GCSE Latin (OCR)

17

Hey there!

Anyway, how many people are doing Latin GCSE this year? It's apparently a rare subject now (or as my teacher calls it, "endangered"), so post here if you take it!

The first Language exam is tomorrow!! How's everyone feeling about it at the moment? I presume for many of you, like myself, it's your first written exam of the lot, so a big GOOD LUCK to you all!

So, post here with your feelings on the exam, both now and afterwards...this time tomorrow (2.10pm, as I write), we shall be in the middle of the exam...what a scary thought!

purple-girl (or just call me Kat).

Reply 1

lovers in japan

2

I took the exam this time last year... ah memories.

Good luck with it! :biggrin:

Reply 2

jonnymoblin

If you think Latin's endangered, try Classical Greek... :smile:

I am bizarrely looking forward to tomorrow's lang paper. Then again, I do want to do it at A-level so it's probably expected of me that I enjoy it with all my heart. Has anyone else been using the Momentum Tests book? (Just wondering)

Reply 3

SS90

This is my first Yr11 GCSE exam of the set (with the exception of the French Oral and last year's R.E.) so I'm not exactly looking forward to it. I've got the Cambridge Latin Grammar book and a checklist to work from. Too late now to get it but how were the Momentum Tests?

Reply 4

what_the_deuce

I'm looking forward to it as well; it'll be intriguing to see how I manage without notes! I should do ok: in the mock exam, I did an A* translation but completely messed up the life topics paper. I forgot that we only had to do certain topics, so I did the whole thing! Managed to squeeze 4 topics into 45 minutes, god knows how. I got an E for my efforts, so my overall grade was a B. God I was annoyed! Won't be making that mistake again.

Reply 5

Don John

17

purple-girl

Hey there!

Anyway, how many people are doing Latin GCSE this year? It's apparently a rare subject now (or as my teacher calls it, "endangered"), so post here if you take it!

The first Language exam is tomorrow!! How's everyone feeling about it at the moment? I presume for many of you, like myself, it's your first written exam of the lot, so a big GOOD LUCK to you all!

So, post here with your feelings on the exam, both now and afterwards...this time tomorrow (2.10pm, as I write), we shall be in the middle of the exam...what a scary thought!

purple-girl (or just call me Kat).

I'm actually doing my paper 1 exam tomorrow at 1.30pm :smile:

Absolutely do NOT do Latin, I much preferred all the Roman life stuff to the language. Pliny, Sempronia and Clodia are easy though :rolleyes:

Reply 6

debzie0601

I am also doing Latin, as well as classical greek. Have to say, find Latin much easier! Have attempted some Momentum tests, but some of the vocab that is in the tests we don't have to learn, so can be a bit annoying :mad:

Am starting to panic, since is the first written exam, am currently frantically going over vocab. Hopefully won't do too badly, as I want to do Latin next year, but I know language is the hardest paper of the 3, as the grade boundries are ridiculously high.

Reply 7

jonnymoblin

The thing about vocab in the Momentum tests is completely true. And everyone here seems to be doing life topics as an exam, eh? We did the coursework, which is the same sort of thing but we got a choice of topic and essay title. I did the Roman Army...I was rather proud of it.

Useful link to a vocab tester -

http://www.cambridgescp.com/ws2_tlc/vocab/ocrgcse/OCR_GCSE_Higher_vocab.html

Reply 8

debzie0601

Indeed, learning the literature is worse, I think, as I tend to pick up the vocab as I go along. Pliny is the worst [but maybe thats because i haven't learnt it lol], but at least the latin texts are relatively short, with the longest being 76 lines. Am dreading classical greek exam, as the set text is homer's iliad and have to know 165 lines :frown:

which is so hard to learn! though i am getting to grips with it.
What is the life thing? I thought everyone did coursework lol. I did mine on chariot racing, but only because we didnt have a choice.

Reply 9

purple-girl

OP

17

Yeah, Literature's the worst...we're doing Vergil for ours, and we have loads of lines. And we don't get enough time in the exam...and I never know what to say for some of the answers...

For our Roman Life topic, we're doing Roman Britain, but the other group in my year's doing Daily Life In Rome...I much prefer the language...I'm no good at the life topics.

We also use the momentum test book! The little blue one, right? I've done all but one of those over the year, I think. They're not too bad...compared to the paper 3 Language...is anyone else doing that?

Ah, Classical greek. At my school that was only an option if you did Double Award science rather than seperate...only 9 people are taking it, as opposed to the 28 doing Latin. I probably wouldn't have taken it anyway, even if I did do DA science....I probably would have chosen Geography.

Reply 10

michaelyus

10

I'm doing it too...and extremely nervous. The verse literature and the prose literature & life topics are worse for me though - all three have clashes with other subjects!!!

Good luck everyone!

Reply 11

noojoo

2

phew, that was pretty easy.. ish

i messed up on the last part though, 'reversis' ! wasnt on the DVL, so apparently it was 'of the others who turned to their food' ...

i put 'of the other who blamed their food'

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO thats like 1 mark...

also i messed up on transtulit... i knew it meant carry across, but i think i put move across to another house......... noooooooooooooooooo

another mark!

sigh* thur gos my A*

Reply 12

purple-girl

OP

17

What?? It meant "of the others??" Dammit!!!

I completely messed up the last comprehension...about going to the other house or something? But whatever, otherwise it went Ok. What did the rest of you think?

Reply 13

debzie0601

I thought it went ok actually. for 'transtulit' i put transported, because the next word was out of and it couldnt be carried across out of. i dunno...

i didnt understand that, what was reversis?! i put returned to their dinner. oh dear lol oh well, can make up for it in lit i suppose.

Reply 14

michaelyus

10

Wasn't "reversis" part of ablative absolute with the past participle: "after the others turned back to their dinner"?

Reply 15

SS90

"returned to their dinner" is what I put. Everything was going so well until mid question 3!! For the 5 mark, I said something like that he moved across into another house and the crowd of noblemen followed him to the other house - away form his mother.

Reply 16

what_the_deuce

i was so sure about the 1st question and thought 'oh this won't be so bad' and then BAM! question 3 came along!

Reply 17

michaelyus

10

noojoo

also i messed up on transtulit... i knew it meant carry across, but i think i put move across to another house......... noooooooooooooooooo

It was "move to another house", wasn't it?

Reply 18

michaelyus

10

I was confused about that clause: "viros quaerens qui manus militum pro se ducere vellent". Was it: "(her) searching for men who wanted to lead the hand of the soldiers for her"?

Reply 19

jonnymoblin

Reversis was part of that ablative absolute. And for that part 3 question, I said that he took her from her house to another house...then wrote about the crowd of nobles who had to visit Nero. I presume he sent her away so that her friends couldn't see her and that's why she didn't know what to do...of course, I could be completely wrong but there you go...

What is the life thing? I thought everyone did coursework lol.

The Latin GCSE has 5 parts. You have to do the lang paper and the Verse Literature (Virgil's Aeneid and there's probably an alternative choice). Then you have to do two from the following:

Verse Literature (either Pliny's letters or Pliny at Pompeii, Clodia and Sempronia)
Roman Life Topics Exam
Roman Life Topics Coursework
Language Paper 3 (harder language)

We're doing Verse lit and the Roman Life Topics coursework. Basically, the life topics are about Roman life.

Ah, Classical greek. At my school that was only an option if you did Double Award science rather than seperate...only 9 people are taking it, as opposed to the 28 doing Latin.

9 people taking Greek? Woah nelly! There are four people taking it for GCSE this year, two of which are sixth-formers who didn't complete the course last year...

GCSE Latin (OCR)

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