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<p>Yes, but you are on a time constraint and in order to know exactly what tense it is you have to semi-translate. I will admit that being “immersed” in Latin will help with this, but many times a 3rd or 4th year Latin student who is going to take the exam is not exposed to a large amount of authors. This makes it much harder. They are typically passages that a test-taker has never seen before. Also, all Latin authors tend to have their own way of writing, so really Latin does not have a clear cut structure. Vergil has his own way of writing and that is why you can look at his work and notice a lot of similarities, but Latin in itself does not have a specific order (except that the verb is typically at the end of course). I have been exposed to Latin enough to be able to see patterns in authors, but as I said they tend to be different. So I find it somewhat misleading to say that words do not appear in any order, because they most certainly can. However, because the AP test focuses on Vergil it is easier to translate for the very reason that his structure is very much the same. But the multiple choice, being comprised of various authors, tends to be harder.</p>
<p>I guess this is just my opinion, but I think in general it holds true.</p>