SAT Subject Test*Latin -v- NLE Latin Test

[SonshineLearner]

So, if you had a daughter in 11th, would you suggest the SAT Subject Test or the NLE Latin Test. Also, how far did your student go in Latin before taking the test....(and which one did they take?) and what curriculum did you end up using for most of your Latin studies?

 

Did they find Latin Vocabulary to be what they expected? Any Hints? And what Roman History did they study?

 

Thanks for any Hints... (She'll be through Henle Book I and studying further...before she takes it)

 

Thanks,

Carrie

[latinteach]

So, if you had a daughter in 11th, would you suggest the SAT Subject Test or the NLE Latin Test. Also, how far did your student go in Latin before taking the test....(and which one did they take?) and what curriculum did you end up using for most of your Latin studies?

 

 

The NLE and SAT Subject Test are very different tests. The SAT Subject Test is administered by the College Board, like the AP Exam. The SAT Subject Test tends to focus more on grammar than the AP Exam, which is a capstone literature exam, based on a set author (currently Vergil, but will include Caesar in the future.) The AP has plenty of grammar questions too, though.

 

The NLE is administed by the American Classical League and the National Junior Classicla League. It is actually considered a "contest or activity": the National Association of Secondary School Principals has voted to place the National Latin Exam on the Advisory List of National Contests and Activities for 2008-2009.

 

The SAT and AP exams carry the possibility of college credit. Some schools award credit in a subject based upon the score.

 

The NLE carries the possibility of awards (medals, certificates, book awards, and at the higher levels, scholarships).

 

The SAT and AP have higher fees. The NLE is an inexpensive exam to take. It's likely that if a student is taking the SAT or AP exam, they would also take the NLE.

 

http://www.nle.org (National Latin Exam)

 

http://www.collegeboard.com/student/testing/sat/lc_two/latin/latin.html

(SAT Subject Test, Latin)

 

http://www.collegeboard.com/student/testing/ap/latin_vergil/exam.html?latinvergil

(AP Latin Vergil)

 

(There's also a site for AP Latin Lit, but that test has been discontinued.)

 

Hope this helps.

Edited July 11, 2009 by latinteach

[Kathy in Richmond]

My kids both took the Latin SAT subject exam in grade 11.

 

At that stage, they'd already completed a study of Latin grammar. One used both levels of Artes Latinae, and the other used Henle books 1 & 2. They were currently reading original texts in Latin, studying for the AP Latin Literature exam.

 

It was still a challenging exam!! The subject test has questions on grammar, usage, derivatives, and several reading passages with questions. My best advice is to go to your favorite bookstore and take a look at the REA prep book for the Latin subject test (it's the only one for Latin that we've found useful). Also, take a look at the big College Board book that has samples of all the SAT subject tests - you'll get a better feel for the real thing.

 

We also take the NLE every year "for fun" - unlike the SAT, the NLE is offered on every level from introductory Latin to sixth year Latin. Early levels have a nice blend of grammar, history, geography, derivatives, mythology, and a reading passage. The upper levels move toward reading authentic Latin prose and poetry. The exams are not correlated toward any particulary curriculum, so to place your daughter in a level, it's best to look at the previous exam samples on the NLE website (scroll down to the bottom of the page to see the samples).

 

As Latinteach explained, the SAT is useful toward college admissions and placement; the NLE is more of an academic extracurricular.

 

~Kathy

[Rita]

We also take the NLE every year "for fun" - unlike the SAT, the NLE is offered on every level from introductory Latin to sixth year Latin. Early levels have a nice blend of grammar, history, geography, derivatives, mythology, and a reading passage. The upper levels move toward reading authentic Latin prose and poetry. The exams are not correlated toward any particulary curriculum, so to place your daughter in a level, it's best to look at the previous exam samples on the NLE website (scroll down to the bottom of the page to see the samples).

