Latina Student Finds 20 Mistakes in Maturità Exam; Ministry Defends ValidityMatteo Di Massa, a 19-year-old student at Liceo Musicale Manzoni in Latina, discovered approximately 20 errors in the musical score distributed during the June 19 maturità second exam, which all Italian music high schools administered. The score, for Cécile Chaminade's "L'Ondine," contained mistakes in alterations, chords, octaves and entire measures that did not correspond to the original composition or the MP3 audio provided by the Ministry. According to the student's analysis, the score appears to have been taken from MuseScore, a user-generated music website, rather than from an authoritative critical edition as would be expected for a national examination. The Democratic Party official Irene Manzi called for full clarity on the incident, noting that if confirmed, "this superficiality could raise serious doubts about how materials are selected for a national exam." Manzi emphasized that since this is a national exam administered identically across all Italian music high schools, "the Ministry must respond with rigour." Flaminia Giorda, who heads the Ministry's examination oversight office, acknowledged the existence of "imprecisions in correspondence between the score and the MP3 track," but stated these "did not in any way undermine the validity of the exam." The Ministry announced it would conduct investigations beginning June 22.  Di Massa also noted that when he attempted to download the exam materials after the test, the score available on the Ministry website appeared to have been replaced with the correct version, suggesting students received different material than what is now available online.  Ph: columbo.photog / Shutterstock.com

Matteo Di Massa, a 19-year-old student at Liceo Musicale Manzoni in Latina, discovered approximately 20 errors in the musical score distributed during the June 19 maturità second exam, which all Italian music high schools administered. The score, for Cécile Chaminade's "L'Ondine," contained mistakes in alterations, chords, octaves and entire measures that did not correspond to the original composition or the MP3 audio provided by the Ministry. According to the student's analysis, the score appears to have been taken from MuseScore, a user-generated music website, rather than from an authoritative critical edition as would be expected for a national examination. The Democratic Party official Irene Manzi called for full clarity on the incident, noting that if confirmed, "this superficiality could raise serious doubts about how materials are selected for a national exam." Manzi emphasized that since this is a national exam administered identically across all Italian music high schools, "the Ministry must respond with rigour."  Flaminia Giorda, who heads the Ministry's examination oversight office, acknowledged the existence of "imprecisions in correspondence between the score and the MP3 track," but stated these "did not in any way undermine the validity of the exam." The Ministry announced it would conduct investigations beginning June 22.  Di Massa also noted that when he attempted to download the exam materials after the test, the score available on the Ministry website appeared to have been replaced with the correct version, suggesting students received different material than what is now available online.  Ph: columbo.photog / Shutterstock.com