SACE Stage 2 Italian (continuers) common mistakes
SACE Stage 2 Italian (continuers) · Understand the traps and how to avoid them.
Writing the school-assessed folio responses in a register lifted from a textbook dialogue (e.g. 'Ciao, come stai?') even when the task asks for a formal letter, article or report.
Students rehearse conversational Italian in class and default to it under time pressure, without checking the audience named in the prompt; they also lack a stock of formal connectors and address forms.
What to do instead
Before drafting, underline the audience and purpose in the prompt and choose the register explicitly. Build a personal bank of formal openers/closers (Gentile..., In riferimento a..., Cordiali saluti) and informal equivalents, and practise rewriting one 120-word message into both registers.
Producing school-assessed written responses that answer the topic but omit the required text type features, such as a headline and subheadings for an article, or a clear recommendation section in a report.
Candidates focus on content and grammar and treat text-type conventions as optional decoration; they have not internalised a checklist for each text type.
What to do instead
Keep a one-page text-type checklist (article, letter, email, report, diary, speech) and apply it as a pre-submission audit: title, paragraphing, sign-off, and the specific rhetorical move the task requires. Practise converting the same content into two different text types.
In the school-assessed oral interaction, giving one- or two-sentence answers and waiting for the teacher to ask the next question, rather than sustaining and extending the exchange.
Students prepare memorised answers to likely questions instead of practising interactional moves; anxiety and lack of phrases for buying time or redirecting make silence feel safer.
What to do instead
Rehearse with a partner using a rule that every answer must contain a reason plus a follow-up question or a new point. Memorise functional chunks (per esempio, anzi, dipende da..., e tu che ne pensi?) and record three-minute exchanges to review turn-taking.
In the school-assessed oral, reciting a memorised monologue that does not respond to the actual question asked, or that collapses when the teacher probes with a follow-up.
Prepared scripts feel like insurance, but they prevent listening for the question's specific angle and leave no language for improvisation.
What to do instead
Replace full scripts with keyword maps of five or six ideas per topic plus flexible sentence frames. Practise answering the same prompt from three different angles and having the teacher interrupt mid-answer to test adaptability.
In the external written examination, misreading the task instruction so that the response addresses the wrong aspect, audience, or number of points required.
Time pressure encourages skimming; modal verbs and negatives in Italian instructions (non limitarti a..., devi menzionare almeno...) are easy to miss.
What to do instead
Allocate two minutes to annotate the prompt: circle the verb, underline the audience, number each required point. After drafting, tick each numbered requirement against the response before moving on.
Writing external-examination responses that fall well short of the required word count or pad them with irrelevant filler to reach it.
Candidates underestimate how much content a 150- or 200-word task needs, or run out of ideas and repeat themselves instead of adding development.
What to do instead
Practise timed writing with a rough plan of one idea per 40-50 words. Learn three expansion strategies (example, contrast, consequence) so each point can be developed legitimately rather than padded.
In the external listening and reading sections, answering from a single keyword match without checking the surrounding context, so that distractors are accepted as correct.
The tasks are designed with lexical overlap between the text and wrong options; students search for familiar words rather than processing meaning.
What to do instead
Read or listen to the whole item before looking at options, then justify each choice by quoting the exact phrase that supports it and the phrase that rules out the alternative. Drill with items containing deliberate distractors.
Losing marks in external writing through inconsistent tense and mood control, particularly mixing passato prossimo and imperfetto in narration and avoiding the subjunctive altogether.
Students know the rules in isolation but have not automated the choice under exam pressure, and they play it safe by avoiding structures the criteria reward.
What to do instead
Do short targeted transformation drills (ten sentences shifting between tenses; combining pairs of sentences with che + subjunctive). In each practice essay, deliberately include and then check at least three subjunctive and five narrative-tense verbs.
Transferring English syntax and vocabulary into Italian, producing calques such as 'fare una decisione', 'attualmente' for 'currently', or using 'eventualmente' to mean 'eventually'.
Direct translation is faster than retrieval, and false friends plus collocation differences are rarely flagged unless explicitly taught.
What to do instead
Maintain a personal false-friend and collocation log (prendere una decisione, al momento, alla fine). After each piece of writing, scan for suspect phrases and verify collocations in a monolingual Italian dictionary rather than translating word by word.
Spending disproportionate time on one external-examination section and leaving the final section rushed or incomplete, often with whole questions unanswered.
Candidates work sequentially without a timing plan and become absorbed in a difficult reading or writing task.
What to do instead
Set a per-section time budget in advance and rehearse it in full mock papers with a visible timer. Adopt a rule to leave an overlong item, answer everything else, and return only if time permits, so no question is left blank.