MATSEC SEC Art

The MATSEC Examinations Board website, linked from the University of Malta site, publishes a Syllabi section alongside Regulations, Guidelines and policies, Current Session Information, Applications, Past Papers, and Marking Schemes and Exemplars. Always work from the syllabus listed for your own session, because content and assessment arrangements can be revised between years.

The examinable content, the balance between practical studio work and written or critical components, and the assessment criteria are all set out in the current SEC Art syllabus. Read that document first and treat any third-party summary, including this page, as secondary to it.

Application routes and deadlines are handled through the MATSEC Applications section of the board's website. Dates change from session to session, so check the current session information rather than relying on a date you heard from a previous year's candidate.

MATSEC publishes Past Papers and a separate Marking Schemes and Exemplars section. Use both together: the paper shows the demands of the tasks, while the marking scheme or exemplar shows how credit is actually awarded, which is far more useful than simply reading questions.

Difficulty depends on your preparation and on the grade you are targeting. The most reliable way to judge is to attempt a recent past paper under timed conditions and mark it against the published scheme. That gives you a realistic picture of your standard instead of a general impression of the subject.

Retake arrangements are governed by MATSEC regulations rather than by this page. Consult the Regulations and Guidelines and policies sections, and contact the MATSEC Examinations Board directly using the contact details published on its site if your situation is unusual.

Start from the syllabus assessment criteria and work backwards. Build regular sustained studio sessions rather than occasional long ones, keep a sketchbook or preparatory studies that show your thinking, and practise writing about your own work and others' work. Then close the loop with timed past-paper practice marked against the scheme.

Typical problems include ignoring the specific wording of the task, producing unresolved preparatory work as a final outcome, weak annotation that does not explain decisions, poor time allocation across the paper, and unfamiliarity with the assessment criteria. Reading the marking scheme before you practise exposes all of these early.

The MATSEC Examinations Board publishes a phone number, an email address and a postal address on its website. Use those official channels for queries about entries, special arrangements or results, since unofficial sources cannot resolve administrative matters.