Lat. Cont. and Lat. Ext.: HSC 2007 (2 Viewers)

[TheLadyDisdain]

I just thought I'd make a thread for next year's Latin bunch.

1. So how are you going to study for Latin? Techniques and stuff.

2. Which writer are you enjoying/finding the easiest? (Virgil, Livy or Lucretius and Cicero for ext. people)

3. Strong points and weaknesses. What you hate and like about latin.

4. Euh. Just rant away then.


Have fun and Happy Studying! (if people even come in here xD)

 

[falcon07]

This forum is very quiet...We have 10 in our continuers class and 3 in extension. I just do continuers. We're about to start the Cacus & Hercules story in Virgil and chapter 3 in Livy. Virgil is harder, but I find it more fun to translate (the scansion helps, too). So far I've just made sure all the translations we have done are typed up on my computer, because my handwritten notes will be too messy or lost when I have to study for exams. My main weakness is unseens (no big surprise).

 

[angeee]

lol are all latin people busy studying or something? no one replies to these things.

i think unseens are really hard... because i'm used to textbook unseens and not real Latin.

2u seems to be more interesting for me with Aeneas but the translations for ext are simpler... though i don't really get the concepts of philosophy...

can't wait til latin summer school!

 

[kauliflower]

hehehe, i'm doing latin + ext. i'd like to think i have study techniques and it seems i've been through quite a few. in terms of preparing our texts, i'll take up a chunk one day and analyse it as far as i can in terms of grammar. declensions, conjugations, tenses, voice, mood, parts of speech, what agrees with what, clause types, anything i can remember. and then try to write a literal translation.

that said, i suck at commentary. any tips?

unseens: all the teachers seem to agree on this one... just practise! obviously, brushing up on your grammar and vocab is going to give you your best chance here.

 

[TheLadyDisdain]

Yeah, in terms of studying for me I've yet to find a technique that really works for me so I'm seeing my teacher about it on Tuesday hopefully because I really want to get my marks up back where they used to.

I might try and do what I do for Greek though. I basically write notes on a certain number of lines which include the grammatical constuctions, verb parts and reasons and dictionary definitions of words I don't know. Things like that. It's starting to work wonders with my Greek so hopefully it'll do the same with latin.

We're being given an unseen lesson once every cycle which should be good for us and we hand in unseens generally in every couple of lessons. We got a whole booklet of them, but I think I'm also going to try and do some of the Virgil and stuff we got from Latin Summer School. *tear* I really miss text book latin too! I could do that!!!

I majorly suck at commentry too, but all I can think of doing is listening to any commentry your teacher tells you and write it down and read the commentry at the back of the text books...I need to find technique in doing that.


I'm liking the ext course but we haven't really made a good start on it yet. I think the philosophy is really interesting! Continuers is kind of stressing me out at the moment but I hope that changes soon.

We have cohort of 14, 2 classes of 7 and all but 3 do extension.

Yeah >.< Where are all the Latin nerdies?!?!? XD


Anyone else hate Gerunds and Gerundives???

 

[falcon07]

dead forum....Yes, gerunds suck. Whenever our teacher asks us if something is a gerund or a gerundive, it always turns out to be the one we don't say. How did everyone go in their last assessment block? The required set text preparation we had was a bit of a shock (230 lines of Virgil, up to chapter 7 in Livy) as the 1st block was just unseen and commenarty on an English translation.

 

[TheLadyDisdain]

Baha, yes just a tad dead I think?

We haven't done our continuers assessment yet. Our's is next Monday and we also have a ridiculous amount of prescribed text to learn (up to 204 Virgil and up to chapter 7 for Livy) which I am attempting to learn right now (I have a free). We have our unseen assessment tomorrow though (the assessment would be too long otherwise), which I'll probably learn some vocab for later.

Lat. Ext. could have been better. I think I should have been more confident in myself so I would have done better...but commentery and I have a hate hate relationship.

