How to study for a Latin Test

Latin Learning Latin
1

Hi -

I have my first test coming up for my college latin class. We have covered up to chapter 10 in wheelocks latin.

Here is what my teacher said:
The test will consist of a conjugation of a verb in present, imperfect and future with imperatives, Latin to English sentences taken from the text, English to Latin sentences taken from the book and 142 vocabulary words.

My question is I have no Idea everything I need to have memorized for this test. I am memorizing all the vocabulary words and their gender and all the conjugations and declenctions i’ve learned so far.

What else would you reccomend learning?

Thanks!!!

2

Hey!

Well, it really depends on how much time you’ve got to prepare and how much work you want to put into it. I haven’t used Wheelock’s textbook so I’m not sure exactly how much material you’re supposed to have mastered but if your teacher said you only need to revise Present, Imperfect and Future Tense, it shouldn’t be too difficult for you to get to grips with that in a few days.

The way I went about learning how to conjugate verbs was: I made a list with all possible verb endings. Once these were sorted in a coherent way, according to Tense, Mood, Voice, Number and Person, I conjugated all verbs I came across until I was confident in recognising different verb forms at a glance. (It’s important to remember in which conjugation a verb is.) I remember it taking me about half an hour to fully conjugate a verb in all its possible forms, but it should take you much less than that.

Next, vocabulary. I consider flash cards the best way to learn vocab. Write the nom. sing. and gen. sing. form of a noun + gender on one side and the translation on the other; for verbs it’s crucial to know the four principal parts and whether a particular verb takes a particular case (for example verbs of condemning take the gen. to express the penalty).

Make sure you’ve read all texts you are supposed to and can translate them. And if you want to go the extra mile, translate the texts in writing and then try to write them back into Latin a couple of days later.

Hope this helps and good luck!

3

If it’s your first test, and you’re as far as chapter ten, then you should know thoroughly everything in Wheelock’s, chapters 1 through 10, and be able to produce from memory all the forms introduced therein. Simple as that! If you’re still confused, why not ask your teacher? It is his or her course after all, not ours.

4

Thanks for the ideas everyone. That is helpful.

5

LatinGirly (or any other Wheelock beginner):

Here are some practical VERB TIPS.

TIP 1.
COPY onto a single sheet of paper the first three rows you find on page 452 under the heading ‘Indicative active’. There you have Present, Future and Imperfect tenses of the 4 conjugations + capio. Then refer to this sheet so frequently that it crumbles to dust.

You might also re-read what the book says about these ‘paradigms’ in Chapters 1, 5, 8 and 10. Follow the book’s advice (p. 3) and say the paradigms ALOUD. This will help you learn. Pay attention to accents (stress marks) and long vowels. NEVER stress a final syllable!

TIP 2.
UNCONFUSE THE FUTURE (TENSE)!
There are two totally different sets of Future Tense endings:

  1. (this is the easy bit:) 1st and 2nd conj. verbs have a unique set of easy-to-learn endings: –bo, -bis, -bit, -bimus, -bitis, -bunt. ‘I will praise’ – laudá-bo, etc.

2a) (this is trickier:) 3rd and 4th conj. verbs have –AM as the future ‘I will’-ending (‘I will rule’ = reg-AM; ‘I will hear’ = audi-AM; ‘I will take’ = capi-AM).

2b) (now for the really confusing bit:) the ‘you, he/she/it, we, they’ endings for 3rd and 4th conj. verbs are the SAME as the PRESENT TENSE ENDINGS for 2nd conj. verbs (mon-es, mon-et, mon-emus, mon-etis, mon-ent)!!!

Practise juxtaposing different sets until you finally unconfuse yourself (if possible):

‘I will praise’ – laudá-BO, ‘I will drive’ – ág-AM
‘he will praise’ – laudá-BIT, he will drive’ –ág-ET
‘they will praise’ – laudá-BUNT, ‘they will drive’ – ág-ENT

‘I will advise’ – moné-BO, ‘he will advise’ – moné-BIT, ‘they will advise’ – moné-BUNT
‘I will hear’ – aúd-iAM, ‘he will hear’ – aúd-iET, ‘they will hear’ – aúd-iENT
‘I will take’ – cáp-iAM, ‘he will take’ – cáp-iET, ‘they will take’ – cáp-iENT

‘you advise’ – món-es, ‘she advises’ – món-et, ‘we advise’ – mon-émus, ‘they advise – món-ent
‘you will drive’ – ág-es, ‘she will drive’ – ág-et, ‘we will drive’ – ag-émus, ‘they will drive’ – ágent
‘you drive’ – ág-is, ‘she drives’ – ág-it, ‘we drive’ – ág-imus (NOT agímus), ‘they drive’ – águnt.
‘you hear’ – aúd-îs (î as i in ‘machine’), ‘she hears’ – aúd-it, ‘we hear’ – aud-îmus (î as i in ‘machine’, here stressed), ‘they hear’ – aúd-iunt.


TIP 3.
IMPERATIVE FORMS
Remember, these show the characteristic vowels (â, long ê / short e, short i / long î) just like the infinitive forms, indicating which conjugation each verb belongs to:

laúd-â! laud-âte! Compare: laud-âre
món-ê! mon-ête! Compare: mon-êre
ág-e! ág-ite! Compare: ág-ere
aúd-î! aud-îte! Compare: aud-îre
cáp-e! cáp-ite! Compare: cáp-ere

Read what the book says about the Present Infinitive on p.51 including the four irregular 3rd conj. imperatives. Then learn this rhyme:

“D i c k had a duck with fur on its back, and that’s a fac(t)? (irregular imperatives: dic, duc, fer, fac)

Tip 4.
Here are ALL the verbs from Chapters 1-10. Learn as many as you can!

(1st) Like LAUDO: amo, cogito, do, erro, servo, conservo, voco; tolero; demonstro
(2nd) Like MONEO: debeo, salveo, terreo, valeo, video; doceo
(3rd) Like AGO: disco, duco, gero, scribo, traho, vinco; dico, vivo
(4th) Like AUDIO: venio, invenio
(3rd mixed) Like CAPIO: facio, fugio

Only 32!

FINAL TIP

Tattoo these personal endings on your wrist: :smiling_imp:

-o / –m = I
-s = you (singular)
-t = he/she/it
-mus = we
-tis = you (plural)
-nt = they

Cheers,
Int

6

So much for Wheelock and the ‘analytical’ approach. :blush:

Now go out and buy Lingua Latina by Hans Orberg and really learn Latin! :smiley:

Cheers,
Int

7

Yet many people that have success with Lingua Latina do so because they have a foundation from learning from Wheelock first.