Year 12s: what will be the first way you research your future options? >>

Should I self study Latin?

Recently I've been teaching myself Latin (as of yet I don't know much, but it's early days yet) and I would like to study it as an AS. However, my school doesn't offer this as an option and I'm already going to be taking 4 (chemistry, physics, maths and further maths). Do you think I'll cope or would I be giving myself too large a workload?

Reply 1

zitarose

Original post by OneTrueGeek

Wow...definitely have my admiration for deciding to study this by yourself, it's an amazing subject and so missing in the school system today.

How long do you have to study to AS level? I'm guessing that you've just finished GCSEs and thus will have just one year to get up to AS level, correct me if I'm wrong?
If this is the case then I would say that's a very tall order. I studied Latin from the age of 11 until I passed my GCSE (with an A, thankfully :smile:

when I was sixteen. I'm completing A level now. I had a teacher throughout, but I certainly don't think it would be impossible to learn by yourself, particularly since this isn't a spoken language. The difficulty would be getting to the right level quickly enough, you would need to invest a considerable amount of time.

Even if you don't manage to study to AS level for next year, don't stop learning! Even if it turns into a lifelong hobby which you continue building upon it will be a wonderful hobby, reading the words of great Roman generals, politicians and philosophers is such a joy.

Hope I helped, if there are any more questions I might be able to answer, fire away! :smile:

Reply 2

serenella

Hi! I think that if you really want you can definitely cope with it. I have been studying latin for 6 years now and absolutely love it, however i do think it is a bit hard to do it by yourself. It is a difficult language, the grammar is so different from english and you could easily get bored or overwelmed, while having a tutor would definitely help. I just passed my advanced latin and will start set book in september and i do know how challanging this language can be. If you wish to have a chat about it i'll be really happy to help, and could tutor you even only occasionaly just to check everything is on track!! Best of luck

Reply 3

ClassicEducation

Whilst id highly recommend latin, id need to ask if youre planning on taking chem, physics and the 2 maths to A2, or if youll drop one as an AS. Latin can be very challenging, and if you haven't studied the GCSE, even more so. You need to consider the amount of time you'd have to put in, learning it from scratch. It wouldnt be impossible, however you need to consider whether youre aiming for 4A*'s in your other subjects (in which case i wouldnt do latin, since instead of learning latin, you could be revising your other subjects and securing A*'s). It all depends on how good you are ar managing your own time.

I self-studied Ancient Greek to GCSE and got an A* when taking the exam a year early, so self-studying an additional subject isn't impossible. However GCSE level is completely different from A level. I find Greek to be much easier than Latin, so you'll also have to consider how hard the subject is.

If you decide to go for it, you'd need to be spending a great amount of time studying, since you will be studying for 5 A levels (compare this to the 3 that most people take). Would there be any way of you having a tutor? If so, it'd give you a fighting chance at securing a top grade.

Best of luck! :-D

(edited 7 years ago)

Reply 4

giella

Could you analyse latin poetry and prose? Because you'll have to. It's not just a matter of learning to translate the words.*