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| A-Level Latin & GCSE Latin
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| Remember that scene from Monty Python’s “Life of Brian”? “…OK, OK, besides the roads, the system of Government, Sanitation, Personal Safety, Language, Culture, and the rule of Law. What have the Romans ever done for us?”
If you want to develop qualities of perseverance and determination, the Latin can help you a long the way.
More than 52% of our language as well as the names of the 206 bones in you body, come from Latin, so to start with there’s the thrill of finding out where and why these words are still being used. Why is someone ‘honest’? What is ‘probity’? For what reason do we call someone ‘avaricious’? There, I’ve just done very ‘Latin’, I’ve grouped a statement in a ‘three’. Maybe in English you’ve heard about the ‘power of three’. Why did Tony Blair say his priority was “Education, Education¸ Education”? Latin will help you understand why.
OK, to learn to read Julius Caesar’s actual words (we still have them!) takes a bit of an apprenticeship, but once you’ve learnt about the all important ‘termination’ of words that determine their meaning – and there are loads of modern languages that still do this today, such as German, Greek and Russian – the Latin world is your oyster. Cease the opportunity to read some of the greatest poetry ever written – and that’s 2000 years old.
Be amazed by how many modern day poets would be nowhere without the knowledge of the ancient poets. Read about those mad and bad Roman Emperors. And, it’s not only literature and history that you will come across; any Classical subject is a full curriculum, including Geography, Science, Technology, and even the History of Sport as well as a large dose of Mythology.
Finally Latin teaches you to analyse and to think logically. Who needs a course in Critical Thinking? Paul Getty, the Oil billionaire, only employed people with degrees in Latin and Greek in executive and management positions, for he realised that they had the power of clear thinking and of clear communication. Furthermore, they had the ability to see through something complicated swiftly and boil it down to its essentials.
To study Latin from scratch at GCSE can be done over two years, but will demand great determination and hard work, but will be fun and rewarding. The main reason why it needs two years, is that you study some literature for the examination as well as the language. The board is helpful though, in that they provide a vocabulary list of about 340 words, and guarantee that any word that’s not on the list will be ‘glossed’ (i.e. its meaning given) on the examination paper. So if you’ve learnt the list carefully, you will be fine.
To take AS demands previous knowledge of Latin, for it is only a one year course. We study more authors and talk about how elegantly the Latin is constructed, for a Roman writer practically bit off the top of his stylus, to hit the right note. Once again, there is a helpfully supplied vocabulary list from the board; 1000 words this time, but with the same guarantee. In addition to a one hour translation paper, there are two literature examinations; the first is to asses whether you can translate small passages of Latin from the book or books studied. They will also ask you to comment on the content and the historical and mythological background as well as the effectiveness of the writing.
The second gives you a choice of essays, to be written in an hour, about general themes connected with the books you have studied.
At A2 the student develops these same skills, a new book is set (in a genre not met at AS), and cumulates in two literature papers as before. In addition there is a further translation paper and a paper testing your ability to comprehend a Latin story, slightly adapted from a Roman author. This sounds daunting, but you have a whole year to prepare. These comprehension skills come along with practice, so you work through many past papers to reach peak performance. The papers always have the same format, which is reassuring!
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| Examination Board
GCSE - OCR
A-level - OCR |
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