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Revising for latin gcse

Was hoping for some advice here, my first Latin GCSE exam is on the 13th May and i'm yet to star revising for any exams (probably staring today though), and latin is one of the subjects with the most to learn.

Are there any particular skills/tips people who have already done their Latin GCSE could pass on, as I pretty much have to learn everything from scratch, I don't usually pay attention in lessons, and tend to learn everything when it comes to tests.

We have a defined vocabulary list, which I have downloaded, and removed the words I already know, which even though was about half of them, there are still about 250 I do need to learn. On top of that there is all the grammar I need to learn, the Aeneid, and also background!

Thankyou :smile:

Reply 1

Q.E.D

I really didn't bother learning any grammar for GCSE, but if you intend to carry on next year, just sit in your room chanting accidence tables.
Learn the set texts well by going over it numerous times, and learn the vocab (that is just a case of sit down for a tedious hour or so and then keep revisiting)
Good luck

Reply 2

Sagittarius_GBR

I would advise a good understanding of Noun Cases and the main Tenses. In a translation exam, if you know those two you can make a pretty good shot at everything else if it seems messy. Subject and verb, subject and verb as my teacher says, getting the sense right is the most important thing - it will help you progress with the story of course but show your understanding. As I understand it, GCSE has a very lenient mark scheme whereby you are awarded credit for everything you know.
So say you had a completely alien sentence which you were clueless about, but you know one word - just put that on the paper and you will get a mark for it. :smile:

The set texts is just a case of learning the basic storyline and being able to apply your translating skills and vocab knowledge to a previous knowledge of what goes on.
Also have a good idea of themes and what is going to happen next/happened before [i.e. outside of the extract that they give you] so you can answer comprehension questions on it.

Bit of a late reply, but I thought it'd help anyway. :smile:

Reply 3

The Crowing

Latin GCSE is so tedious... What literature are you doing?

Reply 4

CGP enthusiast

vocab tester on csp website is amazing! http://www.cambridgescp.com/ws2_tlc/vocab/ocrgcse/OCR_GCSE_Higher_Paper3_vocab.html
x

Reply 5

Vesta

Seriously, know the literature like the back of your hand. Do that, and you'll score highly. I think the only reason I got an A* was because of the lit - I learnt til my brains fell out. I did 10 lines every day, without fail. When it came to the big lit paper, I got 58/60. I'm still convinced I failed the language paper but the lit redeemed me! Heh heh.

Crap. I should be doing this for AS. :frown:

Reply 6

ola001

do you think that people in private schools have a bigger chance of doing well becauser they have done latin for longer?

Reply 7

Ed.

ola001

do you think that people in private schools have a bigger chance of doing well becauser they have done latin for longer?

Yes. My teacher always said this. Before my GCSE I had studied only studied it for 2 solid years. Whereas many private school candidates would have studied it since year 7.

Reply 8

The Crowing

I've been doing it since year 7, and I go to a state school (well it was one of those Foundation Schools that were directly funded by the government, but it's non-selective intake), they basically culled those with the highest attainment in English at the start of year 7.

I feel like I'm going to fail my GCSE, I've never been good at having to work or learn things, always getting the highest grades through... natural ability I guess. Although with Latin, you have to learn the stuff. It's the death of me. I only know 2 of 12 pages of vocabulary...

Last night revision dash I guess then...

Reply 9

patrickinator

the best way not to fail at latin is just not to do it! A couple of years out though.

Reply 10

Planar

The language work in AS Latin is easy(or at least the exam was), GCSE must be laughable

Reply 11

Colivia

Original post by Vesta

thanks for the advice, will definitely get learning my literature asap for my mock soon.
however, if you sit down and actually learn all of your set vocab and revise the grammar (including clauses, subjunctives and cases), i'm reckoning that it is more than possible to achieve an A* on the unseen paper?

Reply 12

Aear

Original post by Colivia

I just did my mock for Latin, I got 96% on it. My advice to anyone is to know the set text off by heart AND (this is crucial) know what each word of Latin actually means. Don't just memorise and associate a translation with a specific section, actually know what each individual word means. When you are going over the text, as you say each English word, point at the corresponding Latin, so you learn it word for word and associate as such. I am not sure what text you are doing, but I am doing Nisus and Euryalus from the Aeneid, and there is one particular scene where a Rutulian called Rhoetus is killed, and the description of the I think Euryalus' attack (I do need to go over it again) is incredibly pleonastic: 'full in the chest he close at hand sank in deep his sword as he was rising and pulled out with much death'. It's quite a mouthful and you'd never be able to figure out what each Latin word is equal to unless you know it already. As my Latin teacher says, the Literature papers are 'money for jam' because you are given all the answers before you enter the exam. It's the Language papers that are the one to reckon with as you don't know at all what the text will be about.

For language, you need to be able to look at any Latin word and immediately know, if it's a noun or pronoun or adjective, its case, number and gender; if it's a verb, you need to know whether its tense, mood and whether it's indicative or subjunctive (is there a collective term for these two?) and all their individual translations. Know and be confident with all participles, the ablative absolute and accusative infinitive. Vocab is, of course, also essential, and should be so engrained into one self that you can look at any Latin word and know what it means instantly.