 

 

~Kathy

 

We started Latin this year (middle school), and the NLE sounds fabulous for us!! thanks for sharing :)

 

Blessings,

Rita

[Kareni]

My teen (who has taken Latin in a local out of the home class) has just finished her 5th year of Latin. The instructor used Cambridge Latin I - IV for the first three years of Latin. Latin IV was an AP study; my daughter took an AP Latin exam that is no longer offered.

 

She took the NLE exam each year. This year, since she was a senior and scored a gold medal, she was eligible for a four year renewable scholarship. (The scholarship requires that a student take a certain amount of Latin or Greek each year in college.)

 

The year that she took AP Latin, she also took the SAT subject test in Latin. For the SAT test preparation, in addition to the REA book mentioned above, she also used, and her Latin instructor recommends, Excelability in Advanced Latin. She scored a 5 on the AP exam and a 740 on the SAT subject test.

 

Regards,

Kareni

[SonshineLearner]

Even though I'm still interested in any other opinions and don't want to kill the thread if anyone has more comments, I just wanted to say a big "Thanks!" for all these hints!!

Carrie

[Kathy in Richmond]

Hi Laurel,

 

After the Artes 2, my son spent a year on Henle Volume 3 and then transitioned to AP Latin.

 

However, since then, Bolchazy-Carducci has come out with a series of Legamus transitional readers for several authors(Catullus, Vergil, Ovid, Horace, Cicero). My dd used one of these a couple of years ago. They are terrific for transitioning from the Latin 2 level to reading authentic Latin. They're filled with special reading helps (eg, different fonts show which words in the text modify each other) and lots of exercises. By the end of the books, the "special helps" start to transition out and the student finds himself reading the real thing!

 

I'd highly recommend spending a year with this series (each volume lasts us about two months, but ymmv), supplemented by the Excelability in Advanced Latin workbook to keep grammar and usage skills fresh. The kids did one lesson in Excelability per week, and the text lasted them for two to three years each (throughout their AP Latin years).

 

These books are all available on Bolchazy's website.

 

hth,

 

~Kathy

[latinteach]

My ds is doing Artes Latinae 2 this year and I am at a bit of a loss what to do next after that program.

 

After Artes Latinae 2, your ds should be ready to start transitioning to original authors. If he plans to take the Advanced Placement Latin exam, then he should probably consider working toward Vergil's Aeneid.

 

http://www.collegeboard.com/student/testing/ap/sub_latinverg.html

 

If and when he decides to take the AP Latin exam, it will either cover Vergil only or it will include Vergil and Caesar. The current syllabus includes only Vergil, but in several years it will also include Caesar, although no decision has been made by the College Board regarding which works by Caesar (either De Bello Civili or De Bello Gallico, or both) will be on the exam.

 

You can read more about the SAT subject exam here:

 

http://www.collegeboard.com/student/testing/sat/lc_two/latin/latin.html

 

The recommendation for that exam is 2-4 years worth of high school Latin, but you'll need to look carefully at the exam to decide if 2 years is sufficient. Since he's doing Artes Latinae, his sight reading should be good.

There are short passages of prose or poetry on the exam, so he should be reading some of both. You can download a copy of the test booklet there to see what the questions on the exams look like. Reading comprehension is definitely part of the test, but so is grammatical understanding.

 

The National Latin Exam is a good exam to take every year, no matter which test he decides upon. The NLE is inexpensive, excellent practice, and there are awards ranging from certificates and ribbons to book prizes and small scholarships.

 

Some good books to consider for transitioning to higher levels of Latin include the Vergil Legamus reader and the Vergil Workbook. There's a very good edition of Vergil's Aeneid for students by Clyde Pharr. There's also a Song of War by Richard A. LaFleur, which many people really like.

 

If he doesn't plan to do AP or the SAT Subject Exam, his options are greater for reading material and several companies (Bolchazy, Focus) publish transitional readers, workbooks and advanced readers for Latin with a variety of authors: Ovid, Catullus, Cicero, Martial, etc.

 

As for Caesar, there will probably be new offerings from publishers for Caesar in the next few years, but many Latin textbooks include readings from Caesar (Ecce Romani, Henle, Latin for Americans, So You Really Want to Learn Latin).