Tips for Translation Tests

 

Methods for Studying Translations

1)  Most importantly, study a little bit each day 

2)  Study in small sections

3)  Mark off the passage

          a. Prepositional phrases go in parentheses

          b. Double underline verbs

          c. Circle subjects

          d. Draw arrows to modifiers

          e. Brackets around indirect statements/clauses

4) Three times the charm:

          a. First time, go over the passage while looking at the translation (***do this in small chunks)

                 i. You may need to do this more than once if the vocab or grammatical structure is tricky

          b. Second time, try to translate without the passage (but you can still look at the passage if you need help with a word or two)

          c. Third time, translate without the translation at hand. If you get stuck on a word, make a blank space and                   move on. Once you are done with the passage, fill in the word, and make a separate list on a sticky note of the words you don’t know and key in on those

***note: you may have to repeat any one of these steps multiple times. Just repeat step “c” until you know the passage inside and out :)

5) Vocab can be difficult to remember (especially in Vergil), so highlight the words you do not know in the Latin text and every time before you start actually translating, see if you can remember those words by themselves. Also, remembering the dictionary entries for words may seem like a hassle now, but it is extremely important for translating not only this passage, but also future passages/multiple choice.