Maturità Type B: how to write the argumentative essay
Type B of the maturità first paper: text comprehension and analysis, then thesis, arguments, counter-thesis and rebuttal. Method and worked examples.
Blog
Notes from the notebook.
Guides, worked examples and study method, translated from our Italian blog.
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Paraphrase and analysis of a poem in Year 3
How to paraphrase and analyse a poem in Year 3 of Italian high school: a step-by-step method from the Stilnovo to Dante, with metre and rhetorical devices.
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Practising against the clock: a routine for tests
A routine for practising against the clock: the real-time mock test with a minute log, the cold-eyed marking and rereading your rough-work sheet.
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The Presocratics and the arche: studying Year 3 philosophy
The Presocratics are not a list of elements: each philosopher's question, answer and argument, and the method for the first Year 3 oral test.
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What your teacher's phrases really mean
What the phrases you hear in maths and physics class, like 'it's immediate' or 'it follows trivially', really mean, and what to do when you hear them.
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Year 2: the whole maths syllabus in a formula sheet
First-degree equations and inequalities, forces and pressure: the targeted review to start Year 2 of high school, with worked examples and typical mistakes.
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Year 3: the whole maths programme in one formula sheet
Radicals, quadratic inequalities and kinematics: a targeted revision for Year 3 of high school, with worked examples and the typical mistakes.
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Year 4 maths: the whole syllabus in one formula sheet
Unit circle, associated angles and simple harmonic motion: the targeted revision for starting Year 4 of high school, with worked examples and typical mistakes.
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Year 5 maths: the whole syllabus in one formula sheet
Logarithms, goniometry for notable limits and magnetic field flux: the targeted revision for starting Year 5 of high school, with worked examples and mistakes.
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Attitude dynamics: Euler angles and quaternions explained
Attitude dynamics for aerospace engineering exams: rotation matrices, gimbal lock, quaternions, Euler's equations and stability, with worked exercises.
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B2 First Use of English: how to pass Parts 1-4
The four Use of English parts of B2 First Reading and Use of English: how they work, typical mistakes of Italian learners and a 4-week study plan.
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The control systems exam: Bode, Nyquist, root locus
How to pass the control systems exam: Routh-Hurwitz, Bode diagrams, margins, Nyquist and root locus, with three worked exercises.
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IB Maths AA or AI: which to choose, and two-language study
Differences between IB Maths Analysis and Approaches and Applications and Interpretation, SL and HL: topics, the IA, exams, and how to study in two languages.
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Orbital mechanics exam: Kepler, Hohmann and delta-v
Orbital mechanics for the aerospace engineering exam: two-body problem, vis-viva, Hohmann transfer and Δv, with worked exercises and real numbers.
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Space systems engineering: setting up a budget exam
Space systems engineering exam: satellite subsystems, power budget with eclipse and panel degradation, link budget with Eb/N0, margins, with worked exercises.
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Latin third declension: tell the three groups apart
Parisyllabic nouns, imparisyllabic nouns and neuters in -e, -al, -ar: how to tell which group a third-declension noun belongs to and get the genitive right.
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Numerical analysis exam: the methods that always come up
Newton, interpolation, quadrature and ODE methods for the numerical analysis exam: where marks are lost, and three exercises worked through step by step.
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Maths OFA: how to clear it in your first year
Got a maths OFA after the TOLC? What it really means, how the catch-up test works and the minimum maths syllabus you need to put right in your first year.
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B2 First or DELF B2 in Year 4: which to take and when
How to choose between Cambridge B2 First and DELF B2 at a language high school: what each exam asks, when to register and how to prepare in 14 weeks.
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Physics in the Medicine filter semester: what to study
The official physics syllabus of the Medicine filter semester unit by unit, the mistakes that cost marks on 10 December and a study plan up to the exam.
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Resolving forces: vectors in Year 3 without trigonometry
In classical, human-sciences and art high schools, Year 3 physics needs sine and cosine in November before maths has covered them: here is how to cope.
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Electromagnetic induction: preparing for the Year 5 test
Flux, Faraday-Neumann-Lenz, the sliding rod, the alternator and the transformer: what comes up in the Year 5 physics test, with three worked exercises.
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Electrostatics and circuits: preparing the Year 4 test
Coulomb, field, potential, capacitors and resistors in series and parallel: what comes up in the Year 4 physics test, with three worked examples step by step.
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Limits, continuity and asymptotes: the Year 5 test
Indeterminate forms, points of discontinuity and oblique asymptotes: what the Year 5 limits test asks, with three worked exercises and typical mistakes.
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