RCA henle?? National Latin Exam?

[dirty ethel rackham]

Anyone else here take Henle Latin from Regina Coeli? I am concerned about the pace. My oldest has been taking Wheelocks from them and doing pretty well. I decided to do Henle for ds13 because he was a little less experienced and a little less talented in languages. They only offer a level I and a level II, which leads me to believe that they will cover the entire book in two years. Ds is only in unit 2 out of 14.

 

Well, here is the kicker... RCA brags about how well their students do on the National Latin Exam so I signed up both kids - my oldest for Latin II and this son for Intro to Latin. We did a practice exam from years past just to get them used to how to do it. Well, ds13, who is taking Henle, bombed the Intro test. I am shocked. He is getting an A. This class came highly recommended. Did they really cover so little?

[frogpond1]

Perhaps it was just confusion about exam format. I'm assuming he bombed a practice one. Try another practice one.

[Heather in AL]

Have him go back and see if he can figure out what he missed. My ds is in an online Latin I class, and his instructor told the class that the NLE isn't based on one particular curriculum, so there could be major discrepancies with vocab, for instance. My son has taken three old tests and bombed the first one (he has a high A in his class), and did a bit better on the second one. The third one, he only missed four questions.

 

My son did notice that there was more than just the grammar/nouns on there... he said some of the geography he knew from playing a computer game, some questions he knew from listening to Roman history podcasts, and some questions he knew from other sources, one being the Percy Jackson Lightning Thief book!! That book apparently helped with the mythology questions.

 

Have your son look over the test he took and have him take another couple.... as I said, my ds did that. He is also, today, going to be making notes/index cards of what he missed to help prepare.

 

Oh, did you get a syllabus of what could be asked? Numbers is one thing my ds hadn't done yet (remember, he's in Latin I)... not the usual Roman numerals, but 'first', 'second', 'fifth', etc.

 

I don't know what's on the Latin II test, but the Latin I test taker is expected to know all that's on the Intro exam, and the Latin II taker is expected to know all that's on the intro test and the Latin I test.

 

ETA: My son is using Wheelock's and is at chapter 15.

 

HTH!!

Edited March 4, 2010 by Heather in AL
to add curriculum info

[ereks mom]

Since your ds's Latin class is moving slowly, perhaps he should take the Intro test. According to this chart on the NLE website, if a student is in the first year of a 2 year Latin 1 course, he should take the Intro test.

[at the beach]

Hi, Ellen, My daughter is in the Henle I class with RCA. She also has an "A." And I have wondered about the pace myself. However, she does spend time studying every day and it's not like it's so slow that she's not spending time at it or needing to study if that makes sense.

 

My dd is also taking some practice NLE exams (right now, in fact). I am worried about the same type of stuff with regard to the exam as you are. Not quite sure what she can do to prep other than do the practice exams and hope for the best. :tongue_smilie:

 

However, as for the pacing of the course, my child stated that the teacher told them it is important to go slowly for the first unit because if you have a good background it is worth it because it will help you later. She said that now that they are in Unit 2, they will be moving faster. I also noticed that after Henle II, it appears as though the Wheelock's students and the Henle students are merged into a Latin Literature course. It looks as though the Wheelock's and Henle students buy different texts if you look at the books used in the Latin Lit course. I've wondered how this is done.

 

I also had my child take a workshop with Lukeion, Meet the Romans, to help her prepare.

 

It's a relief and not a relief that the material they test on doesn't come from one place. It's good to know that no one method or course will be explicitly used to base questions off of, but it's also not so good in that it's hard to figure out what exactly a kid should be studying. I know that for Roman numerals, my dd has done this in Rod and Staff math, so no worries there at least. ;) With mythology, she's currently taking Lukeion's Classical Mythology, so I hope that will help her with some things.

 

I just hope she finds it "okay" because I don't want to scare her with testing.

[dirty ethel rackham]

Thanks for your replies.

 

My concern is that, when ds and I were deciding on which exam he should take - Intro to Latin, or Latin I, we looked at what the exams covered vs. what was being covered in class. Ds pointed out that, up to that point, they had only covered nouns. As of now, they are just starting to learn adjectives. He hadn't learned much else of what was covered in the Intro to Latin exam as far as the language was concerned. The culture and civilization was well covered in our studies of the Ancients over the years, so he got all those questions right.

 

Well, we are sitting down to take the exam now, so we shall see:).

[dirty ethel rackham]

Since your ds's Latin class is moving slowly, perhaps he should take the Intro test. According to this chart on the NLE website, if a student is in the first year of a 2 year Latin 1 course, he should take the Intro test.

 

He is taking the Intro to Latin test. However, since RCA Henle goes so slowly through the first unit, they have only covered nouns and are just starting adjectives. This means that the questions about verb endings are going to be a crap shoot:). Oh well, he is only in 8th grade. We have years to go on this. This will just be a practice year.

[dirty ethel rackham]

Hi, Ellen, My daughter is in the Henle I class with RCA. She also has an "A." And I have wondered about the pace myself.

 

<snip>

 

However, as for the pacing of the course, my child stated that the teacher told them it is important to go slowly for the first unit because if you have a good background it is worth it because it will help you later. She said that now that they are in Unit 2, they will be moving faster.

 

Okay, that explains it. My son did not remember Mag saying this, but it makes sense.

 

I also noticed that after Henle II, it appears as though the Wheelock's students and the Henle students are merged into a Latin Literature course. It looks as though the Wheelock's and Henle students buy different texts if you look at the books used in the Latin Lit course. I've wondered how this is done.

 

Interesting. I need to read over the RCA courses a little more closely. I just found the placement chart on the website - very informative:).

 

As far as the non-language stuff (culture and civilization and Latin in Use) we covered them throughout the years in our studies of the Ancients and in our vocab studies.

[ereks mom]

Oops! Sorry! I should've read more carefully. ;)

[SonshineLearner]

I know that when my daughter took the SAT Latin subject test, she was surprised at the amount she did not know... Vocabulary and more that was a surprise. She's a smart cookie... we had used Henle :-)

[LilyJane6]

Lots of times when kids take tests, it makes sense to prep them specifically for the test, even when they might have covered a lot of the material that's on it.

 

This is especially true for AP Latin tests, but also true for the NLE and SAT 2... Some books are available: There are some really good AP books out there for example. But for NLE or SAT 2 it's probably better to get a Latin tutor. Latintutor.net has specific test-prep courses, if the online approach appeals to you.

 

Also, don't forget a little test-taking strategy work can go a long way!