How did your child prepare for the National Latin Exam?

[iteachmine]

My dd will be taking the NLE in March. Does anyone have preparation suggestions? She is currently in Henle I and doing well.

 

Thanks

[Jane in NC]

First off, I would download a couple of exams from the NLE website so that she knows what to expect. Secondly, I may be wrong, but Henle is more grammar driven than reading based, right? Part of the NLE is reading a passage and then answering questions on it. Your daughter's comfort level with this skill will be evident from the sample tests. If she feels uncertain of this, perhaps you could borrow a Latin text from someone (Cambridge or Oxford, for example) or buy an introductory reader from Bolchazy that works on reading comprehension.

 

A number of the NLE questions will be on Roman history and culture. My son has been exposed to these things in his text, but I have had him look over some historical and cultural material in an alternative text previously. Most textbooks eventually cover the same stuff--just not in the same order. The NLE uses no one preferred text so I have felt the need to glance at the syllabus (again on the website) and spend maybe an hour or two looking over some alternate materials.

 

Good luck to her!

Jane

[Anne/Ankara]

We've done the Intro, and Latin I version so far, and I think the reading based programs with Roman Culture (such as Oxford Latin or Cambridge Latin) were good backgrounds, as well as looking through the old exams. We bought the book of all the old tests, which has more than the ones posted on their website, and just going through those tests was a good experience.

[mcconnellboys]

I agree with all the info Jane provided. Because we covered so much of Roman culture and mythology in our history/lit studies, I didn't worry about that part of the exams. We used Latin Primer/Grammar series, which combined the grammar and translation work in them. We always just printed off all the sample tests and he studied from those.

 

Regena