MATSEC AM Greek

It is administered by the MATSEC Examinations Board at L-Università ta' Malta. The board publishes regulations and policies, syllabi, current session information, applications, past papers, and marking schemes and exemplars on its website. You can contact the board at [email protected] or +356 2340 2814/5/6, or write to MATSEC Examinations Board, University of Malta, Msida MSD 2080, Malta.

The four study areas weighted here are Greek language and translation; Greek literature and set texts; Greek prose composition and comprehension; and Greek civilisation, history and culture, at 25 per cent each. The precise paper structure and prescribed texts are set by the board's syllabus, so download the current syllabus rather than relying on second-hand summaries.

Both are published by the MATSEC Examinations Board on its website under Syllabi and Past Papers, with marking schemes and exemplars in a separate section. Always use the syllabus for the session you are sitting, because prescribed authors and paper formats can be revised. Past papers with marking schemes are the best guide to how answers are actually rewarded.

Start with language and translation, since vocabulary and syntax underpin everything else. Then move to comprehension and prose composition, applying the same grammar actively. Read set texts alongside their historical and cultural background so literary and civilisation questions reinforce each other. Return to translation regularly throughout, because passive recognition fades faster than active production.

Three recurrences: translating word by word instead of by clause, so Greek word order distorts the English; learning set texts only in translation and then failing questions that quote the original; and writing prose composition with English sentence structures. A fourth is thin cultural knowledge - dates, institutions and genres answered vaguely. Practise producing accurate written Greek and English under time pressure.

It is a demanding qualification: you are expected to read unadapted Greek, translate both ways, and discuss literature and civilisation with precision. Candidates with strong school preparation and steady weekly reading do best. Treat it as a long project - regular short sessions on vocabulary, parsing and translation beat occasional long cramming, especially for the composition and set-text components.

The MATSEC Examinations Board publishes regulations and policies covering examinations, and those regulations are where resit and repeat-sitting rules are stated. The board's public pages summarised here do not set out a specific retake policy, so check the current regulations or contact the board directly before assuming you can resit in the next session.

Applications and current session information are published as separate sections on the MATSEC website. Dates, deadlines and any fees are set out there for each session and are not fixed in the material summarised here. Check the current session information page early, since deadlines typically fall well before the examination period, and confirm anything unclear with the board by email.

Work through recent papers under timed conditions, then mark them against the published marking schemes and exemplars rather than guessing. Keep an error log: note each mistranslated construction, each set-text allusion missed, and each prose sentence that reads like translated English. Revise from that log, not from the whole textbook, in the last month.