Italian B2 Prep Books

[Lemus]

I am strongly considering taking the CILS B2 exam this year and was curious if anyone had thoughts about prep books either for the exam itself they had used they thought were good (or bad and not worth spending time on!)

Right now I am looking at getting Traguardo CILS B2 and Percorso CILS Due B2 as my specific exam prep and then otherwise preparing through native materials. Both series seem to have books for a variety of levels so if you didn't take B2 specifically I would also be interested in hearing about your experiences.

Alternatively, are there any B2 level grammar books specifically you might recommend? Grammar and writing will be my biggest challenges with this exam.

[BeaP]

I'm also thinking about taking a CILS exam, but I couldn't find available books for the C levels. I have the Traguardo B2. I haven't used it (yet), but it's made by a publisher I got to know very well during my Spanish studies: Difusión /Casa delle Lingue / Maison des Langues. It's basically the same company under different names. The Spanish materials seemed very good for exam preparation: the texts were up-to-date, the topics were typical exam topics and the mock exams were true to the real ones. Their publications in general are very well aligned with the CEFR. I don't have the Percorso, but I think if you're not totally confident about your level, the best way is to do both. By training for the exam specifically you can gain experience that might bring you a lot of points and extra time for difficult questions.

I have 4 grammar books (A1-B2 / C1). I can recommend them all. Studying from any of them is good for a B2 exam, it's a matter of personal preference which one you choose.
Susanna Nocchi: Grammatica pratica della lingua italiana (appropriate for beginners, starts with the basics, gets more and more difficult, follows the usual progression of textbooks, strong focus on culture, a lot of texts have a topic connected to culture)
Iacovoni-Persoiani-Fiorentino: gramm.it (authentic texts, for example a lot of advertisements to illustrate grammar points, outdated design)
Mezzadri: GP (not good for beginners, doesn't really follow textbooks, gets difficult very quickly, it's good for those who want to revise their knowledge, fill the gaps and solidify the old stuff, strong focus on everyday communication and dialogues, also teaches vocabulary in thematic groups)
Petri-Laneri-Bernardoni: Grammatica di base dell'italiano (the exercises are labelled with their level, so it's good from the start, focus on the semantic side of grammar - situations, cartoons help to understand when to use certain structures, doesn't have vocabulary exercises, but contains the most important vocabulary in the exercises and the example sentences)

Writing: Alma Edizioni has skill developers, one that I remember is Giocando con la scrittura. My suggestion is to take any B2 text (from a textbook or the reading part of the mock exams) and try to reproduce it. First write a draft /scheme and then try to rewrite the text. Compare your text with the original. Then try to do it without the draft. Compare again. If you use a different grammatical structure or word, and you don't know whether it's correct, write 3-4 words (the problematic part) in google and see if you get results from Italian (native) sites. Look at the essay topics in your preparation books. Search for newspaper articles that cover these topics and do the same exercise. Having a tutor is obviously the best option, but I think you can start preparing on your own.

[Lemus]

Thank you BeaP, this is exactly the kind of response I was looking for!

[Cavesa]

As a recent PLIDA C1 taker, I'd like to add my 2 cents:

There are several preparation series. You can use the preparation books for other exams as added exercise. The differences between the exams are rather minor (even though some people claim that CILS is the hardest and the only real one, but I have yet to see any reasonable comparison, even if it is "just" a learner taking them both). If you want more practice, get also the books for CELI and PLIDA.

And there are books for CILS C1 and C2, look up Quaderni CILS Levello tre, levello quattro.

What helped me the most (because I failed to make time for the preparatory books): Nuovissimo Progetto Italiano. It is a wonderful coursebook series, that can surely rival the popular Alma editions coursebooks. Tons of activities, tons of exercises.

To the grammar books lists: I think the best is Una grammatica italiana per tutti. One for A1-A2, one for B1-B2. For C levels, there is Grammatica avanzata by Edilingua, which I will write about in my log soon (it is wonderful!).

I haven't tried the Writing book recommended by BeaP yet, but hope to do so soon. I surely recommend using such sources.

[BeaP]

And there are books for CILS C1 and C2, look up Quaderni CILS Levello tre, levello quattro.

I've found these books, but they're out of print / stock on every site I can buy from. Compared to the relative wealth of DELE / DALF materials, Italian seems to be neglected.

On the other hand, there are quite a lot of course books, and they're not just uninspired copies. They all follow a different approach or methodology, so it's easy to find something that you like. I agree that a CEFR course book can help your preparation immensely. I think it's worth it to do a bit of research before choosing. You can always find sample units on the site of the publisher.

Another workbook for writing I've just remembered is Scriviamo insieme (A1-A2 or B1-B2) by Edilingua.

[CardiffGiant]

My response is not on topic, but I felt obligated to let those who are considering taking the CILS exam in the US that the University of Siena that offers the exam is pretty difficult to deal with in the event that something comes up and that you cannot sit for the exam(personal experience). CILS apparently has a history of being unnecessarily hard to deal with. I wish I had seen this beforehttps://onlineitalianclub.com/italian-exams-and-why-i-no-longer-recommend-cils/

Anyway, a couple of years ago there were more available study materials for the CILS exam as compared to the other exams so that is a something that makes preparation a bit easier. If some of you decide to take the CILS, hopefully everything goes smoothly, but don't expect the university who administers the exam to be helpful or reasonable. Look into the CELI or the PLIDA before you take the plunge and register for CILS. Good luck!

[Cavesa]

And there are books for CILS C1 and C2, look up Quaderni CILS Levello tre, levello quattro.

I've found these books, but they're out of print / stock on every site I can buy from. Compared to the relative wealth of DELE / DALF materials, Italian seems to be neglected.

They are downloadable on various pirate sites, unlike the often newer CELI and PLIDA books. That solves the out of print issue.