AP Latin case studies
AP Latin · Put your knowledge to work in context.
AP Latin is a College Board Advanced Placement course and exam that assesses students' ability to read and comprehend authentic Latin texts in prose and poetry. It is aimed at students who have completed foundational Latin study and are ready to work with syllabus-based and sight passages at an advanced level, combining language skills with knowledge of Roman culture, mythology, and history. The AP Latin case studies are 5 cases and about 1,938 words.
1The Ambiguous Ablative in a Sight Passage
A student is working through a sight passage from a prose author (a narrative about a general's arrival at a besieged town). She encounters the phrase magna cum laude oppidum ingressus est and must translate the ablative phrase.
417 words, about 2 min2Scanning for the Main Clause in a Periodic Sentence
A student faces a long periodic sentence in a poetry sight passage (hexameter). The sentence runs 14 lines and contains: two cum clauses, a relative clause with qui , an ablative absolute ( his rebus gestis ), and a series of accusatives that could belong to either the relative clause or the main clause.
415 words, about 2 min3Deciding What to Cite in a Short-Answer Analysis
On the free-response section, a student must write a short analysis arguing that a passage's word order creates emphasis. The prompt asks for 'specific textual support.' The passage is 9 lines.
382 words, about 2 min4Translating a Subjunctive in an Indirect Question vs. Result Clause
In a sight passage, a student meets: Rogavit quid milites facerent. Later in the same passage: Tanta erat virtus ut oppidum caperent.
348 words, about 2 min5Managing the Vergil Sight-Reading Under Time Pressure
A student has 20 minutes for a multiple-choice set built on an unseen 12-line hexameter passage (Vergilian style). The set has 8 questions: 3 on comprehension, 3 on figures of speech/diction, 2 on meter/scansion.
376 words, about 2 min