In 2023, after what seemed like years (well, it WAS years, eight years to be exact - more on the saga here), of doing all of the prep needed to apply for my Italian citizenship by marriage, I received the results for the “B1 Cittadinanza” language test. I had passed (with flying colors, overachiever that I am), and just needed one more step before submitting my application.
I had been studying with a private tutor for about a year, when in late 2021 she proclaimed that maybe I should try to take the test “now”. I didn’t feel I was ready, but perhaps she was right. This was near the end of Covid restrictions in Italy, and for over a year Italy had waived all but the oral portion of the test, to avoid having a room full of people sitting in a testing center for over four hours together. If I took the test “soon” I would be able to avoid most of the test, and just do the oral portion. I considered it, but just wasn’t sure. We were living in Provincia di Parma, and I would be able to go to a testing center in Parma. “What the heck” I thought — let’s do it!
A Phone Call?? Please no!
I went online and found a testing center (language school) in Parma, and filled out the request for information on the test. The next day there was an email awaiting me when I got up — I would need to phone the center, because they do not allow people to sign up for the test until they do an evaluation over the phone.
Oh no! At that point in my Italian journey, the telephone was my nemesis. I could have a perfectly coherent conversation face to face, but the moment someone spoke to me through a phone I felt like I was back at A0, fumbling just to say my name.
So, of course, with great trepidation I made the call anyway, and immediately lost all ability to say more than “sì”. The woman on the other end listened for a minute, and then quite unceremoniously said:
“Ah signora, non è pronta.”
Ma’am, you are not ready.
I thanked her and hung up the phone, a bit deflated. I knew I needed to do more work, and I knew something else: if I could take my test at just about any accredited testing facility in the world, I would take it ANY place other than that school in Parma.
A New Tutor
My tutor was going to take some personal time off, so I needed to find another way to prep, and by now the “grace” given by the Italian government for the B1 Cittadinanza test had passed, so I would need to take all four sections of the test: listening comprehension, reading comprehension, writing and speaking. I had been taking online lessons with One World Italiano School for awhile (I love them, as you will see later), but decided I wanted some specific test prep, so I hired an online tutor and we got to work. Pietro Roccaforte was (and still is) wonderful, and we worked through B1 materials diligently for months. By the way, Pietro’s family also has a wonderful olive oil business in Sicily - if you need some oil, I highly recommend it :-) Roccafortebio.it/en - tell them Danita sent you, so he’ll smile!
Pietro knew that I really wanted to improve my Italian, and we decided that I should do my preparation with the standard B1 exam materials, not the B1 Cittadinanza exam. These are different tests with different structures and different passing criteria, but I didn’t know how different yet. What I knew was that I was a perfectionist (straight A student in High School) who was getting increasingly frustrated with the listening comprehension sections and convinced I would never score above 75% on the audio tests. To say I was stressed is an understatement. But I was enjoying my lessons with Pietro, and truly felt I had made great language strides. I was just simply terrified of the test. Thus, I pivoted to “test taking preparation.”
The Cagliari Plan
As I mentioned above, I had been taking online conversation classes with a school in Cagliari, in Sardinia. It occurred to me that if I could take the B1 Cittadinanza test anywhere in the world (more practically for me, anywhere in Italy), I might as well take it somewhere I actually wanted to visit.
So, in early 2023, I enrolled in a proper B1 Cittadinanza preparation course through the Cagliari school where I would take the test. The first two lessons had almost nothing to do with Italian.
Assunta explained how the test actually worked. The B1 Cittadinanza has four sections: listening comprehension, reading comprehension and grammar, writing, and oral. The first two sections each consist of two sets of six questions. To pass each section, you need to answer seven out of twelve correctly. In other words, get just over 50% correct and you pass!
But then Assunta tole me about the part that changed everything for me. The first six questions in each set are always easier, and the second six are harder, which means that if you answer all six of the easier questions correctly, you only need one correct answer from the harder set to pass that section.
I had been preparing as though I needed to get ninety percent on everything. That’s just how I worked being that “overachiever” I mentioned earlier. I did not need to be perfect! Instead, I needed to be solid on the fundamentals and competent on the harder material. That is a completely different preparation strategy.
Pietro had given me excellent language training. Assunta gave me the mechanics. Both were necessary for my confidence for this test.
The other thing Assunta assured me of was that the test uses real-world, everyday Italian. I’d be asked to listen to something like a short newscast about a local festival. I might need to write an email to the comune about a neighborhood issue. I’d be expected to have a conversation about something that interests me personally. There would really be no trick questions or obscure vocabulary. This test is to evaluate the test taker’s understanding of the language of actual Italian life — which, after seven years of living it, I happened to know reasonably well.
So in April 2023, Joe and I took the night ferry from Livorno to Olbia. From Olbia we needed to take the train to Cagliari, and then spent a week there with the test scheduled in the middle. As an aside, if we ever go to Cagliari again by ferry/train, we’ll go from Napoli! That ferry arrives directly in Cagliari, so you walk off of the ferry in the morning in Cagliari’s welcoming port (one of the things I loved about the city), and you won’t need another 3+ hours on a train right after waking up. Put those hours on the train from Livorno to Naples instead! We returned via Porto Torres to Genova on another night ferry. A language test vacation. I recommend this approach entirely.
The Test
We had rented an AirBNB just around the corner from the school, and had walked by it a number of times during the days preceding the test. As I walked up the stairs, I could see people waiting outside the door of the school. There were two people who were “showing off” (in my opinion - hehe) by holding an animated Italian conversation about how great they were at Italian and test taking. There was a social media influencer who I recognized (he was teaching English to Italians). There were a few people who looked totally lost and worried about taking the test. I just had typical test taking jitters. Finally we were allowed to enter the school. I realized then that there were multiple tests going on that day. The show-offs were in my testing room, as was the influencer, and one or two of the nervous folks were there as well, but an A2 test was going on next door, so hopefully the really nervous folks were taking a different test!
Jitters aside, I knew I was ready. I distinctly remember writing an email about needing to find a new primary care physician for my fictitious family of five, including an infant, and then discussing how I enjoy cooking with the examiners. They asked me if I cook traditional American food or also Italian food, and I wowed them with my love of Ragù alla Bolognese, La Baciocca and Torta d’Erbetta.
I passed with a score of 45 out of 48 (94%).
What I Would Tell You
If you are preparing for the B1 Cittadinanza test, here is my honest advice: Study for the standard B1. The B1 Cittadinanza is structured differently and the passing threshold is more achievable than the standard B1, so even if you feel like you are “barely” passing the harder test, you will be pleasantly surprised by the cittadinanza version.
Find a tutor who can help you with the mechanics and the language level, but don’t be afraid to reach for the (B1) stars. It is true though that the mechanics matter as much as the Italian. How the multiple choice bubbles work, how the writing section is structured, what the oral section expects from you. Know this before you walk in.
Practice with real-world Italian. News, everyday conversation, practical writing. Not textbook Italian — the Italian of actual life.
And if someone tells you that you are not ready — use it. Let it be the thing that makes you go to Sardinia instead.
Signora, è pronta adesso.
She is ready now.
If you are preparing for the B1 Cittadinanza and have questions, drop them in the comments. I am happy to share what worked.
