Gabriele D'Annunzio and Luigi Pirandello: they are the most popular names for a place in the first written test of the
2024 Maturity
, at least according to the students. A little more than two months before the start of the exams, set for June 19th, the bets of the graduates are going crazy, which is not limited only to the authors eligible for the text analysis tracks. In fact, "heavy" anniversaries such as those linked to the Matteotti case, the birth of Oppenheimer or the death of Lenin lead the list of ideas for the other types of tracks. The same goes for current issues such as artificial intelligence, gender violence and ongoing global conflicts. These hypotheses were collected by the traditional
Totoesame of the Skuola.net portal
, which interviewed 1,000 high school graduates.
If a piece of prose from the 19th century were to emerge for the analysis of the text - works can emerge from the unification of Italy onwards - for the children, therefore, the "late" from Pescara would be in pole position: he is convinced of this more than 1 in 3. If, however, the Ministry's choice were to fall on twentieth-century prose, the favorite would be the Sicilian playwright: more than 1 in 4 indicates this.
This is a scenario very similar to the one recorded on the eve of the 2023 high school graduation: this time too, however, their preferences risk being disappointed. Because, in the end, although the graduates almost always put this pairing ahead of all the other candidates, these practically never appear among the exam tracks: Pirandello's last appearance dates back to 2003, that of D'Annunzio even earlier. .
In the same way, it is unlikely that there will also be a second choice among the authors who can be placed between the nineteenth and twentieth centuries: Giovanni Verga, selected by 28%, already proposed in 2022. Greater chances, if anything, for the twentieth century alternative: Italo Svevo, optioned by 21%, whose last appearance dates back to 2009.
But the truly guessable prediction could be the one relating to a possible poet. One of the textual analysis tracks will most likely focus on a poem in verse. And at the top of the list of students is Giuseppe Ungaretti, indicated by 16% of those interviewed: he himself, who has already left in 2006, in 2011 and in 2019. Next we find Giovanni Pascoli (15%), who however is already was selected in 2022 and therefore it is unrealistic that he will return this year already. Third place for Giacomo Leopardi, also at 15%, who has never boasted of a presence in a State Exam since Berlinguer reformed it, almost thirty years ago.
However, 8 out of 10 high school graduates fear the return of the "unknown" author, one of those names that isn't studied much at school. Any examples? Magris in 2013, Caproni in 2017 and, in part, Moravia in 2023. While over 7 out of 10 favor a female author, considering the time ripe for their debut in writing Italian.
Among the first rehearsal tracks there will also be ideas taken from productions of a historical, artistic, scientific, political and social nature. Which will be the basis of the three argumentative text proposals. On this, excellent starting points could be historical events or anniversaries linked to famous people. In the first category, the favorites of the graduates are: the centenary of the Matteotti crime, cited by more than a quarter of the sample (27%); the 110th anniversary of the outbreak of the First World War, reported by 15%; the 75th anniversary of the founding of NATO, track predicted by 13%; the 35th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, reported by around 10%.
In the "famous anniversaries" section, however, the one most supported by students refers to the 120th anniversary of the birth of the American physicist Robert Oppenheimer: it put him in the crosshairs 1 out of 4, perhaps stimulated by the recent Oscar-winning film. Alternatively, the centenary of Nikolai Lenin's death would be very welcome - 20% say so. Or, but more distantly, the centenary of the death of the Czech writer Franz Kafka: 10% of graduates would willingly try their hand at it.
Current affairs are inevitable, at the center of two exam tracks. Here the most debated topics reign supreme at this juncture. Artificial intelligence and new digital frontiers, Violence against women and gender equality, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Finally, this last argument is also linked to that of a possible "existential" type of trace. Because it may happen that students are asked to talk about great human issues. If this were the case at the 2024 Maturity, the kids are focusing strongly on the theme of "peace" (22%), followed by the "future" (19%) and "historical memory" (13%).
“The current first high school exam is not the one that shaped the nightmares of generations of high school graduates who took it before the Berlinguer reform, at the end of the 1990s: more tracks and more types of tests make the task less difficult. But not without obstacles. This is why in classes throughout Italy, as many as 7 out of 10 students, together with their teachers, have tried more or less frequently to put themselves in Giuseppe Valditara's shoes, hypothesizing what will go through his mind when it comes to choosing the tracks for Giuseppe Valditara's writing. Italian. It's a shame that the toto exam often clashes with the program actually carried out in class, which most of the time fails to cover authors, works and historical facts which instead are protagonists in the Maturity exam", says Daniele Grassucci, director of Skuola.net .