HSC Latin Continuers study guide
HSC Latin Continuers · Work through your exam, one topic at a time.
HSC Latin Continuers is a New South Wales senior secondary course and external written examination for students who have studied Latin for several years and can read authentic prose and verse with a dictionary and commentary support. It suits candidates preparing for university study in classics, ancient history, law, linguistics or medieval and Renaissance studies, and it is also taken by students who simply want to read Virgil, Cicero or Livy in the original. The HSC Latin Continuers study guide has 5 sections and about 1,912 words.
01Prescribed Text: Translation and Comprehension
Translation marks in the HSC Latin Continuers paper are earned by showing that you understand how the Latin sentence is built, not by producing elegant English. Begin every sentence by locating the main verb, then its subject, then the object or complement.
420 words, about 2 min02Prescribed Text: Analysis and Interpretation
Analysis questions ask what the author is doing and how the language achieves it. Strong answers combine three elements: a precise observation about the Latin (a word choice, a sound pattern, a word order, a tense, a rhetorical figure), a translation or gloss of the words concerned, and a statement of effect on the reader or listener.
401 words, about 2 min03Unseen Latin Translation
Unseen translation tests your ability to apply grammar and vocabulary under pressure. Do not begin at the first word.
366 words, about 2 min04Grammar, Syntax and Vocabulary in Context
Grammar questions in this paper are rarely abstract; they ask you to identify and explain forms as they occur in a passage . You must be able to name a form precisely (case, number, gender, tense, mood, voice, person) and explain its function in the sentence.
350 words, about 2 min05Roman Cultural and Historical Context
Examiners reward candidates who can connect a text to the world that produced it: its politics, its social expectations, its literary traditions, and its audience. Context questions are not invitations to write everything you know about Rome; they ask you to use relevant background to illuminate a specific passage.
375 words, about 2 min