufficiency (24-29 points) or those, 17%, who failed to reach the waterline.

More specifically, the second exam was judged to be more difficult than the first, with around 6 out of 10 reporting that they scored lower on the 'address' paper. Ten per cent of those interviewed had 100 in their sights, to be achieved either solely on their own strengths or with the help of the 5 bonus points that the board can award to particularly high-performing candidates. A result that would also be in line with what was recorded in the Maturità 2023, when the students who obtained the top mark were around 1 in 10. Almost 1 in 7, on the other hand, imagined getting between 90 and 99. About 1 in 4 in the 80-89 range. More or less 3 out of 10 in the one immediately below (70-69). So, on balance, there are quite a few who will play it close to the vest: 22% expect to go just over 60/100, assuming they manage to get there.

The oral exam, in fact, consists of a number of 'moments' that for some represent real bogeymen. The most feared is certainly the one that opens the interview, the material prepared by the commission - a picture, a text, a formula, etc. - from which a multidisciplinary discourse addressing the various subjects can begin. - For one in two, this is the most difficult stage. Also because, on the part of the internal professors, in the majority of cases no indiscretions were received: 70% claimed not to have been able to obtain even a small "spoiler", 21% received just a few clues as to the choices made, while 9% said they had even obtained a list of the topics selected. This is obviously forbidden by ministerial regulations. Possible questions about the school syllabus, however, also do not make one sleep soundly: as many as 34% of the interviewees fear them more than anything else. Fewer problems, on the other hand, are expected to be created by other passages in the oral examination such as education (frightens 7%) or the PCT report (3%). But only 5% state that they will face the oral exam with the utmost serenity because they are not agitated by any of the aspects mentioned above. A climate that, however, tends to remain tense. And which, often, teachers do not help to calm down.

Suffice it to say that, despite numerous clarifications 'from above' on the so-called 'masterpiece', new this year, many commissions continue to consider it an element of the oral exam. The Ministry of Education and Merit has repeatedly stated that this self-assessment tool is in no way connected to the State exam. But 35 per cent of Matura students still say that their professors have suggested they upload it online, as it could be taken during the interview.