Sample Notes
Students who attend The Institute of Education are provided with exclusive, exam-focussed study notes to support their home study and revision. Below are a sample of the high-quality Italian notes they receive.
Top Tips
Italian teachers from The Institute of Education share their secrets to success in the oral exam.
Practice practice practice!
- Practice speaking Italian with a friend from class. Ideally make a day or a lunch when you can only speak Italian to each other. Chat about your daily routine and try introducing current affairs.
- Prepare responses to common personal questions.
- Avoid memorising scripts.
- Use as many verbs as possible in your response, a minimum of seven verbs in each tense.
- Avoid making the examiner work to assess your ability. For example, if the examiner asks ‘What did you do last weekend?’ don’t merely respond with a single activity. To demonstrate a good grasp of the language and an extensive vocabulary, cover the entire day from getting up in the morning to going to bed at night.
- Link vocabulary with different verbs. Use both regular and irregular verbs for each tense.
- Record the conversations and listen to them during the day instead of your music.
Reaction to 2021 Italian Exam
Each year, our exceptional teachers give their take on the Leaving Certificate higher level exam papers. See what Erika Capello, Italian teacher at The Institute of Education, had to say about the 2021 Higher Level exam below.
Reaction to Leaving Certificate 2021 Italian- written exam (Higher Level) by Erica Capello, Italian teacher at The Institute of Education.
This was a topical and relevant higher-level paper. Despite being a little bit challenging in places, the wide range of excellent choices meant that all students could find an exercise to suit their level.
Sections A & B: Reading Comprehensions
Due to changes to the exam this year, students only had to answer one comprehension. Normally they must answer both.
In the journalistic passage in Section A, the theme of technology came up. This was a nice, relevant topic for students and the vocabulary was very accessible.
In the literary passage in Section B, students had three choices:
- The unseen passage, which was quite manageable.
- The passage from the prescribed novel, which was more challenging and had some advanced vocabulary.
- An essay, which would have been the most popular choice. The topics that appeared here were not the most expected ones, however students should still have been able to complete the exercise without too much difficulty.
Section C: Writing
The opinion piece was about technology and its role in students’ lives. This is a common topic and it was not too difficult. All students should have been able to write something about the topic
The second exercise, the guided composition, was very fair. This year, only six points out of ten were mandatory here.
The last exercise was the formal letter. Students had the choice between a cover letter and a thank you letter. Both exercises were very manageable and there were no unexpected parts to them.
