Information for Schools entering candidates

Latin

All candidates now sit the ISEB Common Academic Scholarship paper. In addition candidates may elect to sit the recently instituted Hampton Supplementary paper, details of which are as set out below.

The paper contains three questions. Question 1 is an unprepared translation. Question 2 comprises an unseen passage accompanied by comprehension questions. Question 3 requires candidates to write about 15 lines on a 'Roman life' topic.

Vocabulary: all words not listed in the 13+ Common Entrance/Common Academic Scholarship defined vocabulary list (as revised, September 2001) will be glossed in the paper.

Required Standard: the exam will exceed ISEB Scholarship Standard in difficulty, e.g. in the use of subordinate clauses. It is designed to test not only candidates' knowledge but their linguistic ability, for instance in using what they know to work things out. General standards of literacy will be important, and credit will be given, e.g., for stylish translations and, in Question 3, evidence of thought and analysis (rather than the mere rehearsal of facts).

The paper will be of 90 minutes' duration, and candidates will have ample time to pen considered answers: in the past, many answers have been rushed and consequently poor.

Greek

There is no formal Greek scholarship paper. Instead candidates are interviewed. In the course of the interview they will be asked to work their way through a series of sentences of advancing difficulty, taken from either L.A.Wilding's Greek for Beginners or Maurice Balme and Gilbert Lawall's Athenaze. They will also be expected to be able to talk about a topic of their own choice drawn from the Greek world. Because our candidates vary greatly in their knowledge and experience of Greek, the focus of the linguistic part of the interview will be on assessing their potential. We look especially for an ability to apply and build on previous knowledge (at whatever level) in addressing problems and working out solutions.

Download exam papers:

1999 - 2000 - 2001 - 2002 - 2003

2004 - 2005 - 2006 - 2007 - 2008