I just want to give a brief update on my use of the Cambridge JACT Reading Greek text. I posted a few times previously with questions and I should probably keep doing that, meaning, yes, I still have questions! But they are not as plentiful as before. I started the JACT text in January and I am at about the midway point or a bit past that (Section 9). I would not likely have a lot of good advice for other newbies like me, other than, to say I am persevering. I may yet survive. The toughest part for me has been to get comfortable with the participle forms and the uses of the dative case. But it is not a race (well, not really) and I always go back to review the grammar. I think I know where almost every grammar element is located in the grammar text that accompanies the text containing the readings! And the texts are so interesting. It makes me feel good to finish a section, even if it has been adapted, heavily or not. Thanks to those who answered my earlier questions. Here, I simply wanted to say something of a general nature about my experience.
Hi
This is all very encouraging to hear and I am glad you are enjoying the course.
You have done very well to get so far in such a short time. With a teacher a once a week 2 hour class might expect to get the end of section 11 in a year. Have you been doing the exercises? One of my criticisms of the course is that when passages, as opposed to single sentences, are set for translation into Greek the transition is too sharp. Not enough help is given and students find it quite hard.
Hi Seneca,
Thanks for the encouragement. I am probably being nearly over-optimistic in my assessment of how I am doing. I am not doing many of the exercises and I realize they are important. I am giving myself the luxury of going back again and again to various elements, as necessary. And as for problems, I am posting a problem on a new thread right now! Thanks again!
I don’t know the Reading Greek book but I agree with Seneca that it all seems to be going really well for you. Congratulations on making it this far - there are many who don’t!
Yes, another update after my somewhat hubristic fall from Section 9 in JACT Cambridge Reading Greek. I am not abandoning but going a bit more slowly and reviewing. It is stil (!) so interesting. I am not yet truly able to appreciate the sinewy nature and beauty of ancient Greek but it is my goal to get there.
Just to say, to other learners who may be a bit like me. I explored more fully the material on ancient Greek at the website of The Open University. I discovered, not just the supplementary guide to the readings, but also a very good ‘compendium’ of all the grammatical elements up to Section 9. Seems like a neat and easy-to-access source of all that information. Also, there are quizes one can take, also at the website. The quizes are not a cakewalk. They seem to reinforce many things…So they may make up for my lack of desire to do the exercises in the main text!
My method to date has really been…recognition (of endings, etc.) and of course searching for the endings in the grammar! I want to combine that with memorization and I do believe that keeping at it, recognition-wise, leads to good things.
I am an adult learner and I do my best to synthesize the various elements.
Here is the address of The Open University website with the above-mentioned information:
https://fass.open.ac.uk/classical-studies/learning-ancient-greek
From personal experience l think that it is essential to do written translation, both Greek to English and English to Greek, in order to fix the morophology and syntax in one’s mind. Along with reading Greek, of course.
When I learn Greek or other languages, I never translate anything. I try to understand Greek directly. If I misunderstand a sentence, I simplify it or repeat it several times to remember it well. I only do the exercises with Greek questions and answer in Greek.
When learning languages, there is no need to translate anything to learn morphology or syntax. I suggest you study how to learn languages properly 
To each his own. l’ve always learned languages by doing written translation into and out of the target language and l will continue to do so. It works well for me. lf it doesn’t work for you that’s fine. We each have our own preferences.