PAU Latin II (Madrid)

It combines a translation of a Latin prose passage into Spanish with tasks built on that same text: morphosyntactic commentary, lexical meaning in context, and literary analysis. A separate question tests knowledge of authors, genres and works, and another asks about Latin's legacy in law, institutions, art or culture. The paper offers alternative options, so you choose one set of tasks.

The official body publishes the current duration, the weighting of each question and the scoring criteria for each annual call, and these details can change. Check the Comunidad de Madrid education website and the university entrance-assessment pages for the year you are sitting rather than relying on older figures.

The step is mainly in speed and independence. You are expected to read a whole passage without a dictionary, recognise constructions such as ablative absolute, indirect statement and purpose clauses on sight, and write about literature from memory. Candidates who translate only in class and never under time pressure usually feel the difference most sharply.

Yes, the PAU is offered in successive calls within the same academic year, and you may also sit it again in later years to raise your mark. The specific rules on which call counts, how many times you may repeat a subject and how the best grade is selected are set out in the official regulations for each year.

Build grammar and vocabulary first, then apply them to the set authors. A workable order is: revise morphology and core syntax, drill high-frequency vocabulary, translate short passages from each author, then add the literary and legacy material. Leave the final weeks for full timed papers, because the exam rewards finishing the translation in good time.

Three places: mistranslating a verb's tense, voice or mood and letting the error spread through the sentence; leaving the morphosyntactic commentary vague, saying only 'ablative' instead of naming the construction and explaining its function; and writing literary answers that are general rather than tied to specific works and features.

The paper is designed so that the vocabulary needed for the translation is either given or expected from the set texts, and the lexical question asks you to explain meanings in context. The official instructions for the year state exactly what materials are permitted, so read them carefully; do not assume a dictionary is allowed.

Prepare them as short, structured written answers: author, period, genre, main works, defining features, and one or two concrete examples. For the legacy block, learn three or four well-chosen cases - a legal principle, an institution, an architectural form, a literary survival - and be able to explain each in a few precise sentences.

The minimum score needed to pass the PAU overall, and any subject-level requirements for particular degrees, are set by the official regulations for each year and published by the competent authorities. Consult those sources for the current figures; they are not fixed permanently and vary between calls and universities.