AP Latin Exam 2015

Remember, DO NOT discuss the multiple choice questions at any time or the FRQ’s until they have been released. It has been known that the moderators will do things to rebellious CC users who don’t follow College Board’s rules… Don’t be one of them. Good luck today everyone!

Okay, so the FRQ’s are up: https://secure-media.collegeboard.org/digitalServices/pdf/ap/ap15_frq_latin.pdf

My thoughts on the test - I thought the FRQ’s were actually really easy (except Q1, but that’s because I didn’t review that passage and only knew the last line “I do not pursue Italy willingly”). It was interesting to see Orgetorix come up yet again, that was pretty unexpected.

So I’ve compiled the passages they’ve used in the FRQs for the last three years for the benefit of future Latin students below:

From 2015 FRQ:
Aeneid 4. 356-361 (Aeneas tells Dido he does not pursue Italy willingly)
Bellum Gallicum 6. 16 (Human sacrifices and Gallic religion)
Bellum Gallicum 5. 29 (Sabinus panics)
Aeneid 1. 198-207 (Aeneas calms his men)
Aeneid 2. 268-273 (Hector in a dream)
Bellum Gallicum 1. 2 (Orgetorix!)

From 2014 FRQ:
Aeneid 1. 65-69 (help from Aeolus)
Bellum Gallicum 6. 18 (Gods and Goddesses among the Gauls)
Bellum Gallicum 5. 33 (Sabinus is despondent)
Bellum Gallicum 5. 43 (Cicero’s men resist amid the flames)
Aeneid 2. 244-249 (Trojan horse into Italy)
Bellum Gallicum 1. 4 (Orgetorix’s conspiracy)

From 2013 FRQ:
Aeneid 2. 608-613 (Venus interferes)
Bellum Gallicum 5. 31 (Cotta tries to argue against leaving the camp, but the romans depart anyway)
Bellum Gallicum 1. 7 (Caesar stops the Helvetians)
Aeneid 1. 562-578 (Dido takes pity on Ilioneus and the crew)
Aeneid 4. 279-284 (Hector in a dream)
Bellum Gallicum 1. 3 (Orgetorix tries to form a conspiracy)

@pelennor @FLStudent97 @Rittytwikky @bookwoof @aar2697 @lizautry9

Do any of you guys have tips for me? I’ve only done 1 year of Latin and I want to self-study for the next two years and take the AP Latin.

*Exam

@HaableVaurimn By the time you take AP Latin, you should have at least gotten through gerunds, gerundives, supines, fourth/fifth declension nouns, subjunctives, and indirect statement (I learned about all of these forms of Latin grammar in Latin III). AP Latin involves a lot of translating and the prose found in Caesar’s Commentarii De Bello Gallico is much simpler to translate that the poetry found in Vergil’s Aeneid. Prior to taking AP Latin, I had to take Latin IV, which was essentially pre-AP Latin in which the class translated prose from Cicero and poetry from Catullus and Ovid. I would recommend that you practice translating passages from various authors before taking AP Latin because the sentence structure varies widely between authors, especially amongst those who write prose and those who write poetry. For example, there is some angst amongst Latin students when translating Cicero because he only places the verbs at the very end of his 10-line sentences filled with subordinate clauses and indirect statement, whereas a poet such as Vergil places the verb anywhere in the sentence in order for his writing to fit the rhythm of Latin poetry called dactylic hexameter (which is essentially the Latin version of iambic pentameter, if you’ve ever read Shakespeare, but slightly more complex).

All in all, once you have learned Latin grammar to the fullest extent possible, you need to practice sight translations frequently before taking AP Latin. Also, if you have a good memory, if you can memorize all the passages for the AP exam, then you’ll do fine because 75% of the AP exam consists of questions from passages you translate during the year. Now by ‘memorize’, I mean you should be able to look at the Latin passages, know what Latin word means what English word, and be able to recite the passage not from pure memory like a monologue but from seeing the Latin.

Bona fortuna!

I forgot to mention that I practiced what I said in the last paragraph and got a 5! However, I had to take the makeup exam due to a family emergency, so I am never allowed to discuss the makeup exam because CollegeBoard reuses it.

@FLStudent97 For some reason this didn’t pop up in my notifications. Thanks for the advice, at the moment I only have the Aeneid and the first and second Ecce Romani books, I can get more resources after I work through them. I’m pretty good at translation, I get the gist of things by just glancing at them. Vocabulary is not an issue but, grammar is so specific it can get a little difficult for me. Hopefully I’ll be able to focus on that, my goal is to take the exam May 2017 so, there’s some time. My Latin teacher is also there to help me self-study through email and Skype although she had to switch schools this year.