Otherwise yeah, I really really hate commentary (I can't emphasise enough) and surprisingly miss the days of grammar and textbook translation.

And I have something ridiculous like 7 classics assessments next term? (but that's including Greek as well...)

 

[falcon07]

How was the unseen?

I don't find commentary hard at all as long as I know the translation. It's just a matter of remembering the list of literary techniques in the syllabus and using good words like zeugma, asyndeton, aetiology, chiasmus, enjambment and hendiadys in your answers!

 

[TheLadyDisdain]

The unseen was absolutely nasty. We had 25mins to do it but it was quite long and really icky in a lot of parts. and not like any other Livy we had really done. I had to rush a bit in the end and I know already that I've made some avoidable mistakes in vocab and all that, but hey hopefully they'll take the lack of time into consideration... and that the Virgil unseen will be heaps better!

True! I hate English which doesn't help but yeah I guess yo're right! Just chuck in all the words that want you to say and make sure you have enough info I guess? Hopefully I'll do heaps better this assessment if I look at commentary in a good light.

I swear I'll have to learn all that vocab in the vocab list these holidays...have you gotten through it? I'm finding it impossible at the moment.

How were your assessments?

 

[falcon07]

I've done bits and pieces of the vocab list: 1st 2 declensions, some adverbs, a bit of 3rd declension. We didn't have an unseen in the last assessment task so I haven't had much motivation to learn it all yet. The Latin test was great - 38.9/40 (dropped 1 mark on grammar, 0.1 on set translation). Ranked 2nd behind someone on 39.5 and just in front of a guy on 38.5. A lot of competition in our class.

 

[TheLadyDisdain]

Those are really awesome results! Well done!!

Our class isn't really that competitive at all...well there's two classes of 7 and in our class we don't really compete we just sit around being random and going psycho when we realise we know stuff. We never get rankings and we don't really tell people our marks when we get them back...we more complain about the stuff we found generally gay in a test/assessment. So it's all kind of laid back and cool, until assessment period.

I don't know why I really have no motivatin to plough through translations at the moment.

How do you do translations?

That's really good with vocab! I've learnt the first 2 declensions as well and a lot of third but I don't think I've really retained anything, but I may be surprised.

Definitely have a lot of Latin to do in the holidays...I'm determined to get organised.

 

[riverrocks12]

Hey guys,

I go to St. Ignatius'College Riverview and I do the Latin Continuers 2 unit course. There are only 3 guys in our class including me! haha. only one person does extension latin!

Any tips on how to approach unseen translations? I think it would be good to have a list of things I need to look for when starting off! thanks.

 

[TheLadyDisdain]

Baha, that's the size of our Classical Greek Class!

Tips, um well I suck at unseens but I'll tell you what I do anyway:
- The very first thing I do before I start the unseen is read the title and intro then the whole unseen through a few times.
- Then I go nominitive and main verb hunting which normally helps.
- Then I try to break things up into clauses or whatever, like ut clauses and abl. absolutes etc.
- Then I guess the whole thing because vocab sucks...

I hope this is some help...I can do unseens on good days but not all the time!

Do you have any advice on commentary?

 

[falcon07]

Those are really awesome results! Well done!!
....
How do you do translations?

That's really good with vocab! I've learnt the first 2 declensions as well and a lot of third but I don't think I've really retained anything, but I may be surprised.

Thanks. We basicly prepare 15 lines of translation before the period, then correct them. 3 periods each of Virgil and Livy a fortnight, 1 grammar, 1 unseen. I type up all the corrected translations so it's easier to read. I started learning the translations 2 weeks before the last exam, first by going back and translating the latin with my correct translation as a guide. A few days before the exam I would read from the latin aloud while a friend checked my printed translation to make sure I didn't miss anything. That seemed to work well. To learn vocab, I have 2 boxes. I cut out little strips of paper, put the latin on one side and the translation on the other, then it goes into the 1st box. If I can recall the translation the next night, it goes into the 2nd box, if not, I write it down. Anything recalled correctly from the 2nd box is put in the bin. It's a good way to get through lots of vocab as you only end up spending 5 minutes a night (I use this same system for German).

