MinivanMom Posted October 30, 2015 Share Posted October 30, 2015 Does anyone have advice on which level to take? I don't have any Latin experience myself, so I'm feeling a little lost here. My daughter is working through Latin Alive 1 independently, and she will have completed through Ch.22 by the time of the exam. The author/publisher's suggestion for taking the National Latin Exam is to take the Latin 1 test after Latin Alive 1, Latin 2 test after LA2, etc. But I'm looking at the syllabus on the NLE website and thinking that she should probably take Introduction to Latin, because she won't have covered everything on Latin 1 yet. Then she would take the Latin 1 test after Latin Alive 2, and she would take the Latin 2 test after Latin Alive 3. To me that makes more sense, because Latin Alive takes 3 years to cover the material in Wheelock's. Our tentative plan is for her to switch to an online Latin 3 class after she completes all 3 levels of Latin Alive. Am I off on this? Does anyone know what some of the online Latin classes suggest as far as the timing for the exams? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stellalarella Posted October 30, 2015 Share Posted October 30, 2015 The NLE provides many years of previous tests to download. I would simply print out several of those and let her try it out. Also, you can also sign her up for both the intro and the Latin 1. It's not like the tests take forever to take, so it isn't a problem to do both in one afternoon. I was glad we did the NLE last year. It was a great motivator. Hope that helps. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
happypamama Posted October 30, 2015 Share Posted October 30, 2015 If this helps you at all, DD is partway through the last level of Latin's Not So Tough. She will do Latin Alive 1 next. Of the material in Latin Alive 1, most of it will be review for her, but a little vocabulary and some of the cultural stuff will be new. I gave her this year's NLE, just to see how she did. She missed two on the intro level test (one of which I didn't know either because we have not covered that grammar yet, although I was able to figure it out) and got 87% on the level one test. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ali in OR Posted November 1, 2015 Share Posted November 1, 2015 I remember that dd took the tests as you indicated--Intro after Latin Alive 1 (actually wasn't done with 1 yet as test is in March; she probably finished in late May), Level 1 when most of the way through LA2, and then she took an on-line Latin 200 level class with Lone Pine Classical and took Level 2 that year. This seemed to work well for her. Perhaps she could have done okay on Level 1 when she took Intro, but I don't think she could have done Level 2 the next year. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Corraleno Posted November 2, 2015 Share Posted November 2, 2015 Does anyone have advice on which level to take? I don't have any Latin experience myself, so I'm feeling a little lost here. My daughter is working through Latin Alive 1 independently, and she will have completed through Ch.22 by the time of the exam. The author/publisher's suggestion for taking the National Latin Exam is to take the Latin 1 test after Latin Alive 1, Latin 2 test after LA2, etc. But I'm looking at the syllabus on the NLE website and thinking that she should probably take Introduction to Latin, because she won't have covered everything on Latin 1 yet. Then she would take the Latin 1 test after Latin Alive 2, and she would take the Latin 2 test after Latin Alive 3. To me that makes more sense, because Latin Alive takes 3 years to cover the material in Wheelock's. Our tentative plan is for her to switch to an online Latin 3 class after she completes all 3 levels of Latin Alive. Am I off on this? Does anyone know what some of the online Latin classes suggest as far as the timing for the exams? The NLE is written with the understanding that students have not completed a full year of instruction at the designated level, since the exam is given in March, so the fact that a students hasn't completed Latin 1 shouldn't preclude them from taking the Latin I exam. However, if you plan to enroll your DD in an online Latin 3 class, and you have an idea of which provider you might use, I would check to see which level of the NLE they do in which class. For example, Lukeion's Latin 3 class does the Latin III/IV Prose exam, not the Latin III exam. Other providers may do the Latin III exam in their Latin 3 class, and do the Prose exam in Latin 4. If the provider you're likely to use for the Latin 3 class does the Latin III NLE, then I would have your DD do the Intro exam with Latin Alive 1, so she will be on the same track as the online classes. (I don't know if ACL allows students to repeat NLE exams below the Prose level? I know they don't with Greek.) OTOH, if the online class does the Latin Prose exam in Latin 3 then you might want to go ahead and try the Latin I exam this year, since there are no medals for the Intro exam (which is generally taken in middle school), so a good score won't really "earn" anything she can put on a college application. I hope that's not too confusing! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MinivanMom Posted November 3, 2015 Author Share Posted November 3, 2015 We are looking at potentially transitioning into Lukeion's Latin 3, so it might make sense to go ahead and have her take Latin 1 this year. Then she could take Latin 2 after LA2 and Latin 3 after LA3, before transitioning to Lukeion and taking Latin III/IV Prose. I've really only been looking closely at the syllabus for the Latin 1 exam, but I should probably be comparing what Latin Alive 2 covers to the Latin 2 syllabus as well. I think I'll also have dd take the the Intro and Latin 1 tests to see how she does. She likes to be well prepared for exams, so she may have a strong opinion one way or the other. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MinivanMom Posted November 3, 2015 Author Share Posted November 3, 2015 I remember that dd took the tests as you indicated--Intro after Latin Alive 1 (actually wasn't done with 1 yet as test is in March; she probably finished in late May), Level 1 when most of the way through LA2, and then she took an on-line Latin 200 level class with Lone Pine Classical and took Level 2 that year. This seemed to work well for her. Perhaps she could have done okay on Level 1 when she took Intro, but I don't think she could have done Level 2 the next year. Why don't you think she could have done Level 2? Was it because Latin Alive 2 doesn't cover everything on the Latin 2 exam or was it because she hadn't finished the entire book? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ali in OR Posted November 3, 2015 Share Posted November 3, 2015 This was a couple of years ago, so I may not be remembering it perfectly. I do remember that she was completely on her own for LA2 (I had been able to stay with her through LA1 but couldn't keep up anymore). She was teaching herself from the DVD and I don't think she was really mastering it at a level to do well on NLE 2. She did great on it the next year with Lone Pine and that online class really helped her grow leaps and bounds with how she "thought" in Latin. And it was just nice to finally have a teacher who knew what she was doing (instead of me). 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RootAnn Posted November 4, 2015 Share Posted November 4, 2015 I don't want to derail, but has anyone done the online vs. paper? That's a new option since the last time I looked at the NLE. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MinivanMom Posted November 4, 2015 Author Share Posted November 4, 2015 I was wondering that also. I was leaning toward doing the paper exam, because I'm always afraid of running into glitches with online tests. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dmmetler Posted November 5, 2015 Share Posted November 5, 2015 We've done the online NCEE the last 2 years, and it's been quite smooth. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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