Latin is killing me!

[mellonstarburst]

So I have to take latin if im going full ib which i am. Latin 1 and 2 were pretty hard and i still dont know my conjugations. Any tips so i can survive and keep my straight As on my report card (which i highly doubt)?

[flinquinnster]

Oh my! It's a Latin student - I'm always happy to see one, because we tend to be so rare.

 

Whilst it is somewhat sad to acknowledge this, I definitely would agree that the key to doing well in high school Latin is to perfectly memorise all those conjugations and declensions - that is what Latin grammar is largely based around. I personally find the traditional methods of rote learning and drilling pretty effective - recitation and copying the conjugations/declensions out. If you're looking for something a bit more interesting to help with memorisation, perhaps consider verbal spot-checks where you and your classmates can test each other on the conjugations/declensions. Flash cards are also useful visually. Of course, aside from conjugations and declensions, you can also apply these memorisation techniques to other things you need to know off the top of your head, like forms of infinitives and how to create adjectives/adverbs (though I'm not sure how far your course goes).

 

I think, however, that the simple memorisation of all the conjugations/declensions is not the hardest thing about Latin. It's really about knowing how to apply the grammar to actual Latin passages. To nail that, it's really done to practice - from practising the simple manipulation of verbs/nouns to more complex unseen translation scenarios. The best way to improve is to practice applying the grammatical rules through using them in the Latin, and then to get feedback from someone (hopefully your teacher!).

 

Honestly though, the best way to ensure you do well in your Latin tests is to drill yourself in the type of exam questions that you will encounter in the tests they use to determine your mark - and you don't necessarily have to be good at Latin to do exceedingly well.

 

For instance, using the example of the IB Latin Paper 2 (which you will probably be doing in the near future), you can have a limited knowledge of Latin and still get 45/45 on that paper, as unlikely as it is. That's because the paper is based on how well you can answer questions on a set text(s), and if you manage to memorise all the lines of translation perfectly and pre-write the answers to any question you think they could possibly ask on the text(s), then you don't need any specific Latin knowledge and can just write out the answers you've memorised. Whilst Paper 1 is also ostensibly the 'unseen translation' paper, since you know what text the passage will be from, it is theoretically possible for you to simply memorise the translation to the whole passage and then similarly regurgitate that in the final exam. 

 

Of course, simply memorising the translations without any appreciation of the language in the passages you study is an absurdly bad approach, because of the lapses of memory that do occur unless you have a perfect memory, and the fact that the examiners can test you on unexpected things even within set passages. However, if you know that your exams have set passages to be examined, then study those passages in-depth beforehand, do some memorisation of the translation and any key language/literary aspects, and you should feel less threatened even if your grammatical knowledge may not be perfect!

 

I realise now that this post is quite long and probably a bit confused, but I really hope it helps. I realise that deep-down I probably miss Latin a lot, hence why I've written so much. Best of luck with Latin, and I really hope you keep it through to the end of the IB!

[IBhelp2015]

I'm in Spanish, so I don't know much about Latin, but using Flashcards has saved me! I use an online tool to create them to save myself from hand cramps and wasting paper. ExamTime has really good Flashcards, check them out here: https://www.examtime.com/flashcards/ 

 

 

The Flashcard decks also allow you to say whether or not you knew it before you turned it over, so that you can see what percentage you know, etc. They really helped me get my Spanish vocab down.

 

As far as sentence structure goes, it seems like flinquinnster knows exactly what she's talking about Good luck!

[mellonstarburst]

thanks <333333