GCSE Latin

Who else is crying about the amount of set texts that they have to memorise ?

I'm doing my exam next year, and I'm already struggling with the memorisation of Prose Set texts. I genuinely have no idea how I'm going to cope with Verse.

People who have done latin in the past, how did you memorise it all?

Please, advice is really needed!

Thank you.

Reply 1

Lot7

Original post by Elliwhi

Hi, I have just finished GCSE latin and I found that for me the best way to memorise set texts was just to keep repeating it verbally and writing it down. Then I recorded it on voice memos on my phone and before bed I would try to say it in my head at the same time as the recording. I also got my mum to test me a lot during the run up to exams. Ohh and start preparing early! Good luck :smile:

Reply 2

temporaryvoid

We only did verse, but yeah it was a lot to learn. I found it helpful to break the set text up into manageable sections and take each section at a time when revising. For each section I'd then go over my translation, the meanings of each word, analysis, then cover the translation up and try to translate from the Latin. (You will have the latin in the exam (at least of youre doing OCR) so it might be helpful picking a few 'trigger' words that help you remember which section you're on.)

Reply 3

Succedo

Original post by Lot7

How early is early? like now? I feel like too early and you will just forget

Reply 4

Krij

Honestly try not to worry about them. I spent most of Year 11 doing so but when the time came to doing the exams I actually found them easier than the language papers.

As Lot7 has said, copying it out lots and repeating it does work & get other people to help you - sometimes having other people say it back to you can actually help it to stay in your mind.

Another useful tool might be to copy out the Latin and the English so that you have the correct translation next to the Latin making trigger words easier to select and so when the exam comes you can remember each section with more ease.

Good Luck!

Reply 5

username2130511

Make sure you revise though not just the night before, i tried to last minute latin like all my others and ended up getting a C because i got a D and U in the lit papers but an A and B in the language papers :angry:

so whatever you do make sure you learn it bit by bit for a couple of months

(edited 8 years ago)

Reply 6

Lot7

Original post by Succedo

How early is early? like now? I feel like too early and you will just forget

At my school we were given a small section to learn each week so I kind of learnt it throughout the year. Then I started at the beginning of the Christmas hols for mocks and in Easter for the real exams. :smile:

Reply 7

Euphrosyne.

Lol you should see how much I had to do for AS, plus my greek and latin lit exam was on the same day so that was 1000 lines for one day :') for GCSE, what I did was just learn it word for word, but dont do it all in one, do it in sections- split it in quarters or something like that. For A level though, there was way too much to learn it word for word, so if you are struggling with the amount to learn, what I did was learn it with the latin as prompt. There are going to be a lot of words that you know in the literature passages so that can prompt you and help you remember it.