Classics - Greek. Is it really really hard for GCSE?

30 replies

RatherBeOnThePiste · 08/03/2010 16:23

DD very keen to do this for GCSE, is loving Latin, but we have heard Greek is really tough. She has no knowledge about what it will be like except she really rather fancies it.

Has anyone's DC done Greek, or are they doing it?

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Original poster

RatherBeOnThePiste · 08/03/2010 18:39

They are having a proper trial of it soon, which sounds like a good thing, they have a done a v little taster so far.

I loved Latin - Caecelius est in via and all that, but Greek is out of my experience!

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EggyAllenPoe · 08/03/2010 18:34

Greek i found much easier than french/german because if it is roughly the same as it was 15 years ago - there is a vocab sheet of maybe 400 words and you get to translate something relatively easy in the exam.

the main difficulty is the high quality of candidates taking the exam, therefore setting the bar pretty high.

once you have learned that alphabet it sticks - its not that much of a bar to learning.

DarrellRivers · 08/03/2010 18:26

I started off doing GCSE Latin and Greek, but dropped the Greek, for me it was the new alphabet which threw things
She could try doing it and see

pagwatch · 08/03/2010 18:24

My DS1 did a year of greek but dropped it before GCSE. He really enjoyed it but didn't want latin plus classics plus greek.
He actually found it easier than Latin .

I agree that classic civs may be a better bet if she hasn't done greek before but knows she likes latin

Milliways · 08/03/2010 18:20

My DS had a taster of Ancient Greek (half a term before options chosen) and found the weird alphabet too hard for his head to cope with for translations - but he IS enjoying Latin.

The alternative, which those doing seem to love, is Classical Civilisation, involving a lot of history with some Greek & Latin but no translations required.

I am glad they were given taster lessons before committing to the whole GCSE!

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