MATSEC SEC Art case studies
MATSEC SEC Art · Put your knowledge to work in context.
The Secondary Education Certificate (SEC) Art examination is offered under the MATSEC Examinations Board, which is listed on the University of Malta website as a distinct board with its own sections for regulations, guidelines and policies, syllabi, current session information, applications, past papers, and marking schemes and exemplars. Candidates preparing for SEC Art should treat the syllabus document for the current session as the single authority on what is examinable: it defines the assessment objectives, the structure of the papers, and the criteria against which practical and written work is judged. The MATSEC SEC Art case studies are 5 cases and about 3,158 words.
1Portfolio selection with copied and traced work
Maria is three weeks from submitting her SEC Art portfolio. She has 24 finished pieces: eight are copies of album covers, four are traced from photographs, six are observational drawings made in the school courtyard, and six are abstract colour experiments.
661 words, about 3 min2Hanging sculpture commission with load and fire constraints
Year 11 student Luke has been asked by the student council to make a hanging sculpture for the school foyer. The space is 2.5 m wide, 1.8 m deep and 4.2 m high, with two ceiling anchor points rated at 15 kg each.
645 words, about 3 min3Parish painting with active flaking before a feast
The parish priest of a small Maltese village church wants a 19th-century oil painting cleaned before the village feast in five weeks. The painting, about 90 cm by 120 cm, hangs above a side altar, is darkened by candle soot, and has active flaking along the bottom edge.
627 words, about 3 min4School mural with trademark and audience objections
Four SEC Art students have permission to paint a mural on an 8 m by 3 m exterior wall beside the school canteen. Their approved design shows a skeletal figure holding a giant burger, with a red-and-yellow logo resembling a well-known fast-food brand.
619 words, about 3 min5Written comparison under poor viewing conditions
During a timed SEC Art written paper practice, Daniel must compare two works: a large 17th-century altarpiece in a Valletta church that he visited once for 20 minutes, and a 1960s abstract painting he knows only from a small, cropped online reproduction. The altarpiece was too dark to see details and he could not photograph it; the abstract reproduction cuts off the edges and has no scale information.
606 words, about 3 min