MATSEC IM Greek common mistakes
MATSEC IM Greek · Understand the traps and how to avoid them.
Reading a Greek listening or reading passage word by word and stopping at every unknown lexeme, so the final sentence is never reached and the main-idea question is answered from the first line alone.
Candidates transfer school habits of translating every word rather than reading for gist, and panic when a passage contains two or three unfamiliar items; the MATSEC tasks reward overall comprehension and inference, not exhaustive decoding.
What to do instead
Practise two-pass reading: first pass read the whole text in a fixed time (e.g. 90 seconds) and write a one-line summary of what it is about; second pass answer questions, marking unknown words but not stopping. Train with authentic short articles and do timed gist questions before detail questions.
Answering comprehension questions with information that is plausible in real life or borrowed from general knowledge rather than information actually stated or implied in the Greek text.
Under time pressure candidates pattern-match a keyword in the question to a keyword in the text and choose the option that sounds sensible, ignoring the exact wording of the passage, including negatives and hedges such as δεν, μόνο, σπάνια, ίσως.
What to do instead
For every answer, underline the exact phrase in the text that justifies it and write the line number beside the option; if no phrase can be underlined, discard the option. Do targeted drills on negative and limiting expressions (δεν, ούτε, κανείς, μόλις, παρά) so their effect on meaning becomes automatic.
Losing marks on listening because the answer to one question is missed while still thinking about the previous one, or because the candidate writes during the first listening and stops attending.
Listening passages are played a limited number of times and candidates try to transcribe full sentences instead of noting key words, so they fall behind the audio and miss subsequent items.
What to do instead
Use a note-taking protocol: on the first hearing write only numbers, names and 2–3 key words per question; on the second hearing confirm or correct. Do daily dictation and shadowing at natural speed, and rehearse with past-paper audio under strict play-count conditions.
Producing verb forms with the wrong aspect, tense ending or accent, e.g. writing έλυσα where the context requires να λύσω or θα λύσω, or mis-forming the aorist stem of common verbs.
Greek aspect (συνοπτικό vs εξακολουθητικό) has no direct English equivalent, so candidates choose forms by translating the English tense rather than by the aspect demanded by the particle (να, θα, μην) and the context.
What to do instead
Build a table of the 60 highest-frequency verbs with present, aorist and passive aorist stems plus the να/θα forms, and drill sentence transformations where only the particle changes. Learn the rule that να and θα take the dependent form and that μην always precedes the subjunctive form, then apply it in 10 sentences daily.
Mixing up noun declension endings and gender, especially neuter nouns in -μα, -ος masculine/feminine pairs, and the genitive singular/plural, producing forms such as *του προβλήματος written as *του πρόβλημα or *τους μαθητές used as subject.
Candidates memorise nouns from vocabulary lists in the nominative only and never attach the article, so gender and the stem change in the genitive are never learned as part of the word.
What to do instead
Learn every new noun with article and genitive singular (ο δρόμος – του δρόμου; το πρόβλημα – του προβλήματος) and record it that way in the vocabulary notebook. Do gap-fill exercises that require choosing article plus ending together, and self-test by declining ten nouns aloud each day.
Translating English idiom and syntax literally into Greek, e.g. rendering 'I am looking forward to' with a literal verb phrase, or producing English word order with the verb in the wrong place and the object before it.
Candidates compose in English and substitute Greek words one by one, so collocations, preposition choice and clitic placement follow English patterns rather than Greek ones.
What to do instead
Keep a collocation log of Greek verb + noun and verb + preposition pairs (κάνω μια ερώτηση, παίρνω μέρος, εξαρτάται από) and reuse them in original sentences. When translating, first write the Greek skeleton (subject – verb – object) without looking at the English, then compare with the source and adjust.
Translating Greek into English with the wrong register or with mistranslated connectives, e.g. rendering να as 'that' in every case, or translating μάλιστα, όμως, ενώ with a single flat equivalent regardless of context.
Candidates rely on a bilingual dictionary's first gloss and do not check how the word functions in the sentence, and they ignore whether the Greek source is formal, journalistic or conversational.
What to do instead
Practise translating connectives and particles in context with three candidate English renderings each, choosing by function. After each translation, read the English alone and check it sounds like natural English prose of the same register; compare with a model translation and list every difference in a personal error log.
Writing an essay or letter that answers the topic only in general terms, with no structured paragraphs, no linking devices, and a word count far below the required length.
Candidates prepare memorised topic sentences and then run out of content, or they write one long block because they have not internalised Greek paragraph conventions and discourse markers (αρχικά, επιπλέον, ωστόσο, συμπερασματικά).
What to do instead
Before writing, spend three minutes on a plan: position, two or three supporting points with an example each, conclusion. Learn a fixed set of eight discourse markers and require yourself to use at least four. Practise under timed conditions with a target of 10–15 words above the minimum, and check the count before submitting.
Using the wrong form of address and register in letters and emails, mixing informal second-person plural with singular forms, or opening a formal letter with an inappropriate greeting.
Candidates do not know the conventions for Greek formal correspondence (Αξιότιμε κύριε/Αξιότιμη κυρία, Με εκτίμηση) and confuse them with spoken usage or with English letter conventions.
What to do instead
Memorise two templates, one formal letter/email and one informal message, including greeting, opening, closing and sign-off, and practise adapting them to five different prompts. Explicitly decide before writing whether the task requires ενικός or πληθυντικός ευγενείας and keep it consistent throughout.
Losing cultural-background marks by treating questions on Greek history, geography, festivals or institutions as general-knowledge trivia and guessing, or by confusing ancient and modern referents.
Candidates revise language only and assume cultural questions are unpredictable, so they never build a factual base; they also conflate terms such as Ακρόπολη, αρχαία αγορά, Βυζάντιο, or mix up dates and regions.
What to do instead
Build a one-page timeline and map: key periods (Minoan, Classical, Hellenistic, Byzantine, Ottoman, modern state), major sites by region, and the main national and religious festivals with dates and customs. Test yourself weekly with short factual recall questions and link each fact to a Greek word you already know.