Any tips on how to revise/learn latin prose for GCSE?
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I'm studying Germanicus + Piso, Pythius, and Clodia but I'm pretty useless at learning any of it, I was wondering if anyone had any good tips?
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Make an account on here and create flashcards for the translation, rather like I've done for my Latin AS texts (here is an example of one such set I have created; I break the Latin sentences into easily learnt clauses: http://quizlet.com/11150402/latin-cicero-in-verrem-chapter-67-translation-flash-cards/ ).
Then just go and Learn the sets over and over until you can write the whole thing out. Make sure you do this part well; a translation question is usually much bigger is terms of marks allocated than the biggest mini essay questions. I know in AS it's 15 marks, I think it's the same for GCSE. If you learn the translation well, that's 15 marks guaranteed!
Once you can do that, just make sure you have the general gist of each poem and learn any style notes you have for the texts.
EDIT: For GCSE a translation is only worth 5 marks, but even still, you need to know what the sentences mean even if you are not asked to translate more than a few sentences, so learning the translation is still imperative!
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Hey i did my Latin GCSE last year translation in prose and verse is only worth 5 marks, in fact when i was doing my prose paper i'm pretty sure it had mistakes on and stuff wasn't in right order so i actually ended up not seeing the translation question, so didn't get to write a single word done to get a chance at any marks on it!
BUT i still managed to get a high A on that paper. SO i'd say don't overly focus on the translation! What got me through it was picking out and knowing loads of the different 'writers techniques' for effect and what you could write about them e.g. juxtapositions, alliterations, sounds of words possibly giving them further meaning, specific word orders (e.g. chiastic) giving further meaning etc.
Being able to talk about all that in your longer essay questions and relating specific techniques to answer the question, and knowing the text/story well enough to answer to shorter questions is what really helps!!! I would give my notes but you're doing different prose and verse this year, sorry.
But best of luck to you!!! And make sure you check for all the questions like i didnt!!!!
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There are already some complete flashcards for those set texts on www.quizlet.com if you don't want to make your own (as well as some incomplete ones):
I suggest learning vocab and phrases in this way - scatter is a good game when you don't know many words, and then you can try learn mode when you're more confident. Also, make use of the "override" button on learn mode, because to lose the answer purely for punctuation is stupid (especially considering that the orginal Latin didn't use punctuation).