<p>can anyone shine any light onto the language placement tests?</p>
<p>What are they like? (writing? multiple choice?)</p>
<p>and are they difficult?</p>
<p>The Latin one had some basic sentences and parsing, and one sight passage from Cicero that I couldn't make sense of. In case you were wondering. :)</p>
<p>haha thanks... i'm actually taking Spanish, but you know, they might be similar.</p>
<p>wait... you're taking Latin for language placement? I didn't realize you could do that... no one speaks Latin anymore... i feel like i'm saying something very stupid right now without fully realizing it.</p>
<p>Lots of people still speak Latin (Catholic Church, anyone?).</p>
<p>And of course just because a language is dead doesn't mean you can't learn it. It's useful in other ways.</p>
<p>armavirumque: I can't take the placement test in Latin, but would you recommend taking Latin classes? Are they easier and/or more interesting than Spanish?</p>
<p>arma: what was your experience with the Latin placement test as compared to, say, the NLE or the AP Vergil Test? Anything particular I should study?</p>
<p>Yeah, Latin can be used for the language requirement. I guess they couldn't very well remove it, what with the salutatorian giving his speech in Latin and all.</p>
<p>The Latin placement test is not one of those online things. It's quite an informal deal, just one page of questions and a test booklet. I didn't go to high school in the US, so I don't know about the NLE or AP, though I imagine that if you read Vergil in high school, you shouldn't have much trouble with translating a few sentences and a prose passage. Um ... know your gerunds from your gerundives? Other than that, just put your Latin cap on.</p>
<p>The Latin classes for the language requirement go 101, 102, 105, 108. You can place out of the requirement altogether - meaning you can take 200-level classes, or place into 105 (Catullus and Cicero) for the fall. There is also a LAT 104, which is 105 with a bit of review, and a LAT 103, which is the Latin equivalent of what is known as "Turbo Greek" (basically 101 and 102 rolled into one semester).</p>
<p>I may be slightly biased, but I recommend Latin to anyone and everyone. The Classics department is really wonderful, and classes are small (my 105 class had 5 people, including the professor). There is very little stress, with mostly just reading to be done out of class and maybe one or two papers per semester.</p>
<p>I might also mention the Steinecke Prize (or some variation thereof; I don't quite remember how to spell it) for the ambitious. It's an annual examination on Horace and Pindar (I think). The winner gets $1000 per year afterwards.</p>