A Level Latin

I've been studying Latin for four years as an extracurricular subject (my school doesn't offer it), and this summer will be taking the WJEC certificate in Latin language and advanced Latin language (equivalent to the GCSE, but without the literature component). I really love this language, and have a keen interest into pursing it to A level if not further education. However, at A level, this would involve finding a private tutor as my current one cannot take me beyond GCSE. With just one lesson a week, the AS course would cost about £1,500, and this is a lot of money! I've also been looking at the CSCP distance learning programme (which costs £800, but I need to explore further what this actually entails).

Given that I've never done any literature before, could someone give me an indication as to how many lessons I would need a week, or if I could go about teaching the course myself, with relevant text guides, etc.? Bearing in mind that I would be taking this as a fifth A level (in addition to French, Spanish, History and Maths), am I out of touch with reality!

Thanks,
Alex

Reply 1

Heliocentric

What you are proposing is certainly possible (at least to AS; you may then find that you can go further, I simply have no experience beyond AS level) if you are linguistically able (which I would presume you are, if you're taking two languages, interested in Literature and History, and motivated.

I'm currently teaching myself the AS course (with OCR as they're the only exam board that offer it.) I'm using a combination of the following (although of course this is just what I ended up doing - your mileage may vary!)

1) Linney's Latin Class - http://www.linneyslatinclass.com/ghlectures.php
If you can get past William E Linney's slooowwww American-accent, his lectures are exceedingly useful. They are keyed into a textbook, now in the public domain (which can be read or downloaded at http://archive.org/details/firstyearlatinb00harlgoog) and take you from zero latin knowledge to a very respectable position, certainly enough to read many passages. Although it starts off with very basic grammar, the textbook teaches grammar in a slightly eclectic order (the ablative of means, for example, before the past tense) and rewards working through from the very beginning, if only to create an even firmer foundation for later Latin study.

2) http://www.cambridgescp.com/ws2_tlc/vocab/ocras/ocras.html
A vocabulary tester. This is good, but i find it less effective at getting the vocabulary into my long term memory as

3)http://www.memrise.com/course/352/as-latin-vocabulary/
Sign up, it's free - and persevere with the memory exercises, which can seem odd at first. Creating 'mems' may seem like a waste of time but I find them helpful in the long run, and the site automatically tells you when to review different sections so as to most effectively fix the vocabulary in your memory.

4) Latin Unseens for translation, by Ashley Carter
The only thing I've actually spent money on - and it was only £10, roughly, from Amazon. Tricky, so feel free to pm me or post on this forum if you get stuck!

5) OCR itself. http://www.ocr.org.uk/qualifications/as-a-level-gce-classics-latin-h039-h439/
The OCR website has past papers, mark schemes, the teacher guide, schemes of work and examiner reports for each unit. Very useful, especially the examiners' reports - which are not only sometimes a bit wryly humorous (yes, I'm quite sad) but also tell you a lot about what the examiners are looking for. Also do not forget the legacy papers - especially for the A2 unseens, these are very useful.

6) For the literature unit at AS (which is in two halves, currently Cicero and Ovid) there is a useful analysis and commentary of Cicero's In Verrem (which arguably goes beyond the scope required for AS) at http://inverrem2_1.theclassicslibrary.com/contents/ . For Ovid, however, you are largely on your own.

Hope this was helpful - feel free to reply with any questions!

Reply 2

Powerfrau

5

Original post by Alex Wonderkid

I've been studying Latin for four years as an extracurricular subject (my school doesn't offer it), and this summer will be taking the WJEC certificate in Latin language and advanced Latin language (equivalent to the GCSE, but without the literature component). I really love this language, and have a keen interest into pursing it to A level if not further education. However, at A level, this would involve finding a private tutor as my current one cannot take me beyond GCSE. With just one lesson a week, the AS course would cost about £1,500, and this is a lot of money! I've also been looking at the CSCP distance learning programme (which costs £800, but I need to explore further what this actually entails).

Given that I've never done any literature before, could someone give me an indication as to how many lessons I would need a week, or if I could go about teaching the course myself, with relevant text guides, etc.? Bearing in mind that I would be taking this as a fifth A level (in addition to French, Spanish, History and Maths), am I out of touch with reality!

Thanks,
Alex

Hi there

I don't know if you've already planned what you're doing next year, but I'll message anyways...

I took Latin as an extracurricular subject too, for two years, then I taught myself for two years before finding a tutor for the last year at GCSE (I did the same modules as you- yeah!) AS last year and for A2 this year. I agree that tutors are expensive; luckily mine tutors me and my mum (who's learning with me) for a fairly reasonable rate.

If you're able to find a tutor, it'll obviously depend on how much time you want with them each week- I have an hour and a half a week. Compared to the time subjects are given at school, this is obviously not long at all, but we've managed so far with working at home as well! Just to give a rough idea, each week we'd try and translate a passage/section from one of the set texts to go through the next lesson, and do a practice translation nearer the exams. (Actually during exam/revision time I end up doing way more Latin than my other subjects, mind). Having a tutor of course is preferable to working by yourself, as I'm sure you know- especially if they're up to date with exam techniques and all that (which mine sadly isn't :s-smilie:

)

To be honest, the literature is more predominant at A-level than at GCSE (where it can be avoided entirely, of course :wink:

), so if you're not used to studying it (I don't think any language GCSEs include lit- mine didn't?), having someone to help is good! That's what my tutor mostly does.

About helpful books- these are the ones I used last year:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Cicero-Against-Verres-2-1-53-Introduction/dp/1906924538/ref=pd_rhf_se_s_cp_14_KSRV - the main cicero text book, which only came out last year, and goes into the literature veeeery deeply (it's also for degree students)

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Ovid-Amores-III-Selection-Latin/dp/1853997455/ref=sr_1_fkmr2_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1370625769&sr=8-2-fkmr2&keywords=ovid+bristol+classics - the book about the four set Ovid poems, which has a very useful commentary.

There's quite a few practice language books, although some won't be in the exact format you'll get in the exams.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Latin-Unseen-Translation-BCP-Language/dp/1853995606/ref=pd_rhf_se_s_cp_4_KSRV

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Latin-Beyond-GCSE-John-Taylor/dp/185399720X/ref=pd_rhf_se_s_cp_3_KSRV

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Latin-Unseens-Level-Ashley-Carter/dp/1853996815/ref=sr_1_8?ie=UTF8&qid=1370625712&sr=8-8&keywords=cicero+bristol+classics+press

Good luck for anymore exams you have, and with your ASs- don't forget if you decide to do the Latin and it gets too much, you can always drop it (or one of your other subjects), as five is a lot :smile:

It's also good to find someone head over heels for the language and not literature, yay! I hope my waffling was at least a bit useful, and that you continue with Latin!

A Level Latin

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