Latin A2 Thread

Yer the language was difficult, definitely dropped a fair few marks in that, but hopefully my comprehension was good, it seemed ok at the time, the 6 arker was very nice. The essays were lovely for Virgil, but we shall see. One thing ive learn from latin over the years is 'never predict what you will get, its almost always wrong!'

this is absolutely true!

Gah I need an A in this paper and it is slowly slipping away

I had longer for the essays too, and did 6 pages, 5 pages (though writing slowly got bigger and messier)

How did you find it today buddy? (talking colloquial because im sick to death of writing in a well mannered way?

Seriously relying on my AS marks after that exam! Virgil essays went well, but the translation was utterly horrendous. Won't have got more than 50% in that half. But I retook the AS Latin Language again so with any luck, that will boost my mark for this year - NEED an A if I want to go to uni at all!

Praying that the Livy will be kinder, but I doubt it. Goodbye Exeter.

Praying that the Livy will be kinder, but I doubt it. Goodbye Exeter.

This paper was so damn hard! That Ovid made no sense to me! Virgil was pretty sweet but I still found it quite hard to get some solid points for part b.
Anyone know what the grade boundaries roughly could be?

thanks. Anyone have any thoughts about what Tacitus sections could come up?

I thought it went fine, until I looked at the translation just now. I really hope they're generous with what they accept for the comprehension and translation but I don't think there's any way I've got 4/4 for any of the sections... Let's just hope that they're kind with literature and low grade boundaries (Last year's was 77/100 for an A*, and 69 for an A on this paper, and since it's the first year for these authors it's bound to be lower so don't be too distraught!)

Here's a translation for anyone who wants it (remember our one had omissions so there are a few parts in this translation which weren't on the paper... so don't freak out haha):

Near the middle of the mountainside, was a clearing surrounded with remote woods, free of trees, and visible from all sides. Here as he watched the mysteries, with profane eyes, his mother was the first to see Pentheus, the first roused to run at him madly, the first to wound him, hurling her thyrsus. She shouted ‘O you two, sisters, come! That huge boar, who is straying in our fields, that boar is my sacrifice.’ They all rush on him in one maddened crowd: they converge together pursuing the frightened man, frightened now, speaking words free of violence now, cursing himself now, realising his own offence. Stricken, he still shouts ‘Help me, aunt Autonoë! Let Actaeon’s shade move your spirit!’ She, not remembering Actaeon, tears away the suppliant’s right arm. Ino, in frenzy, rips off the other. Now the unhappy man has no limbs to hold out to his mother, but, showing his wounded trunk shorn of its members, he cries ‘Mother, see!’. Agave howls, and twists her neck about, and thrashes her hair in the air, and tearing off his head, holding it in her bloody hands, shouts ‘Behold, sisters, this act marks our victory!’
The wind does not strip the leaves clinging there, from the high tree touched by an autumn frost, more quickly than this man’s limbs are torn by those terrible hands. Warned by such an example, the Theban women throng to the new religion, burn incense, and worship at the sacred altars.

well very much the same as everyone else it seems. As expected the Ovid was dreadful for me, for the question about what his two sisters did, I actually wrote that they prayed with their right hands and then lifted him up with their other arms! how ridiculous is that. if I had more than 2 minutes left to do half of the comprehension style questions I would have re-read the title and got that question right Why are exams all about timing and not about what you actually know and can express if given more chance?? so yeah over all not too happy. I apologise for the mini rant. How was it for you?

The Ovid was brutal. I found it in my copy of Metamorphoses afterwards and I got the gist right but nearly all the picky details wrong. Completely put off by how gruesome the story was as well. At least the Virgil was predictable – typical OCR choosing the start of the text every year; I wouldn't be surprised if they do the same with the Sallust.

That's exactly what I thought - they really need to get some inspiration from the Muses or something as to where they get their questions from... Then again, makes revision a lot easier. My prediction for the Sallust is one on the speech and one on one of the character profiles, either the first chapter or Sempronia maybe.