Grammar, Syntax and Vocabulary in Context
Grammar as a tool for reading
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. 'Ablative' alone is not an answer; 'ablative of means, expressing the instrument by which the action is done' is.
Concepts you must understand
Know the five declensions and the pronoun and adjective declensions, including hic, ille, is, ipse, qui. Know all indicative and subjunctive tenses, active and passive, plus participles, gerunds, gerundives, supines, and infinitives. Understand sequence of tenses, indirect statement, indirect command and question, conditional sentences (simple, future, contrary-to-fact), and the uses of the subjunctive in purpose, result, cum, and relative clauses. Vocabulary questions test both literal meaning and contextual sense: res can be 'thing', 'matter', 'affair' or 'situation' depending on context.
Common traps
Frequent errors: calling a gerundive a gerund; confusing ut purpose with ut result (check for tam, ita, tantus in the main clause); misidentifying a perfect passive participle as a finite verb; failing to notice that a noun is part of an ablative absolute; and giving the dictionary meaning of a word without adapting it to context. Another trap is identifying a subjunctive's tense without explaining the sequence-of-tense logic that produced it.
Rule of thumb
Answer in the pattern form - function - evidence. For vocabulary, always give the contextual meaning first, then the literal meaning if it differs.
Worked example
Caesar, his rebus cognitis, legatos misit. Question: 'Identify the case and function of rebus.' Answer: ablative plural of res, in an ablative absolute with cognitis ('these things having been learned'), expressing the circumstances under which Caesar acted. Note that cognitis is a perfect passive participle agreeing with rebus, not a finite verb.