AP Latin study guide
AP Latin · Work through your exam, one topic at a time.
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 exam is fully digital, delivered in Bluebook, and has two sections of equal weight. Section I consists of 52 multiple-choice questions taken in 1 hour 5 minutes, covering discrete sight items, short sets on sight and syllabus passages, and longer sets on syllabus prose and poetry. Topics on this exam: Section I: Multiple Choice and Section II: Free Response. The AP Latin study guide has 2 sections and about 678 words.
01Section I: Multiple Choice - Reading Latin Poetry and Prose
The multiple-choice section asks you to read authentic Latin - usually a passage of Vergil's Aeneid and a passage of Caesar's Gallic War - and answer questions about comprehension, translation, scansion, figures of speech, and literary style. You are not asked to memorize the whole text; you are asked to demonstrate that you can parse, construe, and interpret a passage you may not have seen. Morphology and syntax: identify case, number, gender, tense, mood, and voice quickly, then explain why that form is used (ablative absolute, indirect statement, purpose clause, result clause, cum-clauses). Vocabulary in context: know high-frequency words and the several senses each can carry; the question often hinges on the sense that fits the passage.
345 words, about 2 min02Section II: Free Response - Translation and Short Essays
The free-response section asks you to translate a prepared passage from Vergil or Caesar into clear English and to write short analytical essays on a passage, discussing theme, characterization, style, and historical or literary context. Translation is graded for accuracy of sense, not word-for-word literalism; essays are graded for a defensible thesis supported by specific Latin evidence. Read the whole sentence before writing anything. Identify the main verb and its subject.
333 words, about 2 min