Reaction to 2025 Leaving Certificate Italian (Higher Level) by Erika Capello, Italian teacher at The Institute of Education.
Opening the exam, students will have found the comprehension tasks challenging. The first piece was a compulsory journalistic passage on the topic of Graffiti. While this will be very interesting to students as many will already be aware of it and have opinions about it, the vocabulary of both the texts and questions was difficult. The text speaks of “concovare un tavolo” (ornaisning a meeting) while question 2(A) uses the word “etichettato” meaning to label or define. Both of these lie outside of the average student’s vocabulary. Yet this was not the most difficult part of this text as the English question would be a challenge for even the highest scoring student. Normally the question covers the whole span of the text, but this year the material was located mostly in the final paragraph. Students would have struggled to find enough material to fully answer this question, so it will be interesting to see how this is represented in the marking schemes.
Section B contains lots of choice, but most students will go for the first piece, an unseen literary passage by Domenico Starnone. This is typically very popular with students, but it will likely be even more so this year. The vocabulary was nice and clear and the questions were fine. Those who don’t do the unseen passage often go for the studied text, with most studying Marcovaldo. The first few questions were fine but again the question in English was particularly challenging. Focusing on Marcovaldo’s relationship to animals, students will struggle to find material as there are not many episodes in the text on animals and those that do focus on them are relatively minor – no one was expecting animals. As a result, even students who initially planned to answer on Marcovaldo might reassess and redirect their time towards the unseen passage. The final option in this section is the essay in either English or Italian. While some of the questions were nice, this section is generally avoided due to how strictly it is graded. Students struggle to cover the requisite material in rich enough detail to secure their grade; so many will simply avoid it. As such, despite having nearly seven pages to select from, many will focus on the first two.
After some challenges in the comprehensions, students will have found the latter stages of the exam more accessible. The opinion piece was linked to the journalistic passage’s theme of graffiti. Students had to select three questions to address from a list of five, and many will have found it easy to select two. The first question was on the contrasting perspectives of art vs. vandalism, and the final question was on what they might like to see in their local area. This latter question gave them lots of space for fantasy and creativity, allowing them to open up a bit more. The choice of the third question would be trickier as they might struggle to develop points on the damage to churches and monuments, but there was enough here that they could feel good about their efforts. The next piece, the guided composition, was to write a story in the past about the organisation of on charity events, which was very manageable if they could crack some of the vocabulary. If you got the meaning of “evento beneficenza” (charity event), it was a good piece.
The third composition in this section is the most important as at 50 marks it is worth the same as the first two combined. Upon seeing the first option, some might have worried as it is a tough format that many would not have practiced. While declining an invitation has appeared in previous exams, it is rare and the way that excuses are formulated can be difficult. This worry will fade quickly as soon as they say the second option, which will be perfect for most students. The application letter is one of the most common forms and the idea of becoming a tourist entertainer overlaps with one of the role-plays they would have rehearsed for their orals. The vocabulary, context and form would be very comfortable for them.
As a result, after a rough start, students should finish this exam on a positive note.