PAU Latin Language and Culture (Catalonia)

It combines a translation of a Latin prose passage into Catalan with tasks built on that passage and on a literary text: morphosyntactic analysis, commentary and interpretation, lexical and etymological questions, and short-answer items on Roman history, institutions, religion, daily life and literary genres. The official syllabus lists the exact structure and marks.

The number of items, the duration and the mark allocation are set by the Generalitat de Catalunya in the current PAU regulations and the subject's official syllabus. They are not fixed here. Consult the official education website or your school's examination coordinator for this year's figures.

Pass marks, grade thresholds and any enrolment fees are determined by the official PAU regulations and are revised periodically. This page deliberately gives no figures. Check the Generalitat de Catalunya's education portal, or the instructions issued to your examination centre, for the values that apply to your sitting.

The translation passage is usually authentic adapted prose, so difficulty depends on unfamiliar vocabulary and complex subordination rather than on length. Candidates who have only memorised paradigms struggle with clause analysis. Those who translate short passages weekly and check every case and tense tend to find the paper predictable and manageable.

Resit and mark-validity rules belong to the official PAU framework and change over time, so confirm the current policy with the Generalitat or your school before relying on it. In practice, plan for a single sitting and treat any resit provision as a safety net rather than a strategy.

Start with morphology and core syntax, since every other task depends on them. Then build vocabulary in thematic and etymological groups linked to Catalan. Add translation practice with self-correction, then literary commentary, then civilisation topics. Revise culture and literary history in short, repeated sessions rather than one block at the end.

Leaving verbs unanalysed, guessing at ablatives and genitives, translating word by word instead of by clause, ignoring the context of the passage, and writing commentary that paraphrases the text without interpreting it. In lexicon questions, candidates often give a modern Catalan word without explaining the semantic or phonetic link.

You should be able to recognise the common metres and describe their effect, and to identify rhetorical and narrative devices in both prose and verse. The syllabus indicates which authors and genres are examinable, so check it and read the prescribed texts aloud; fluent reading supports both scansion and interpretation.

Permitted materials, including whether a Latin–Catalan dictionary is allowed, are specified in the official instructions for the subject. Confirm this with your school well before the exam and practise under those exact conditions, so that your dictionary speed and annotation habits are already trained.

Latin is typically taken as a modality or optional subject whose mark can be weighted for particular degree programmes. The weighting applied to each degree is published by the universities and the Generalitat. Check the current weighting tables for the degrees you are targeting before deciding how much time to give the subject.