<p>do you think it is possible for somebody who knows a lot about grammar, like cases, tenses and moods, but very little about the latin language to self-study for the exam next year in latin vergil and pass?</p>
<p>I’m self-studying Vergil next year.</p>
<p>What do you mean by knowing very little about the Latin language? You know the grammar already, I would say that grammar is the hardest part because of all the memorization.</p>
<p>i mean not knowing the words themselves, but knowing parts of speech for any language like english. but knowing very little vocab.</p>
<p>oh my gosh, you kids are crazy, i just got a 5 on latin vergil, and i would be scared out of my freakin mind to self-study that class. just because of all the classes i’ve ever taken, that is the ONE class i would say needs a teacher there to help.</p>
<p>but more power to you if you can pull it off.</p>
<p>heyyou: (congrats on Yale!)
I would have never dreamed of taking Vergil self-study either. But now I think it’s possible because I had a psuedo-self study in Literature (my teacher did absolutely nothing) and I scored a 5. I was the only one in the class so she sent me to the library by myself every day. So, there’s hope for next year!</p>
<p>jtm:
Vocab is a big part too. I used Latin Literature Workbook Series (I believe they have one on Vergil) and the Cambridge Latin Grammar book. Memorize vocab, and do translations galore in order to get familiarized with the word order, sentence structure, etc. That’s what I did this year, and I plan to do that again for Vergil.
How long have you taken Latin?</p>
<p>thats the thing… i haven’t had latin before. but i am very experienced in the romance languages and in languages in general. but is it too much to self study for?</p>
<p>Well, if you haven’t had Latin, and you’re self-studying…I’m not sure what to say. I didn’t think my self-study was too bad, but then again, I’ve had past Latin experience. And I haven’t really started going through the Vergil yet. Try reading through the sample tests on collegeboard and see if it’s something you could learn by yourself.</p>
<p>Does anyone else have more helpful suggestions?</p>
<p>Hmm. I don’t know about self-studying Vergil with no Latin experience at all… I took the class this past year after taking Latin I and pulled off a 98 first semester and a 99 the next. And no, that’s not grade inflation, I think I was the only person who got a A either semester. The class is hard [but if you’re self-studying… idk] but with a lot of work you’ll get the hang of it. Vergil seemed difficult for translating at first but after 1st semester, you’ll start to recognize word patterns and stuff that makes it a TON easier to translate.</p>
<p>If you seriously plan on doing this, you can also use Robert Fagles’ translation of the Aeneid to help guide you through your own translations… so you can get the gist of what the line is trying to say if you can’t get it on your own. Also, that translation seems to be the most interesting to read for the parts of the poem that have to be read only in English.</p>
<p>Also, when you say you know a lot about grammar - how can you know all of this with NO Latin experience at all? Do you mean grammar for the other Romance languages? I assure you, it’s different for Latin [not completely foreign, but different]. I’m not sure I’d recommend a self-study with no experience…</p>
<p>Oh, and I’d tell you how I did on the AP exam but I’m so not paying 8 dollars to hear the score… :|</p>
<p>uhh don’t know how my posts got out of order, oops :]</p>
<p>what i mean is, i could tell you what ablative, vocative and nominative cases are, and what future anterior and perfect conditional are. but i don’t know the words themselves. nor much vocab.</p>
<p>If you haven’t taken Latin before, don’t try to self-study Vergil. You will probably end up killing yourself. You might be able to get through most of the grammar you need by next May; you will almost certainly not get through the grammar and everything you need for Vergil.</p>
<p>The big deal about the cases is memorizing [or attempting to memorize] all of the different endings for each word. Bleh. It’s too much to do, I’d say.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t recommend it with NO Latin experience. But I hope you took my suggestion and looked at sample tests on collegeboard.</p>