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2014 Notes from the Marking Centre – Latin Continuers

Introduction

This document has been produced for the teachers and candidates of the Stage 6 Latin Continuers course. It contains comments on candidate responses to the 2014 Higher School Certificate examination, indicating the quality of the responses and highlighting their relative strengths and weaknesses.
This document should be read along with:

Section I – Prescribed Text – Livy, Ab Urbe Condita, Book V

Candidates showed strength in these areas:

  • familiarity with the prescribed text as a whole (Q.3, Q.4)
  • understanding Livy’s general purpose and narrative technique (Q.3, Q.4)
  • understanding the context of the given extracts (Q.3).

Candidates need to improve in these areas:

  • providing a fluent and coherent translation which accounts for every word in the extract and accurately interprets the relationship between words and structures (Q.1)
  • making appropriate reference to both extracts given, and demonstrating familiarity with the context (Q.4)
  • supporting the response with relevant examples from other episodes in Book V apart from the two extracts given as initial stimulus (Q.4)
  • providing a logical and cohesive response, effectively linking supporting examples to the question and drawing out implications (Q.4).

Section II – Prescribed Text – Virgil, Aeneid XII

Candidates showed strength in these areas:

  • familiarity with Virgil’s style (Q.7)
  • knowing and applying the rules of scansion (Q.7)
  • familiarity with the themes and plot of Book XII (Q. 8).

Candidates need to improve in these areas:

  • providing a fluent and coherent translation which accounts for every word in the extract and accurately interpreting the relationship between words and structures (Q.5)
  • taking careful note of the wording of the question: for example, candidates were required to identify what Aeneas was doing when he heard the name of Turnus, not what he was going to do after hearing it (Q.7a)
  • making clear and legible markings when scanning lines and not forgetting the caesura (Q.7 b)
  • taking into account the entirety of an extract when it is given and making appropriate reference to it (Q.7d)
  • confining their response to the requirements of the question: for example, analysing how the extract in Q.7 acts as a conclusion to Book XII, not the entire Aeneid
  • providing a cohesive and balanced response, which gives appropriate consideration to both the extract given and other relevant sections of Book XII (Q.8).

Section III – Unseen Texts

Candidates showed strength in these areas:

  • making use of the dictionary entries given for the vocabulary (Q.9f, Q.10f).

Candidates need to improve in these areas:

  • using vocabulary appropriate to context (Q.9f, Q.10f)
  • understanding the relationship between words and structures (Q.9f, Q.10f)
  • taking into account the connection between the identification/analysis of items in the short-answer questions and the way in which those same items are translated in the extract (Q.9, Q.10).
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