AP Latin is a course designed to deepen students understanding and awareness of Latin while preparing them to take the Advanced Placement Exam in Latin. The course follows the AP syllabus and is specifically designed with the intent to increase students' test-taking abilities.
The AP exam consists of two parts: a multiple choice section (50%) and a free-response section (50%). The multiple choice section of the exam has 50 questions over 4 readings, 2 from the syllabus and 2 not. You have 60 minutes to answer all questions. Skills tested include translation, grammar, reference (understanding connections within the passage and drawing inferences), metrics, cultural background and figures of speech. The free response section consists of five questions, for which you have 2 total hours (15 minutes to prepare/read, the remaining time to write). In this section, you will be asked to literally translate passages from the syllabus, write a long essay about two passages, and answer short answer questions about two passages. Suggested times are given for all free-response questions, and the total time of the test is 3 hours.
In order to score well on the AP exam, therefore, students must both show a great mastery of the prescribed readings in the syllabus and be able to read and process Latin at sight. These will be our goals this year.