<p>Our middle school offers Latin, Chinese as well as the traditional French and Spanish. One of the students we know who took 7th and 8th grade Latin said her teacher advised anyone wanting to take AP Latin exam, to take an online course in Latin II this summer, and enroll in Latin III for third form or 9th grade, so that they could sit for the AP Latin exam offered by the College Board Advanced Placement Program at the end of 9th grade.</p>
<p>Is this good advice? Why would someone want to take the AP exam after 9th grade? Of what value would that be over say, taking Latin II in ninth grade and Latin III in 10th? What year of school do you typically take the AP Latin exam? We have some interested in Latin, so I would appreciate advice from the Latin scholars, thanks.</p>
<p>Both of mine took Latin (2 different schools) and I have never heard that. Latin at prep school moved at a much faster pace. DD looked at the text and repeated Latin I–prep school covered by Thanksgiving everything that was covered in an entire year at her previous private school. AP Latin will be senior year. </p>
<p>Maybe they are advising that so your child can finish Latin with the AP and still have time to take a modern language at prep school?</p>
<p>My youngest daughter has two years of Latin and is “restudying” her material over the summer. Then she’s taking Honors Latin when she gets to boarding school. We’re not worried about AP stuff just yet.</p>
<p>I wonder about why anyone would care if a kid took AP Latin in the ninth grade (my oldest took it in the 10th grade as an accelerated student) and I still think “so what?” Sometimes teachers are pushing too hard and too fast. </p>
<p>It’s not a bad thing to have a little repetition given how hard prep school classes are. Besides, chances are - your child will be moved to the appropriate class if they are signed up for the wrong one. A number of schools shuffle in the first few weeks of class. The school instructions told us to just sign up for the class we though was appropriate, but I called and talked to the registrar and we decided on Honors Latin. The classes are small, so if she needs to move up they can do that easily. And frankly - I’d rather she be moved “up” than “down” if we chose incorrectly.</p>
<p>Go with your gut feel. Nothing is written in stone, trust me.</p>