Galicia PAU Greek II
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Cheat sheet
Keep the key ideas within reach.
ExploreKey terms
Get comfortable with the vocabulary.
ExploreStudy plan
Give each week a clear focus.
ExploreCommon mistakes
Understand the traps and how to avoid them.
ExploreCase studies
Put your knowledge to work in context.
ExploreExam-day guide
Prepare for the day ahead.
ExploreAbout this exam
Grego II is the Greek component of the Galician university entrance procedure (the PAU, formerly selectividad), taken by students who want Greek to count toward their admission score for degrees in Classics, History, Philosophy, translation or linguistics. The paper is built around a passage of Attic Greek prose, usually by an historian, an orator or a philosopher, which you render into Galician or Spanish with a lexicon at hand; around that text sit questions on morphology, syntax, vocabulary and etymology, and a short question on literary genre, author or cultural context. Because the exam offers two options (A and B), a sensible preparation strategy is to work through a small, stable canon of authors rather than reading widely and thinly: Xenophon and Lysias for clear narrative prose, Plato for argument, Demosthenes for periodic style. Train translation as a timed skill, build a personal list of high-frequency verbs and their principal parts, and practise justifying every case and every subordinate clause by naming its function. Read the current official guidelines from the Comisión Interuniversitaria de Galicia (CIUG) to confirm the exact structure, weighting and any prescribed authors, since these are set centrally and can change between years. No official affiliation is claimed here.
What you'll study
About Galicia PAU Greek II preparation
What is the Greek II exam actually for?
It is one of the optional subject exams in the Galician PAU. It lets Greek count toward the weighted admission score for degrees such as Classics, History, Philosophy or translation, and it is normally taken alongside Latin II by students from the Humanities baccalaureate.
How many questions are there and how long do I have?
Those details are fixed by the current official guidelines, not by this page. Check the CIUG website (ciug.gal) for the model and the instructions for the present course before you plan your timing, and use the published model papers to rehearse under the real conditions.
Do I have to translate without a dictionary?
The paper is designed to be done with a lexicon, so the skill being tested is not memorising vocabulary but using it fast and accurately. Practise with the same dictionary you will bring, and learn the abbreviations and the principal-part conventions it uses before exam day.
Which authors should I prepare first?
Start with Xenophon and Lysias: their narrative and courtroom prose uses a limited vocabulary and short clauses, which builds speed. Add Plato for argumentative connectives, then Demosthenes or Thucydides for long periods once you can hold a sentence together without losing the subject.
How should I split my study time between translation and grammar?
Translation should take the largest share, because it carries the most weight and improves the other questions indirectly. Spend the rest on morphology drills and on writing out syntactic analyses by hand, naming each case and clause. Etymology and literary context repay short, regular review rather than long sessions.
What do candidates most often lose marks on?
Two things: leaving a clause without a main verb or inventing one, and analysis answers that identify a form but not its function in the sentence. Also common is failing to match a participle to its noun in case and number, or misreading a genitive absolute as an ordinary phrase.
Can I retake the exam if I do badly?
Retake rules and any limits are set by the official regulations, so confirm them with CIUG rather than relying on hearsay. In practice candidates usually sit the PAU again in a later call, but the conditions, deadlines and how the score is combined all come from the current official documentation.
Is Greek II harder than Latin II?
They are comparable in demand but different in shape. Greek has the article, more particles and a richer verbal system, which makes clauses harder to track; Latin has more oblique cases in narrative. Choose whichever you have studied longer and can translate fastest under time pressure.
How do I prepare the literary and cultural question?
Anchor each major author to one genre, one period and one or two characteristic works, and learn why the text matters: Herodotus and inquiry, Thucydides and cause, Lysias and courtroom character, Plato and dialogue form. Short written summaries you can reread are more useful than long readings.