OCR A-level Latin Paper 4 (H443/04) - 20th June 2023 [Exam Chat]

Hi everyone! Does anyone have any predictions for the Ovid's Heroides 20 mark essay?

Reply 2

FelicityL

what's everyone studying for paper 4? im doing Catullus for both

Reply 3

BarnabyK

15

Original post by FelicityL

what's everyone studying for paper 4? im doing Catullus for both

Aeneid for AS, and Heroides for A2

Reply 4

beaquin

8

Original post by FelicityL

what's everyone studying for paper 4? im doing Catullus for both

Catullus for AS, Aeneid for A2

Reply 5

mim1johnson

1

Original post by beaquin

Catullus for AS, Aeneid for A2

Sameee and I’m only halfway through learning the translation 🫣🫠

Reply 6

fruityoghurt

Original post by FelicityL

what's everyone studying for paper 4? im doing Catullus for both

Aeneid 12 and Heroides!

Reply 7

zooweemama_

Original post by fruityoghurt

Hi everyone! Does anyone have any predictions for the Ovid's Heroides 20 mark essay?

maybe the theme of persuasion or sympathy for Dido, Penelope and Briseis?

Reply 8

tomhenri

2

ive managed to get myself a bit confused - can anyone explain the difference between content and style points in a 15 marker? ik its a bit late but teacher just mentioned it and im not completely sure... examples would be great

Reply 9

Original post by tomhenri

ive managed to get myself a bit confused - can anyone explain the difference between content and style points in a 15 marker? ik its a bit late but teacher just mentioned it and im not completely sure... examples would be great

hey ill try to explain it
not sure what texts you do, for example i do catullus for AS verse: hopefully the point im making will still come across even if you're doing a different text.

there is one poem where catullus attacks his friend gellius, because he is after catullus' girl. catullus says he never even thought gellius would be interested in the girl because he 'saw that she was neither gellius' mother or his sister' - if asked to analyse why this poem is effective, you could take this piece of latin which i've translated here and say something like 'the fact that catullus suggests that not only does gellius sleep with his family, but also actively does not sleep with anyone who isn't a member of his family, is particularly effective in making gellius look like a disgusting human and strengthens the attack on him' - that's an example of a content point, basically just taking what it explicitly states in the text and analysing it a bit more/why the content of this poem is effective.
you could back this point up with commenting on the style, for example pointing out alliteration in this part of the text (there isn't actually alliteration im just making it up) - you could say the alliterative sibilance in this part of the text strengthens catullus' attack because the hissing sibilance shows his contempt for gellius and perhaps suggests people whispering about how awful he is.

basically, what the examiners are looking for is content points backed up by style points, not the other way round. they don't want something like 'the alliterative sibilance here strengthens the attack' and for that to be the only thing you say, you need to extract parts of the text that are effective not because they have any fancy language techniques but because the content of what they say is shocking/effective/exciting etc. then hopefully the content points that you pick out will have some fancy language techniques that you can use to back up your point, not to make your point.

hope that helps. i am by no means qualified to give you this advice, this is just what i think.

Reply 10

BarnabyK

15

Aeneid AS learning is killing me so much - I absolutely hate this set text with a passion!!

Reply 11

Original post by BarnabyK

Aeneid AS learning is killing me so much - I absolutely hate this set text with a passion!!

i don't do AS, i do catullus, but i do A level Aeneid so book 12. genuinely hate it. i do classics a level as well so had to study the aeneid and i swear i hate this stupid book with a vengeance. the set lines in book 12 are mostly about endless war, i wish i did catullus twice

Reply 12

fruityoghurt

Original post by isobelmitchlel

i don't do AS, i do catullus, but i do A level Aeneid so book 12. genuinely hate it. i do classics a level as well so had to study the aeneid and i swear i hate this stupid book with a vengeance. the set lines in book 12 are mostly about endless war, i wish i did catullus twice

No, that's the worst bit of Aeneid 12. All it is is Turnus complaining non-stop and just being an absolutely annoying guy (literally despise him). Literally struggling to think of analysis points. To summarise book 12 in 3 words: Turnus' anger issues.

Reply 13

BarnabyK

15

Original post by isobelmitchlel

i don't do AS, i do catullus, but i do A level Aeneid so book 12. genuinely hate it. i do classics a level as well so had to study the aeneid and i swear i hate this stupid book with a vengeance. the set lines in book 12 are mostly about endless war, i wish i did catullus twice

The first 1-106 lines are ok, but the second part of the AS is such a pain to translate.

The use of extended simile, ridiculous chiasmus and overcomplicated structure puts me off completely...absolutely hate analysing the language. Not to mention I'm seeing nothing new or fresh as it's so exhausted as a classical text in society. Virgil's georgics are so much better

Reply 14

beaquin

8

Ok maybe I'm crazy but I do Catullus for AS and Virgil for A2 and firstly, I swear the Catullus is a million times shorter than the Cicero which was my prose AS text, but also I love the Virgil, it's my favourite set text. I despised my teacher for Virgil, and loved my prose teacher, but I think the fact we covered our Verse A2 text before the AS was a good decision on her part. I feel very confident on the Virgil and enjoy analysing it because there's a lot to say in terms of content and style!

Reply 15

Original post by fruityoghurt

No, that's the worst bit of Aeneid 12. All it is is Turnus complaining non-stop and just being an absolutely annoying guy (literally despise him). Literally struggling to think of analysis points. To summarise book 12 in 3 words: Turnus' anger issues.

i hate writing 20 markers about turnus - his whole character is so dumb because we don't know whether his actions are his or juno's (when she put the torch in him) - so literally any point i make about any of turnus' actions is always followed by '..but this might be juno's fault idk'. i just find him completely pointless as a character, and i find the whole war completely futile and ridiculous in a way that it's not even entertaining to read about, its just frustrating and pointless. i love the iliad sm bc there's an actual purpose to the war and its just so meaningful - the aeneid aeneas has no personality and barely talks. i could actually go on for years about how much i hate the whole book.

Reply 16