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5. 2013 HSC Notes from the Marking Centre — Classical Greek Extension

2013 Notes from the Marking Centre – Classical Greek Extension

Introduction

This document has been produced for the teachers and candidates of the Stage 6 Classical Greek Extension course. It contains comments on candidate responses to the 2013 Higher School Certificate examination, indicating the quality of the responses and highlighting their relative strengths and weaknesses.

This document should be read along with:

• the Classical Greek Extension Stage 6 Syllabus
• the 2013 Higher School Certificate Classical Greek Extension examination
• the marking guidelines
• Advice for HSC students about examinations
• other support documents developed by the Board of Studies, Teaching and Educational Standards NSW to assist in the teaching and learning of Classical Greek in Stage 6.

Section I – Prescribed Text – Homer, Iliad XXII and XXIV

Characteristics of better responses:

• translations of the extract demonstrated a thorough understanding of the many Homeric forms in the extract and chose English words appropriate to the context (Q.1)
• responses to questions accompanying extracts demonstrated that the candidate knew the Greek text thoroughly and then had used that knowledge to explain how the intensity of the speaker’s emotions is revealed and how the language contributes to the dramatic effect (Q.2aii)
• in the essay candidates knew both Book XXII and Book XXIV thoroughly, and gave a range of examples of the events in the former that anticipated those of the latter (Q.3).

Characteristics of weaker responses:

• there were a number of mistakes in translating the seen extract, for example:
  • they had Achilles gently pushing away the hand of the old man rather than the old man himself (line 508)
  • they had him ‘then weeping for Patroclus’ instead of ‘at times weeping ...’ (line 511)
  • ‘their groans roused the house’ instead of ‘rose through the house’ (line 512)
  • ‘his desire had gone from his body and limbs’ instead of ‘from his mind and limbs’ (line 514)
  • ‘your heart is now iron’ instead of ‘surely your heart is iron’ (line 521)
  • the last word of line 522 was either left out or mistranslated when it means ‘nevertheless’
  • ‘there is no action ...’ instead of ‘no advantage ...’ (line 524)
  • the gods were said to be ‘careless’ or ‘uncaring’ rather than ‘carefree’ (line 526) (Q.1)
• responses to questions accompanying extracts relied on general knowledge related to the extract rather than a thorough understanding of the Greek
• responses either focused too much on Book XXIV or dealt with only one issue, for example the role of the gods. Some did not deal with the way Book XXII anticipates Book XXIV, but just described the kinds of things that happen in the former that are the same as in the latter (Q.3).

Section II – Non-prescribed Text

Characteristics of better responses:

• translations paid close attention to every word in the Greek text and demonstrated an excellent knowledge of both the vocabulary and the Homeric forms, though even many of these candidates wrote ‘but all the other gods will not praise you’ instead of ‘but all we other gods ...’ (line 443) and ‘until they come to the people of broad Lycia’ instead of ‘… the region of broad Lycia’ (line 455) (Q.4aiv).

Characteristics of weaker responses:

• translations omitted words, for example ‘again’ (line 442) and ‘then’ (line 446)
• candidates struggled with the infinitives of line 454 and were not able to translate ‘send both Death and sweet Sleep to carry him’
• the imperative of line 444 ‘and you place it in your mind’ was not recognised
• the last clause of line 457 proved problematic (Q.4aiv).