<p>esek64, my daughter studied Latin at home and took the SAT Subject Test. I can answer your questions about the test, as far I my understanding goes, but I can't say whether or not it's worth your son's efforts if he doesn't like it and it's enormously time consuming.</p>
<p>My daughter did a correspondence course in Latin from University of Arizona. She used Latin For Americans, not Ecce Romani, so I can't compare exactly where your son is in the program in terms of what grammar, vocabulary, and level of translations he's gotten to at this point. However, my daughter took the exam after completing 3 semesters of the U. of AZ program. (She completed 4 semesters ultimately, in order to satisfy a college admissions requirement of 2 years of a foreign language, but had to take the test after just 3 semesters because of the scheduling of the test -- the College Board only offers it once or twice a year, so to get the scores in on time she needed to take it before completing the 4th semester of the program.)</p>
<p>There were a few things on the test that she hadn't covered yet in her correspondence program, but she knew what to expect because she did a couple practice tests from College Board's practice SAT Subjects Tests book. There is a prep/review book available, published by REA. It's the only one I know of, but she was able to fill in a couple gaps (mostly about poetry and meter) by reading the information in the REA prep book.</p>
<p>I would suggest your son take a look at the practice test in the College Board book, and maybe just see how well he does on it. He might not do that well, but if his score is dragged down by just a couple things he hasn't studied yet, then it's not such a difficult matter to fill in those gaps.</p>
<p>That said... I have read some students posting on the SAT Subject Test boards here at College Confidential that they think you need 3 or 4 years of Latin to do well on the test. My daughter did pretty well, in my opinion, given that she'd only gotten through the 3rd semester when she took it, but it's true that she didn't knock it out of the park or anything. She got a 680, which is well below her scores on the other SAT Subject Tests she took.</p>
<p>The colleges she was looking at both recommended highly that homeschoolers take the SAT subject test in their foreign language, so that's what she did. She enjoyed studying Latin to a point, but by the time she got to about where your son is, she mostly was just doing it to finish up the two years. (In retrospect, she's very happy to have done it, however.) One thing is, if your son takes the exam, the College Board is changing their score reporting rules and if he doesn't like the score, he doesn't have to report it.</p>
<p>My daughter originally started with Latin because she just really wanted to learn it, and also because she needed 2 years of foreign language to start college. As it got harder, she was mostly in it just to finish it. However, their was another good outcome we didn't foresee, which is her Latin SAT score was high enough to also fulfill her BA requirements for a foreign language. She enjoys studying languages and is pretty good at it, but she also wants to do an Honors Program at the college that requires more credits than the general BA, she wants to major in one subject with a specialty certification in a sub-topic (also requiring more credits), she wants to minor in another subject, she wants to do a semester abroad, and she wants to graduate in 4 years (and I want her to too! $$$) Although she has subsequently taken two quarters of French in college, she is relieved of putting any more time into it than is practical at this point because her Latin exam score has filled that second language requirement to graduate. Not having to put another 4 quarters into French is not a small thing given what she's trying to do.</p>
<p>So, obviously, it's something that you and your son need to decide, but since he's put so much work in already, it may at least be worth taking a stab at the practice test and making an assessment then.</p>