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Latin A2 AHHHHH

Please say someone is in the same boat as me and finds the Ovid unseens hideously difficult!!! Anyone have any tips on how to get better at translating? I got a C in the mock last week. Not. Good.

Also, hi :smile:

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Hi :smile: I used to find them ridiculously difficult too.

The best way to deal with Ovid (imo) is to make sure you're 100% on your cases and tenses - then go through each couplet mythodically and make sure you know which words agree with each other, otherwise (if you're like I was) you end up just assuming that words describe each other and getting the meaning totally wrong.

Also - if it's vocab that's getting in the way there are lists of specific poetry vocab in both Latin Beyond GCSE by John Taylor and Latin Unseens by Hyde. I don't know if you have them, but there might be other lists in your books which would help.

Good luck :smile:
Reply 2
Look up the translations for specific works on the Internet to see if you can identify the realm of your weaknesses (grammar vs. vocabulary), and then focus on that. Also, as Penguindancer mentioned, you can get lists of vocabulary focusing on poetry itself.
Ye the point with the verse I find is some ovid elegiacs are 100 times harder than others, hopefully we will get a nice an easy one. I used to not have a clue, but i'm better now due to VOCAB- i cant stress how much this is important, cases as well, scansion is fine now as well. Also another key point is not to rush, since I used to rush but just take ure time. we have like an hour to do it and it normally takes my an hour to do 3 shortish passages. REMEMBER AMANS = LOVER LOL, in the elegiacs there are many jussive subjunctives and imperatives and many 'you' forms which you need to supply. Remember plurals for singulars e.g dabimus = I will give. Also athought a basic point read your translation since it should normally make sense in english and CHECK CHECK CHECK,

Hope that helps X Good luck next Monday!! (13th) X
Reply 4
Just be really sure on grammar and if stuck translate literally until something "flows". Helps to learn extra vocabulary specific to verse, and often to Ovid, so that you are more familiar with the language in the exam. On the upside, exams are getting easier each year, let's just hope for an easy one this year!
Reply 5
For anyone that is doing Virgil- Aeneid I, in the essay question how many extra-passage points should you make? I think its a shorter passage than the context question but how do you balance it?
Reply 6
Oh also, does anyone know which part of the Aeneid came up last year?
Reply 7
Wow, thanks for all the replies :smile: :smile: :smile: :smile: I'm busy at work! Thanks for all the advice!

Original post by Salvius
Oh also, does anyone know which part of the Aeneid came up last year?


Long passage: Venus' speech to Jupiter
Shorter passage: Aeneas' first appearance

...I think :P


On that note, does anyone know if we have to quote latin in the second question (which asks you to examine the whole of book 1?), or if we can just make references?
Reply 8
I assume it's the same as me for Catullus. You don't have to, but we were told that being able to quote latin for the second question from other parts of the text helps you get the higher marks because you demonstrate full knowledge, but at the same time english quotations and paraphrases are acceptable provided they are very clear and pertinent.
I'm so worried about this paper, it's definitely my hardest one this year. I'm fine on the Aeneid I, but Ovid I find ridiculously hard. I've been doing lots of grammar revision with a book called "Reading Latin", can't remember who it's written by. Usually costs about £20, and would definitely be worth it. I lucked /chanced out and picked it up on a whim in Oxfam for £3. It's part of a whole course, the bit I have is the grammar and notes part. Really good for brushing up. Also Latin Beyond GCSE by John Taylor. Right now I'm just revising as much vocab as I can in the hope of having a fair bit of the translation vocabulary down. As said by others, go slowly and identify the case and tense of everything to find what agrees. I've found this really helpful.
Reply 10
I had my greek A2 verse paper yesterday, and the verse unseen was a little tricky but no more so than expected probably, normally i find the greek one harder than the latin, so hoping for the latin verse to be ok now, the set text questions were fairly standard as well.
Reply 11
Anyone know how many syllables Troia has? Sounds simple but i am scanning some Ovid and my teacher seems to have varied it between two and three...
Reply 12
Original post by Cluedosays


Long passage: Venus' speech to Jupiter
Shorter passage: Aeneas' first appearance

...I think :P


On that note, does anyone know if we have to quote latin in the second question (which asks you to examine the whole of book 1?), or if we can just make references?


