The Italian examination system

As an English person in Italy, I sometimes feel like I am living in the midst of chaos. There is an Italian word which sums it up entirely, a ‘casino’ translated in my dictionary as ‘Mess/Shambles/Balls-up/Brothel’. Rules often seem to be there to be broken, for example the smoking ban in England means just that… a ban; in Italy it seems to mean ‘Generally try not smoke smoke but if you’ve had a drink and you really want to smoke in a club well, that’s ok. I KNOW it’s an English stereotype but I find it difficult that queues are generally non existent, one of my lecturers told me ‘Have you seen? Civilisation has arrived in Italy in the shape of the ‘deli counter ticket dispenser’.’ Another thing; the roads. But nowhere, is this chaos better illustrated than in the university exam system.

Exams in Italy are traditionally oral but some are written or multiple-choice format. During an exam session there are generally 3 opportunities to take the exam. If you fail one you can take it again on the next ‘Appello’ (occasionally you have to skip one). This works with the Italian degree system as one is only awarded a degree after having done the right number of exams, regardless of how many years that takes. So people can delay taking an exam until they feel sure they will pass it.

Signing up for each exam is either done on the internet, or in the faculty office, or outside a tutor’s door. Very much at the discretion of whoever’s organising it.

The morning of my oral exam, all candidates are expected to turn up at 9 ‘o’ clock. In my exam there were almost a hundred people crammed into a tiny classroom. A register/the appello was taken. The lecturer’s assistants sat themselves next to each other at tables around the room. They proceeded to call people forward to do their exam. The words ‘exam conditions’ seem to have no significance here, with 6 tutors doing oral exams and everyone else waiting at the side the noise level for an exam room was incredible. My Swiss friend Chloé and I were completely bemused – Chloé even took a film on her camera! When it came to my turn (I was lucky, it came only two and a half hours after I arrived, the tutor announced when he arrived that they would be there until the evening) I could hardly hear his questions and was slightly put off by the students standing directly behind me listening to my broken Italian answers. The tutor answered his phone in the middle and instead of having a quick ‘I’m in an exam’ conversation proceeded to arrange a meeting for the next week. In between each exam the main tutor was recording the marks students had received from other tutors -‘verbalizzione’.

To me it seemed to obvious how to solve the problems of the exam, simple things like oooh make everyone else wait outside then at the very least they won’t hear what questions are being asked! Better still as everyone is required to sign up for the exam why not give them a time when they do so and avoid people turning up at 9 only to do the exam at 7. Why not get a member of admin staff to record the results instead of interrupting the lecturer?

The second big difference is what the system seems to be trying examine. I have always taken it as a given at British university that any form of assessment requires some form of analysis. I have always been required to write essays and exams generally last 2 hours at a minimum. In contrast many of the exams here seem to be more of a memory test. Oral exams last 15 minutes. The courses generally seem to function in this way; courses last a term or half a term, at the beginning of the course the lecturer outlines the course reading, in my experience generally 3 books. A student’s task is then to learn the books. You can attend the lectures but it’s not compulsory (it isn’t in England either of course but it is clear that if you do you are more likely to pass the course). The exams are merely for you to regurgitate facts.

One of my modules this term was Political Science. Anyone who has spoken to me recently will know how stressed I was about passing this exam. The exam format was 30 questions: 30 minutes. Answers were either multiple choice or short answer format. Having never failed an exam in my life I was mortified to fail, the first time round… and the second… but I was also furious. The exam was nothing more than a pub quiz with not even any pretence of analysis. Sample questions:

Name the President and Prime Minister of the first French Cohabitation.
What country uses the Single Transferable Vote system? (the answer being Ireland – not one of the 5 main countries we had to study)
Give an example of a deviant case. (Yup, just that)
What is the primary function of Parliament?
Is the Italian bicameral system an example of?
A) ‘Perfect’ (ha!) bicameralism. B) Symmetrical bicameralism. C) Asymmetrical bicameralism.
How does election to the German Bundersrat work?
Give three markers of an authoritarian state.

From what I can tell the same is true elsewhere too, I’ve heard of people having to learn the years and names of hundreds of paintings and the films. For what? Will it make them into more critical thinkers? Help them analyse problems and allow them to problem solve as they will no doubt be required to do in work and in life?

After the second attempt I went to see the tutor who told me that of the 90 people who had just taken it, only 33 passed. Thankfully on the 3rd attempt I managed to pass it, almost doubling my score to 23/30 Not quite as good as the 28 I managed for Antropologia but respectable in the circumstance. In effect, although I did know my stuff a lot more on the 3rd attempt, part of the reason I finally passed it was because I had finally learnt what was required of me and what would be tested. The teacher had refused to provide a syllabus or a past paper apart from for 5 minutes during his office hours to be glanced at quickly under his supervision.

I’m currently in the process of looking for courses for next term, I have found an interesting course which has a more analytical approach. It’s a masters course but I’d rather do that than go back to the pub quiz format exams. After this, I’ll never complain about Birmingham exams again.