"Measure your efforts in studying, no last-minute drudgery, also take the right rest".
So advised Manlio Brigaglia to the students of the Liceo Azuni of Sassari in the second half of the last century. Those precious suggestions were collected by the historian and journalist in a booklet entitled "Exam time - Some advice for going to the high school diploma and habilitation".
Introduced by a preface by Dr. Paolo Pulina , publicist and author of various works of a historical and literary nature, a pupil of the professor's Azuni in the mid-sixties, the booklet was presented to the students of the fifth grade of the institute where Manlio Brigaglia taught from 1955 to 1977 before starting his career as a university professor in the Faculty of Education of the University of Sassari.
The initiative was proposed by Professor Salvatore Tola , who was enthusiastically welcomed by the head teacher Antonio Deroma . Together with Professor Piero Sanna , historian and former professor in the Political Science course of the University of Sassari, a former student of Professor Brigaglia, the booklet was presented and discussed in seven meetings with the students of the four fifths of the classical high school, of the two fifths of the musical high school and of the only fifth grade of the dance high school, to which some copies had been distributed before class appointments.
After a very brief introduction by the author to the first edition, the Brigaglia handbook is divided into four parts which are in turn divided into individual paragraphs with small titles in italics. The topics covered are, in order, "What is the state exam for", "The moment of the final sprint", "How to go to the oral exams" and "That blessed task of Italian".
The explanation of the meaning of the high school exam, the method with which to face the written and oral tests, the advice on diet, physical activity, the balance between hours of study and of leisure, even on the clothing with which to appear before the commission, together with many others rendered with the frank language, wit and irony typical of Brigaglia's popular style.
