Placement Exam Information & Description

Preliminary Section
Introductory Latin Exam
Prose Exam
Poetry Exam

Students are supplied with vocabulary information for use on the test.

Preliminary Section (all years)

This section tests knowledge of basic morphology, case use, dictionary entry information, and the syntax of the Latin sentence. You will be asked to answer questions on several short sentences, give English equivalents for verb forms, give part of speech and declension or conjugation for dictionary entries, and translate sentences (all vocabulary provided).

Introductory Latin Exam (for students with 1-2 years of Latin)

This test asks you to demonstrate your knowledge of the forms of Latin nouns and verbs (morphology of declensions and conjugations) and of some basic Latin grammar (the structure of a sentence, case uses, etc.). You will have to name part of speech, identify forms, describe grammatical constructions and translate a short passage from Latin to English.

“Identify” means give part of speech and for:
Nouns Give CASE, NUMBER, GENDER
Pronouns Give CASE, NUMBER, GENDER
Adjectives Give CASE, NUMBER, GENDER
Verbs Give PERSON (1,2,3), NUMBER (sg or pl), TENSE,
VOICE (active or passive), MOOD (indicative, subjunctive, imperative)
Participles Give CASE, NUMBER, GENDER, TENSE, VOICE (active or passive)

First, read through the passage without translating, just to get the Latin in your head. Try not to panic if you haven’t seen many long passages. To answer the grammar questions, you will be working with sentences from the passage one at a time. Only after you have worked through the individual sentences will you be asked to translate. Answering the grammar questions should help you to translate more easily.

<PASSAGE WITH ENGLISH INTRODUCTION>

1. <SENTENCE FROM PASSAGE>
Copy the Latin word that is the subject of this sentence. What case is it?
Identify <NOUN>.
Copy the verbs from this sentence. If any verb has a direct object, copy it out too.
What part of speech is < >.

2 <SENTENCE FROM PASSAGE>
What part of speech is < >?
With what noun does < > agree?
Identify <VERB>
Identify <VERB>
What is the name of the grammatical construction of < >?

3 <SENTENCE FROM PASSAGE>
What part of speech is < >?
Identify < >
What kind of ablative is < >?

4 <SENTENCE FROM PASSAGE>
What kind of genitive is < >?
What kind of a clause is < >?
Identify <VERB>
Find a prepositional phrase in this sentence and copy it out.
What kind of construction is < >?

5 Now translate the passage into clear English prose. Use your answers to the grammatical questions in parts 1-4 to help yourself produce an accurate, grammatically equivalent translation.

Prose Exam (for students with 3 or more years in Latin, including a course in reading prose)

<PASSAGE WITH ENGLISH INTRODUCTION>
A. Give part of speech and identify the underlined words in the passage:
B. Translate the Latin passage into grammatically equivalent English.
C. Bracket ([…]) and label an example of each of the following:

<VARIOUS CLAUSES & CASE USES>
D. <LATIN SENTENCE NOT FROM PASSAGE>
1 Underline the words of the main clause
2 Circle the words of the <DEPENDENT CLAUSE>
3 Translate the sentence

Poetry Exam (3 or more years, and poetry readings)
In this section of the exam students are given a passage of Latin poetry.

<PASSAGE WITH ENGLISH INTRODUCTION>
A. Give part of speech and identify the underlined words in the passage:
B. Bracket ([…]) and label an example of each of the following:
<VARIOUS CLAUSES & CASE USES>

C. Can you scan the following line?
<LINE OF POETRY WITHOUT LONG MARKS>

B. Translate the Latin passage into grammatically equivalent English.