D'Ooge...rate of progress?

[Celtica]

Salue Omnes,

I've downloaded and started working with D'Ooge(seems very good so far, think I'll make D'Ooge my main textbook). At time of posting I have completed up to Chapter 2 and have found the book(e-book?) excellent so far.

My question is this: How quickly should I move through the book? A chapter per day, week, month? I find at this early level it takes about an hour- hour and a half to complete a chapter, do the exercises and check them with the key, and several 'bouts of maybe 20 min in flashcard form to learn the vocab for the chapter, but I'm expecting it to be much slower going as I get further into the course. In your personal experiences with D'Ooge, what has been the best rate for you to progress at(I realise my milage may vary)?

Thanks muchly for sharing your experiences.

[Andrus]

Salue Celtica,

I can only speak for my self, and I was never very good learning foreign languages so you probably should adjust your pace in accordance with your skills.

What I do is study one lesson per day, making also all exercises even the small ones. Then, and only then, I check with the key of the book (you can download a pdf with the key of exercises made by other people of this forums). Understanding what I did wrong in the exercises has been fundamental to my studies. If you think that the key is wrong or if you don’t understand something (in the key or in the book) use this forum to ask for help and will you see that you will get it for sure.

For the rest of the day and every time my mind is free I think on what I have learn and try to make simple sentences in Latin.

About the vocabulary I only start to have difficulties when I reach almost the end of the verbs (you can’t imagine how many word are in Latin for kill, assail and so on). If I’m feeling very lost I redo all revisions tests (other thing great in this book it is that has revisions).

Finally never hesitate to post your doubts in these forums.

Hope this helps and good luck with your studies.

Andrus

[Kerastes]

How quickly should I move through the book? A chapter per day, week, month?

The book was intended as a first year Latin text for the secondary school, so if you want a standard with which to compare your progress, you can think of working through the book in one academic year. Seventy-nine lessons plus readings plus review and some downtime equals about eighty-five or ninety lessons, divided by thirty weeks in the average American school year equals three lessons per week.

I find at this early level it takes about an hour- hour and a half to complete a chapter, do the exercises and check them with the key, and several 'bouts of maybe 20 min in flashcard form to learn the vocab for the chapter, but I'm expecting it to be much slower going as I get further into the course.

D'Ooge says in the preface "The first few lessons have been made unusually simple, to meet the wants of students not well grounded in English grammar." This seems to imply that your pace will slow down any time now, but that depends on your background.

The crucial point to success is being able to maintain steady progress at whatever pace you can maintain, which will depend on your life circumstances and other involvements. Anything less than one lesson per week would be too slow, since it will become too hard to retain the material. When working through a textbook on their own, people generally do slow down after the first month or two, because the initial novelty and enthusiasm wear off. Don't allow yourself to slow down too much, or the lessons will actually get more difficult. Use the ideal of a high school course and work at least every other day if not five or six days a week.

In your personal experiences with D'Ooge, what has been the best rate for you to progress at(I realise my milage may vary)?

I have no personal experience with D'Ooge, but I have learned languages on my own. (In classics, I was on my own after the second year of Latin and first year of Greek.) A steady rate is more important than a fast rate. Also, if you are learning on your own, you enthusiasm will wane at some point. Get encouragement whatever way you can: people around you, posting to this forum, or joining a study group. But about two or three lessons per week is what D'Ooge was designed for. Think of how accomplished you'll feel in eight or nine months when you finish it.

Kerastes