Thanks! how annoying, they got really good passages...so much to say about Venus' speech! I think it would be well recieved if you did remember a latin quote or two, but i think making references will do the job! :smile: Anyone got any inklings about the essay title?
Reply 13
Original post by Salvius
Anyone know how many syllables Troia has? Sounds simple but i am scanning some Ovid and my teacher seems to have varied it between two and three...


I'd treat the 'oi' in 'Troi' as a diphthong so 2? I doubt anything that ambiguous would come up in an Ovid unseen though, they tend to make scansion fairly straightforward. Shame they can't do the same for the rest!

Original post by Salvius
Thanks! how annoying, they got really good passages...so much to say about Venus' speech! I think it would be well recieved if you did remember a latin quote or two, but i think making references will do the job! :smile: Anyone got any inklings about the essay title?


Our teacher gave us a brilliant one that asked us to consider how good a mother Venus is to Aeneas. When you think that one through, it'd be a gift :smile: Also, ones about Aeneas' ability as a leader of men (which I assume will come up at some point during the text's lifetime on the syllabus, so half-and-half we'll see a question on it) are good to have pre-planned I think :smile:
Original post by AmroTT
Aeneas' ability as a leader of men


That was last year's extended essay, so I doubt it will come up this year. Such a shame, it's a gift of a title... :frown:

I'm so worried about the Ovid. Slightly reassured by the fact that everybody seems to find it difficult, but I'm so nervous about it. It's just so hard to revise for, I'm just having to read a lot, cram the vocab and hope for the best. I know it's part of OCR's 'stretch and challenge' thing, but it really feels like just a step too far for most A2 candidates... at least, all the people I've met so far seem to find it really tough. :/
Reply 15
Original post by Mouse Potato
That was last year's extended essay, so I doubt it will come up this year. Such a shame, it's a gift of a title... :frown:

I'm so worried about the Ovid. Slightly reassured by the fact that everybody seems to find it difficult, but I'm so nervous about it. It's just so hard to revise for, I'm just having to read a lot, cram the vocab and hope for the best. I know it's part of OCR's 'stretch and challenge' thing, but it really feels like just a step too far for most A2 candidates... at least, all the people I've met so far seem to find it really tough. :/


Ah! Our Latin teacher must've dropped the ball regarding that then. But then again, we've written so many of these *expletive* Aeneid essays... :rolleyes:

And yes, the Ovid is the worst bit of the A2. It's the lack of a vocab list that does it; I wouldn't mind if there was a 1000-word list for the Ovids, it's better than none at all. Certainly much harder than Prose Comp, which is a joy. And much worse than the Caesar Unseens, because I very rarely do those...
Reply 16
Troia is 2 syllables I think as AmroTT says. Our teachers gave us verse vocab lists from way back in time to learn, so normally can get by on all the vocab, but as you say the prose is a lot easier in comparison.
Original post by AmroTT
Ah! Our Latin teacher must've dropped the ball regarding that then. But then again, we've written so many of these *expletive* Aeneid essays... :rolleyes:

And yes, the Ovid is the worst bit of the A2. It's the lack of a vocab list that does it; I wouldn't mind if there was a 1000-word list for the Ovids, it's better than none at all. Certainly much harder than Prose Comp, which is a joy. And much worse than the Caesar Unseens, because I very rarely do those...


Definitely. I hate knowing that I can revise every vocabulary list thrown at me and still get into the exam and be clueless. :frown:

I much prefer Caesar because it's more logical... everything is roughly in order, there's none of the whole having to descramble the line to find what's what like there is in Ovid. That said, Caesar is really dry and boring, whereas Ovid is really interesting. :frown:

Eeeeek it's tomorrow :'''(
Reply 18
:frown:

I read an examiner report which made it seem as though everyone finds it impossible, you get rewarded for being 'bold' which I think means just taking the latin and forming a coherent piece of english from it even if you are just guessing - i.e. its better to be a bit free with it than to try and be literal. But it does seem a bit counter-intuitive.

Apparently some people got full marks last year ! But there is an implication that you can get full marks in the whole thing without getting full marks in the translation
Reply 19
ALSO does anyone know what clash of ictus and accent is, and how to identify this? This is something that was mentioned in an examiner report as important, and something that a lot of people apparently missed...
Quote me if you reply ! Thanks
(edited 12 years ago)

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