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8
Part One
Basic Knowledge of the Italian Educational System
www.
edises
.it
The
State exam
is a summary of the activities performed by the pupil during the
three years and a final verification of achieving the objectives identified by the Profile
of competencies at the end of the first cycle of education, included in the National
Guidelines.
Admission
to the State exam takes place after the final meeting in the third grade
and consists in assigning the
eligibility grade
, expressed in tenths, based on the fol-
lowing rules:
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>
Preliminary checks on school attendance, in order to ascertain the validity of the
year (attendance of at least three quarters of the annual customised timetable);
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>
A grade not lower than six tenths for each discipline;
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>
A grade for behaviour of not less than six tenths;
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>
Verification of the guiding council expressed prior to the deadline for entries to the
pathways of the second cycle or EPT (education and professional training).
The examination board
is made up by all teachers of the third grades of the school,
including support teachers. The chairman is appointed by the Regional School Of-
fice.
The State exam consists in five written tests (four of the Institute and a national one)
and an oral exam.
The written tests
of the Institute are: Italian, mathematics and science, English, and
second European language. A national written test is then added with texts chosen by
the Ministry among those prepared annually by INVALSI. It consists of two tests, one
for Italian and one for mathematics, to be taken consecutively during one morning
determined on national scale.
The oral test
consists in a multidisciplinary interview, taken in the presence of the
entire examining subcommittee.
The final mark
is made up of the arithmetic average of the following grades in tenths:
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>
The admission grade to exam;
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>
The five grades obtained in the written tests;
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>
The grade obtained in the oral examination.
The final grade is rounded up to a higher unit by fraction equal to or greater than
0.5.
Candidates who obtain a mark of ten tenths will receive
honours
from the commis-
sion and the decision will be taken unanimously.
Graduate candidates shall be given the
certificate of competencies
: from 2015/2016
the model is provided by the Ministry. The certificate includes the confirmation or
revision of the
guiding council
released during the examinations.
1.3
Second cycle of education
1.3.1
The equal status of “education” and “education and professional
training”
The Moratti reform stated the equal status of the two pathways after the first school
cycle: the five year education by the State and the education and professional train-
ing by the Regions.