 

[TheLadyDisdain]

Wow you seem really dedicated and must work really hard...I'm quite lazy...>.<;;;

Your way seems really affective. My way is probably a little last minute but it sort of works. We don't normally do preparation unless we're forced, but we do when we feel like it. I like doing it as we go in class because I tend to absorb things when I'm actively doing them with my teacher. When I revise I type out or edit my typed translations while reading/reciting the text, then I print it out and recite them again from my book using the translation as a guide.

To learn vocab I'm very much a cover and learn kind of person...which works to an extent. However I would probably benefit more from a system likes yours which would help me with Greek too.

We had our continuers assessment this morning which wasn't entirely bad.

How was your continuers assessment set out and what did it have in it?

 

[Gwendoline Marr]

Gerundives... Gerundives...Gerundives are Adjectives...

Hi Steppy.

And, stop giving away all our secrets ^_^.

Did you know that if you write out all those words we are supposed to know onto little cards you get a stack about... i think it's 50 cm high.

Yay

Now Steph, go to bed, we must get up early tomorrow morning and face that woman - and worse, Lucretius - and we darn well may as well be awake enough to sketch funny cartoons of oxen of wondrous beauty falling off waterfalls.

...Did you also find that commentary question about Evander's admiration for Anchises sort of... gay? Literally? (And six marks, oh dear...)

Well I'm off to bed. Sortof. See you at the crack of dawn:wave:

 

[TheLadyDisdain]

Dearest Sheepy,

First of all do not repeat certain songy thingies here, yes yes?

They're not really secrets unless we're getting 100% baha!!! I honestly can't believe you bothered making flash cards I mean geez...

Well is it working???

Oh yes our dear old friend Lucretius...whom we see too much...I didn't see any sketches today...>>

Well of course!!!! Did you hear our wonderful discussions on that today...which were carried on too far as per normal? It's Emmy's favourite passage...I wonder if Mrs B has worked out what she's done yet? Anyway, I agree that section *cough* will be interesting to get back!

See you tomorrow...if you come on here today...and we'll probably start getting parts of our assessment tomorrow...yay? Oh yes you have Virgil, mention to Mrs B that she chose our favourite passage, won't you? XD XD XD XD

 

[falcon07]

Continuers assessment was fairly straightforward:

4 passages from set texts, total of 15 marks. Passages were:
Livy: 1.But as I believe, the origin of such a great city.......he ordered that the boys be sent into the flowing water.
2. The first auspice was said to have come to Remus........there in the mob Remus was struck and fell.
Virgil: 1. These things were happening all through Latium......all of that difficult water reflecting off bronze vessels metaphor
2. Thus Tiber spoke, then hid himself in the river seeking the deepst point....Aeneas poured out such great praise to the heavenly spirits.

Commentary out of 15:
1st passage was about Romulus and Remus taking auspices to decide who would rule. 3 marks on background / identification, 2 on use of word order
2nd passage about Ascanius and Iulus, question about Livy's approach to historical writing (2 marks)
3rd passage: part of Aeneas's speech to Pallas, 3 marks on word choice, 1 on scansion of a line.
4th passage: Cacus and description of his cave. 4 mark question on how Virgil invokes horror in the reader.

Then 10 grammar multiple choice.

 

[TheLadyDisdain]

Thanks for that!

In each section Livy and Virgil we had:
1 passage to translate (can't remember them)
2 lines of scansion (Virgil Only)
1 Passage with 10 multi choice grammar
1 passage with 5 or so comment questions.

It was reasonable I guess? Stupid mistakes screwed me over though which was a bugger! Grammar was pretty nasty all round! Comment was a lot better!!!!

Have a tonne of Latin to do these hols though! >.<

 

[kauliflower]

ugh... i have to do write an essay on the prescribed english translation for the aeneid. does anyone else find this part of the syllabus completely useless and pointless?