Some students have asked about studying the material and learning new vocabulary. I believe strongly that when dealing with real Latin texts like we are, it is best to focus one's review on the readings, not on learning vocabulary from the readings out of context (in general). That is, spend your study and review time going through what we have read. Working from a clean text (no notes or comments, no interlinear translations), try to read a sentence and make as much sense out of it as you can. Then check your notes or translation. Note where you have made mistakes and review them again carefully. If you think you are having recurring trouble with particular vocabulary items, by all means keep a separate list. But don't add to that list every new word you meet. Then move on to the next sentence, and so on. I found it useful when I was an undergraduate to underline lightly what I got wrong the first time so I could focus on those bits again when I next reviewed. I presumed that if I knew something three weeks before the exam, I would probably know it when I wrote the exam. Then as I reviewed I put a little mark by anything that I got right the second time. Then I did the same for a third review. I could be fairly certain that I knew well enough anything that had two marks, and then I could easily focus any further review on what I was still getting wrong.
The exams will give you excerpts from what we have read in class, without any vocabulary or notes. You will have to translate the passages into reasonably idiomatic English but without paraphrasing (which can let you dodge vocabulary or grammar you don't really know). I will also ask a few questions about the passages. I will definitely ask you to name the author, to give a rough date (e.g. "c. 375" or "latter half of the fourth century" for Ambrose), and, possibly, to name the work. I will also ask a few questions about grammar or morphology, such as to parse a particular verb or noun, explain why something is subjunctive, or give the standard classical Latin spelling for a medieval form of a word.
