Ancient Greek to gcse

[Wobbles21]

Wondered if anyone had experience of starting Ancient Greek in year 9 and taking it to gcse. DS has this option : it would be a small group for 2 hours a week at school and would mean his gcse choices were language heavy: french, German, Latin and Greek.
Wonder if this is really doable?
TIA

[elfonshelf]

Also presumably there's no spoken component. I did both French and Latin at A-level equivalent (in another country) and the Latin was at a more complex level grammatically and vocabulary-wise because we didn't spend time on speaking, pronouncation etc.

There's no spoken component at all - although I believe there was a school teaching it as a spoken language at one point due to a quirky teacher. I wish it had been taught as a spoken one - agree that might also have meant less of the pesky grammar. But would you teach it like an MFL or as an ancient language... would be rather fun to be able to buy a chariot ticket and order beer and chips!

I moved to Italy in my mid-20's for a job speaking not a word of Italian and my Latin came in very handy then - my colleagues were very entertained by my apparent knowledge of archaic Italian... till they worked out what I was doing.

DD is starting Latin next year with any luck (waiting on 11+ results) and will need to speedily catch up to the rest of the class - I'm rather looking forward to helping with that homework.

[NeverDropYourMoonCup]

How do kids manage only studying a subject for two years?

Same way lots managed Business Studies, Economics, Psychology, Law, Sociology, PE, Child Development, Textiles, Graphics, Computer Studies, Music Tech, Media Studies or any other subject that wasn't part of the curriculum at a younger age.

Transferable skills and decent teaching materials/a teacher that can read a course specification.

[ghislaine]

Also presumably there's no spoken component. I did both French and Latin at A-level equivalent (in another country) and the Latin was at a more complex level grammatically and vocabulary-wise because we didn't spend time on speaking, pronouncation etc.

[hoodiemum]

As other posters have said, GCSE/O level Greek was doable in a year in Sixth Form without too much pain if you had strong Latin and were motivated. And A level Latin was probably my easiest A level - just depends on the type of brain you have, standard of teaching, etc.
Now trying to learn modern Greek, with a much older brain, and am finding it much much harder.

[Fleurchamp]

I did Ancient Greek GCSE alongside A Level Latin (back in the 90's!) - the teacher did it in her own time and so we probably had an hour a week with her and then we studied together/ on our own the rest of the time. It started out as an introduction to Ancient Greek for those of us considering studying classics at university but several of us decided to take the GCSE and we covered the course material in a year.

[elfonshelf]

Hmmm, funnily enough I still have my copies of my exam papers from GCSE... a quick compare online and WAY, WAY HARDER is not exactly accurate.

[legoninjago1]

I don't think Ancient Greek GCSE itself could be 'way way harder' than it was in the 90s. I mean, for our GCSE course we needed to learn the language (30 different versions of the word 'the' as I recall!) from scratch and know the Odyssey inside out. Could it be 'way way harder' than that?! If it is I'd give it a wide berth!

[RhymingRabbit3]

I did GCSE Latin in 2 years, 2 hours a week. If it's a small class of able students (sounds like this is the case) then it's definitely doable.

[TeddTess]

soz. slightly over reacted - just had this a lot when ds was trying to choose his options.

[Michaelahpurple]

V helpful comments -thanks.

And, ahem, I did O'levels so am feeling v ancient now, geek or otherwise

[TeddTess]

Bear in mind that I did A Levels back in 1990

seriously unhelpful comment.
GCSEs are WAY WAY harder than they were back when we did them in the 90s.

[TeddTess]

He started Greek in yr9

[TeddTess]

ds is doing ancient Greek & latin for GCSE. It is taught in one timetable slot to the top set Latin. Perfectly doable. Plus 2 MFL. And no, not considering languages for A level .

[fishonabicycle]

I had a go at learning ancient Greek in evening classes - it was really difficult, and took a lot of learning by heart. But I was a fair bit older, and working long hours too.

[legoninjago1]

Well it's a while ago now, but I did Ancient Greek GCSE and I'm fairly positive we started it in Year 10 and took the exam at the end of Year 11. So a two year course. We studied the Odyssey and there were only 3 of us in the group. You had to have reached a certain standard in Latin which we had started in Year 8. I enjoyed it and got a B at GCSE. I think all 3 of us did actually. This was in the 90s though ;)

[elfonshelf]

Bear in mind that I did A Levels back in 1990 - and my DD is still at primary so it may well have changed.

The jump from GCSE was massive and the sheer amount of work was huge. It was a language, a history and a literature A level all rolled into one.

If you are someone who is keen on grammar and really getting to grips with the intricacies of the language then it will be a lot easier than if you are someone like me who managed to not bother with the drudge of the grammar and still do extremely well at GCSE (mainly because I was hugely interested in the history side and knew a lot of Roman myths so translation was pretty simple). I did a lot of relearning during those two years.

If I'd just be chasing a grade then it would have been a lot less work to have done a number of other subjects. Latin was definitely the one that took the most time.

[Michaelahpurple]

@elfonshelf Can you comment more on the Latin a level being grim point? Although my DS is muttering vaguely about geek A level to support an english degree application (early days as not yet tackled gcse)

[ProggyMat]

She also wants to do Ancient History or Class CiV.
Not a lot of choice in our neck of the woods.
Thanks for the reading tip elfonshelf

[elfonshelf]

If you want to do classics then it's a no brainer, but if you are doing it because you find Latin GCSE fun and easy, then I would pick something else!

I did Latin and Ancient History - they went very well together. But oh how I wish that Robert Harris's Cicero trilogy had been around back then - brought so much of what I studied to life.

Good luck to your DD!

[ProggyMat]

Latin A level is a complete nightmare and I wouldn’t recommend it unless you are heading for a classics degree
My DD wants to do Latin and Ancient Greek at A level with a view to read classics!

[HermioneWeasley]

I did it, if you’ve got a good grounding in Latin, it’s very transferable. I really enjoyed it

[kitk]

I did four languages at GCSE, albeit not Ancient Greek or Latin and it didn't narrow my chances. I was just better at/ enjoyed languages more than anything else

[elfonshelf]

Be aware that half the marks in Latin and Greek are for the literature paper which I believe everyone tackles by memorising the english translation , so this has to be bearable too.

I didn't know that everyone had figured that out!

Having done Latin and Ancient Greek alongside 2 other languages, it's definitely doable. I would highly recommend reading lots of Greek myths on the side - so much easier to do the translations when you know the gist of the stories and you can then have a good guess at the words you don't know!

Latin A Level is a complete nightmare though and I wouldn't recommend it unless you are heading for a classics degree.

[Michaelahpurple]

I think it would be hard if they hadn't got some latin under their belt but otherwise c doable.

On languages at gcse, I think it is a bit all or nothing. My boys have always found french to be v painful and have needed/will need respectively lots of propping up to get the grade they wanted at gcse, and I am pretty poor too. However, I can see that if one has any genuine talent at languages GCSEs are ludicrously easy. DS1 got his 8 whilst having virtually no ability to speak the language. It is very formulaic, with a clear topic range and if well taught must be sooooo easy for decent linguists.

So, if you child finds has an ability at languages and isn't thrown by learning vocab in multiple languages, I think that could be a cunning way to do well in overall grades.

Be aware that half the marks in Latin and Greek are for the literature paper which I believe everyone tackles by memorising the english translation , so this has to be bearable too.

[Londonmummy66]

I did it from zero to O level in a year - it's really possible if he is good at Latin as the grammar is not dissimilar. DC2 is taking GCSE this summer having started it in Yr10 (and does it as an extra curricular).