By Gabriel Harmetz
Have you ever dreamed of ditching your American high school for an Italian liceo? Let’s dive into the world of Italian scuole superiori and compare them to American high schools.
American high schools cover four years (grades 9–12, ages 14–18), with public, private, or charter schools. We tackle core subjects—English, mathematics, science, history—, pick electives like dance or coding, and join clubs and sports teams, to diversify our experience. Here, students dash between classrooms, juggling lockers and chaotic hallways.
Italy, on the other hand, stretches high school to five years (ages 14–19), and it’s stricter and more focused. At 13, students are already forced to choose a track, like U.S. students do for their college major:
- Liceo: Brainy, with several options: Classico (Latin, Greek), Scientifico (mathematics, sciences), or Linguistico (languages). Most graduates (80+%) will attend university.
- Istituto Tecnico: teaches skills for accounting or tech, and it can lead to college (or not).
- Istituto Professionale: Trains for jobs like cooking or car repair.
Italian students stay in one classroom all day with the same 20–30 classmates for five years, which creates deep bonds. It is the teachers who swap in and out! Also, school runs Monday through Saturday (only some score a five-day week).
Grading
American grades use an A–F scale (90–100 = A). Teachers might tweak grades, toss extra credit, or meet parents to boost a student’s GPA. Flunk a subject? Retake it or try summer school—repeating a year is rare and just offered as a suggestion. Grades blend homework, quizzes, and tests.
Italy’s 10-point scale sets 6 as passing. Top licei love to deflate grades to push the students, and give grades only from 2 to 8, including weird ones like 5½, 6-, 7+ etc. No extra credit—students must work hard. Flunk a subject (5 or below)? September reparatory exams offer a comeback. Bomb those, or fail three+ subjects, and… the dreaded bocciatura (repeating the year) looms, mandated by the professori.
Teaching Style
American schools try to mix interactive lectures, projects, and chats, encouraging creativity. Teachers often feel like mentors, and multiple-choice tests are common. Clubs and sports keep the fun alive.
Italian teaching demands memorizing and mastering material. Lectures pack heavy info, requiring 3–4 hours of daily study. Multiple choice is unheard of: tests are in the form of essays or interrogazioni—oral exams where students are quizzed while standing up in front of everyone. The focus is only on academics; extracurriculars are a separate thing.
Big Tests
Italy’s Esame di Maturità at age 18-19 is really intense: two written tests (Italian, plus one track-specific), an oral exam that includes all subjects, and credits from past years. A Commissione di Maturità—teachers hailing from far-off regions to ensure impartiality — spooks students with their stern, unfamiliar faces. Scored out of 100 (60 to pass), it unlocks a Diploma di Maturità, with top scores (81–100) helping secure spots in the more elite college programs. It can only be taken once per year, and if you fail, you need to retake the whole last year of high school, not just the exam itself.
The US SAT (400–1600) and ACT (1–36) hit junior or senior year, testing reading, math, and science for college applications, not graduation. Multiple-choice-heavy, they’re retakeable. Killer scores (1400+ SAT, 30+ ACT) help college applications, but the high school diploma itself is not tied to them.
The Big 18
Italian 18th birthdays, usually celebrated in the fourth or fifth year of high school, are a huge deal— maybe because the right to driving, marriage, booze, and voting all suddenly unlock at age 18! People tend to throw mega parties.
In the US, 18 means voting and contracts, but driving (16–17) and drinking (21) are spread out, so 18th birthdays feel calmer, and it is Prom or graduation that steals the glory.
