Those who have children who are finishing high school, on the other hand, have proof of the power of the Internet to mull over: In order to graduate, students must pass the esame di maturità, a comprehensive exam that covers the entire high school curriculum, and which is divided into two parts, the first a week of written tests, and then a series of oral examinations. The questions vary depending upon the type of high school (Liceo linguistico, scientifico, classico, artistico, and so on), but are standardized nationally, which shouldn't have presented any problems, because the students take the exams simultaneously, and they were told to turn their cell phones off upon entering the examination halls. However, this didn't keep people from spiriting the first day's questions out, and the solutions, in cell phone-readable form, appeared on the Internet by mid-morning (so did plaintive emails and SMS messages asking for the URLs of the answer pages). There was, as one might imagine, a great hue-and-cry from some corners, which got louder on the second day, when the answers to the questions appeared even sooner. Some people even suggested modifying the rules to make it more difficult to cheat, and repeating the written exams, but then the talk died down -- the writtens are followed by orals, which serve to set the grade, and which one cannot cheat on.

The upshot of all this? Despite warnings that Italians are behind in Internet use, the students, their parents, and their friends seem to have it all down pretty pat.

A presto,
Kyle Phillips
Webweaver, About Italian Cuisine

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