Ancient Greek GCSE - experiences?

[dylexicdementor11]

Does anyone have an LO that is taking or has done a GCSE in Ancient Greek? Did they enjoy it? How stressful was it compared to their other courses?

I did Ancient Greek GCSE in Sixth Form back in 1992!

It wasn’t officially on offer at my school but the Latin teacher taught me in lunch hours. I think I got a B.

Edited to add that I loved it, though I don’t remember much of it now.

Yes, my daughter took it (in the late 2000s) and I did too (in the 1970s). We both absolutely loved Greek. We both had a fair amount of Latin under our belts before we started Greek and we both went on to do Classics degrees (via Latin and Greek A levels). (My husband also took a Classics degree but only did Latin O level at school.)

I wouldn't say it was more stressful than any other exam I took. It's not an easy subject but if a school student is already doing well at Latin and has a good general aptitude for language learning s/he should be able to cope very well.

Thanks for sharing. What a wonderful teacher you had and I’m happy to hear that you loved it!

Thank you for sharing. It is very early days but my LO is dead-set on reading the Iliad in Homeric Greek. LO has a lovely Latin teacher and I think she has sparked the interest.

Thanks so much for sharing. You must be really proud of your DD!

Good for your LO! I hope she / he enjoys it.

Same!

Albeit slightly more recently. Partly because I took it up as a lunchtime club because it was indoors and warm, and was then too scared to ever quit.

I found it felt simpler than other GCSEs, but that might have been being a bit more mature and 6th form rather than gcse age. It was lovely to have some time each week on classical stories.

Loved it!

I am proud of my daughter and also of my husband, who taught her to GCSE! Her school offered Latin but not Greek, so after some consideration he agreed to teach her. It took about 2. 5 years and she got an A, so he did a very good job. She switched to another school for sixth form specifically so she could do Latin and Greek A level. I think that helped a great deal with her degree studies but it is perfectly possible these days to do a Classics degree without A levels in either Latin or Greek. Universities offer Beginners' courses in both languages.

I did it too in the late 90’s. Came to Latin first and like a previous poster had a passionate teacher who did it as an extra subject just for those of us interested. I adored it.

Thats the key though - if you love something and have a goal like reading the Iliad it’ll seem easy

Oooh I did Greek O level (old) as an extra – a group of us were keen and we did it in lunch hours. Latin was very popular at my school and most of the more able students took it for O level (even the sciencey ones). Greek was offered by the same teachers (who were also keen). All students had done Latin from age 11 and then some of us started Greek two years later – and I think petitioned for the chance to take the O level.

I was so inspired I took Ancient Greek A level! sadly another girl who was going to take it with me dropped out at the last minute and I ended up doing it on my own – I would not recommend this. But in many ways it was great. I did it alongside French and German A level and Spanish O level.

No more stressful than any other exam (except my last A level exam was after everyone else had finished, on 1 July (!) and it was the worst – Greek prose composition).

I love that your DD is keen @dylexicdementor11. I am not sure what the GCSE syllabus covers but for A level I read the first book and a half of Homer's Iliad (among several other texts). Obviously the syllabus will be different now as this was in 1982, but I presume the level of text would be similar and I imagine for GCSE it would be extracts at most. Homer is very heavy going.

But even all these years later I still think of Greek when I come across words that come from it (syllabus for example – straight from Greek).

I’m very impressed. It must have been a lovely experience for your DD and DH. Truly the act of a devoted parent!
DH and I will unfortunately not be able to help our LO, but I hope they are lucky enough to get an inspirational teacher.

Thank you. It does seem like classicist teachers are very committed to ensuring students enjoy their subjects.

Thank you for sharing your lovely experience.

https://www.ucl.ac.uk/arts-humanities/classics/study/clubs-and-societies/living-classical-languages-society

send your daughter down this rabbit hole. They kept me sane over lockdown with a Latin class I loved. Have some fun with it!

My son, at Independent School, as Greek and Latin are the gateway to a Classics Degree.
He was fine with it as an intellectual exercise he didn’t struggle with at all then did the Classics trip to Athens, Herculaneum, Rome with scholarly masters, loved it.

Yes, my DS is doing both Latin and Ancient Greek GCSEs, he is just going into Yr 11. It all started from his interest in Percy Jackson - at the time he wasn't in school (long story, autism related) and happened to have a home tutor who took that and ran with it. He really enjoys both subjects and doesn't seem to find it too stressful or hard but he is a linguist at heart I think! Words and language are just his thing.

I did Greek back in the 1990s (and loved it, even starting from scratch at the beginning of y10), and my stem-focused DS did it 5 years ago. It is a lot of learning but a fascinating language and wonderful to engage with the literature. My DS is now doing maths at university but has retained his fascination with language and the ancient world - and is now teaching himself Japanese. I think your DC should go for it 🙂

I did it for O level in 1883. I was desperate to do it but my not so D mother insisted I did Geography instead. I got the Classics teachers to cover year 1 Greek over the summer holidays and took the O level in a year. Went on to do A level and read Ancient History.

DD2 started it as a twilight subject but never really "got" it - IMO you either do get the grammar or you don't - and dumped it a week before her school shut for COVID. The school was unobliging enough to say that as she had given it up they wouldn't estimate a grade for her - B*&%$stards....

Yes, both of my DS are doing/have done Ancient Greek GCSE. I'm also a classicist. Personally, I think it's a little harder than Latin, but probably only really because you tend to start it later (I took Greek from scratch at university and found that pretty tough). My older DS found the Greek GCSE set texts a little trickier than the Latin set texts, I think probably because he started Greek in Year 9 rather than Year 7. But neither of them has found it at all stressful - they really enjoy it. I think enjoyment is the key - if you're interested and motivated, then that's the most important thing, and sounds like your LO will love it. (And you're right about classics teachers and classicists generally - they do tend to be passionate about their subject and eager to share their enthusiasm!)

I'm so impressed you've mastered the Internet at your great age! (Sorry, could not resist.)

I did Ancient Greek GCSE in the mid 90s and didn't find it any more difficult than any of my other GCSEs. And if she comes to it via Latin then she'll already be grounded in the sort of grammar you need to know. The alphabet comes pretty quickly as well. Small class sizes will also help!

Haha. I also want the secrets to your longevity.

I did Greek lit (in translation) O level during 6th alongside my A levels.
loved it and got an A. (A* obviously didn’t exist then).
Enjoyed the books and surprised how often knowledge of them has come in handy in real life.

We read the Odyssey (or part of it), lysistratra by Aristophanes, Oedipus Rex and something by Socrates. Was probably a little young to read Socrates as found it hard going but loved the other 3 books/plays.

I’m a Classics teacher and would absolutely recommend it! As previous posters have said, if your DD is already doing well at Latin and doesn’t find the grammar challenging, then she is likely to cope well with Greek too. The most difficult thing, in my opinion, is that pupils generally have less time to memorise roughly the same amount of vocabulary as they need for Latin (the OCR prescribed word lists include about 450 words for GCSE for both languages) - and Greek has a lot of irregular verbs, where the principal parts need to be learnt almost as separate vocab items, which increases the amount of rote learning required.

But a bright and interested pupil with an aptitude for languages shouldn’t find it a problem: the vast majority of the pupils I’ve taught over the past few years have got a 9, with a handful scoring 8s and two pupils getting a 7.

Thank you! Yes the small class sizes will be wonderful.