Practice test 2 — human sciences second paper.

As in the exam: choose 1 prompt out of 2 and 4 questions out of 8, and write on paper (real maximum time: 6 hours). When you get stuck, reveal the outline, the theoretical references and a model paragraph one step at a time. At the end mark how much you had written on your own: the estimated mark is out of 20.

The second paper of the maturità, Italy’s school-leaving exam, is a written test of up to six hours in the main subject of your school type.

Test in ItalianThe questions of this simulator are in Italian, as in the real exam.

What is in practice test 2

Twenty points in all, as in the ministry grid: 10 for the prompt you choose and 2.5 for each of the four questions. Below you can see where each piece comes from, so you know what awaits you before you start the six hours.

The two prompts — you answer one

• Prompt 1 · Sociology — welfare, family and new social fragilities (10 points)
• Prompt 2 · Anthropology — cultural identity and globalisation (10 points)

The eight questions — you answer four

• 1. Sociology — deviance and social control
• 2. Anthropology — the participant observation method
• 3. Pedagogy — competence-based design
• 4. Sociology — Weber and the types of social action
• 5. Anthropology — kinship systems
• 6. Pedagogy — the hidden curriculum
• 7. Sociology — globalisation and its dimensions
• 8. Anthropology — rites of passage

Which prompt to choose. Here the choice is between sociology — welfare, family and new social fragilities and anthropology — cultural identity and globalisation. Spend the first ten minutes reading both all the way through before deciding: almost always one of the two has a final point you cannot do, and it is better to find that out straight away than two hours in. The prompt is worth half the mark, so the wrong choice costs more than any calculation error.

How to manage the six hours. A pace that holds: ten minutes to read everything and choose, a good two hours on the prompt, an hour and a half on the four questions, and at least half an hour at the end to copy out your final version and recheck the calculations. The human sciences questions are worth ten points in total, as much as the prompt, so do not leave them for last when you are tired: if a question does not get going within five minutes, move on to the next and come back later. The areas the questions of this paper draw on are sociology, anthropology, pedagogy.