Should i read Iliad and odyssey for A level classical studies?

In the classical studies syllabus in paper 4 you can choose between Greek tragedy or Homeric epic and I chose Homeric Epic
and its written on the syllabus :

´´Candidates study a selection of Books from the epic poems of Homer:
Iliad: Books 1, 3, 6, 9, 16, 18, 19, 22, 24
Odyssey: Books 5, 6, 7, 9, 10, 12, 19, 21, 22, 23
Passages for comment will only be set from this selection of books. Candidates are expected to read the rest of the books of the poems as part of their wider reading´´

I´m planning the read whats recommended to read but I don't want to read the whole books because I'm a slow reader and each books have 400-700 pages.
And it's clearly written ´´ Passages for comment will only be set from this selection of books´´ but they also expect you to read everything.
I was thinking of reading the resume or watching a video on youtube that explains the books.
What should i do?

Reply 1

Sandyfish

8

I'm assuming this is for A-level??? What exam board are you doing? Because if you're doing OCR you only need to read either the Illiad or the Odyssey and then in addition to one of those you defiantly need to the Aeneid. I would say you absolutely need to read the whole book if this is for an exam. Not only for comprehension but also they are incredibly useful for theme for you essay questions. They only leave out a couple books and reading them in addition to the rest is not much so there's no point in not reading in the first place.

Reply 2

Sandyfish

8

Based on the compulsory books that you need to study I think you're doing a different exam board to me so you have to see how relevant my advice is to you, it might not be in which case you can just ignore it.

Original post by Sandyfish

I'm assuming this is for A-level??? What exam board are you doing? Because if you're doing OCR you only need to read either the Illiad or the Odyssey and then in addition to one of those you defiantly need to the Aeneid. I would say you absolutely need to read the whole book if this is for an exam. Not only for comprehension but also they are incredibly useful for theme for you essay questions. They only leave out a couple books and reading them in addition to the rest is not much so there's no point in not reading in the first place.

Should i read Iliad and odyssey for A level classical studies?

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