SACE Stage 2 Italian (continuers) cheat sheet

School assessment contributes 70% of the final Stage 2 Italian grade; the external examination contributes the remaining 30%.

School assessment is built from five assessment types: Folio (oral and written interaction), Presentation, Response to Text, Investigation, and Text Production.

Assessment Type 1 (Folio) consists of an oral interaction and a written interaction, each in Italian, and together carries the largest weighting in school assessment.

Assessment Type 2 (Presentation) is a spoken or multimodal presentation in Italian, assessed for content, structure, and language accuracy and range.

Assessment Type 3 (Response to Text) requires a written response in Italian to a text studied in class, showing comprehension and personal interpretation.

Assessment Type 4 (Investigation) is a research-based task on a cultural or social topic, presented in Italian with evidence of sources.

Assessment Type 5 (Text Production) is a written text in Italian of a specified genre, assessed on communication, content, and language quality.

Performance Standards describe five levels of achievement (A to E); grades are awarded against these standards, not against peer ranking.

School assessment tasks must be completed under supervised conditions where specified, and evidence of student work is retained for moderation.

The external examination is worth 30% of the final grade and is assessed by the SACE Board, not the school.

The examination has two components: an oral examination and a written examination.

The oral examination is conducted by two assessors and includes a conversation and a discussion based on a topic or text studied.

The written examination includes a listening section, a reading section, and a writing section in Italian.

Listening and reading texts in the written examination are authentic or adapted Italian materials on familiar and unfamiliar topics.

The writing section requires production of a text in Italian of a specified type (for example, a letter, article, or review) of approximately 200 words.

Responses in the written examination must be in Italian unless the question explicitly permits English.

Dictionaries are not permitted in the written examination; the oral examination allows no prepared notes beyond those specified.

The Folio oral interaction typically lasts 5–7 minutes and is assessed on interaction strategies, fluency, and accuracy.

The Folio written interaction is produced under supervised conditions and assessed on register, vocabulary range, and grammatical control.

Presentation tasks require students to use appropriate spoken or multimodal conventions and to engage the audience in Italian.

Response to Text tasks must show evidence of the text's ideas and the student's own interpretation, supported by reference to the text.

Investigation tasks require a clear research question, evidence of sources, and a conclusion presented in Italian.

Text Production tasks are assessed against genre conventions, coherence, and the accuracy of Italian structures and vocabulary.

Moderation compares school-assessed evidence against the Performance Standards to ensure consistency across schools.

Plagiarism and use of unauthorised aids in school assessment lead to penalties under SACE rules.

The oral examination is approximately 10–15 minutes and is worth a proportion of the 30% external component.

The written examination is approximately 2 hours and 30 minutes in total, including reading time.

Listening texts are played a limited number of times; students answer questions in Italian or English as directed.

Reading texts require identification of main ideas, specific details, and inference, with answers in Italian.

Writing tasks are marked on communication, content, and language (accuracy and range), using the Performance Standards.

The oral examination assesses fluency, pronunciation, range of language, and ability to sustain interaction on familiar and unfamiliar topics.

Examination questions may require students to respond to an unseen text and to express a personal viewpoint in Italian.

Assessment tasks must be designed to allow students to demonstrate the highest level of the Performance Standards.

Each assessment type has a specified weighting within the 70% school assessment component; the Folio and Investigation carry substantial weight.

Students must keep a record of sources and drafts for Investigation and Text Production tasks.

Feedback on school assessment tasks must be provided before the next task so students can improve.

The school assessment grade is confirmed through moderation by the SACE Board, which may adjust marks.

Oral interaction tasks are recorded or observed by a second teacher to ensure fairness.

The written examination includes a section on grammar and vocabulary in context, testing structures such as verb tenses, pronouns, and prepositions.

Students must demonstrate control of both formal and informal registers in Italian, including the tu/Lei distinction.

The oral examination may include a discussion of a topic studied during the year, requiring students to justify opinions in Italian.

Examination responses are marked holistically against the Performance Standards, not by a simple correct/incorrect count.

Students should manage time across listening, reading, and writing sections; the writing section typically carries the largest mark allocation.

The external examination is held in November; results contribute to the SACE completion and ATAR calculation.