Stage III·The AP Latin Exam

AP Latin

Every required passage, read and analyzed line by line. AP questions in every class. A syllabus the College Board has authorized. By exam day in May, nothing on the paper is new.

Three ways to begin

Students take AP Latin Prose and AP Latin Poetry together, because the exam covers both. Choose the starting point that fits your child’s year. Every way leads to the same weekly classes and the same exam in May.

  1. One · Weekly

    Join the weekly classes

    Both courses, once a week, two hours each, to exam day in May. The classes began in September; a student who joins on November 21 begins with the recordings of the fall classes.

    • AP Latin ProseSaturdays, 9–11 PM Korea time
    • AP Latin PoetrySundays, 9–11 PM Korea time
  2. Two · Over Christmas

    Catch up in the Winter Intensive

    For the student who is busy until the winter break. Eight class periods in two weeks, Monday to Thursday, December 21–24 and 28–31, cover everything since September. From January, the student joins the weekly classes above.

    • Prose9 AM–1 PM Korea time
    • Poetry2–6 PM Korea time

    A student already taking one of the two courses since the fall can catch up on the other here.

  3. Three · In one summer

    The Summer Intensive

    For boarding school students who want the whole AP Latin course finished before they return to school in the fall. Ask us for this year’s dates.

Before the exam, for everyone: the Spring Review

One week, five days in a row, in the spring: every required reading in prose and poetry, and the four course project passages that will appear on the exam, reviewed thoroughly before May.

What we do, every class

The College Board’s course, taught as written

My AP Latin syllabus, including its teacher’s choice passages, has been authorized by the College Board through its AP Course Audit. That matters more than it may seem. A growing number of schools no longer teach to the AP Latin curriculum, some even in courses still called AP or advanced Latin. That can be a reasonable choice for a school. For a student who plans to sit the exam in May, it leaves essential preparation undone. Here, the course is the College Board’s own, every nook of it. Why so many schools have stepped away from AP Latin →

If your child studies Latin only with us

Most of our AP students attend schools that do not teach Latin at all. That is no obstacle. The College Board lets a student sit the exam through another school’s AP coordinator, or as an independent candidate, and our students do so every year. The registration is the family’s step; we guide you through it. How students sit AP Latin without a school that offers it →

The road from here

After the exam, a student who wants to keep going moves into Stage IV, Advanced Latin Literature, and the most advanced levels of the international contests.

  1. LanguageNatural, Oxford, Grammar, or Intensive Latin
  2. Latin LiteratureTwo courses in two terms, or one Summer Intensive
  3. AP LatinFall to the May exam, or one Summer Intensive
  4. Advanced Latin LiteratureOptional: for the top levels of the contests

One honest note

The winter break is the last point at which a new student can catch up in time for May. After it, we would rather a student wait a year and do it properly.

Common to every Latin course

What every course here shares

One teacher, live, every class

Every class, from a ten-year-old’s first sentence to the last line of the AP exam, is taught live over Zoom, in English, by Ioannes Magister. There is no second teacher and no substitute. Classes last two hours.

The work happens in the room

Students read aloud, translate at sight, and defend their answers out loud. A machine can translate a Latin sentence; only the student can learn to read it, and in class there is nothing to outsource. Latin in the age of AI →

Nothing is lost

Every class is recorded and posted to the student’s Google Classroom for the whole course. Homework is submitted online, checked, and graded. When a question cannot wait until the next class, the answer comes as a short video, made for that question. A student who is busy for a whole term can even follow the course from the recordings and hand in the work online; several students each term do exactly that. How that works →

Every course leads to the contests

Each class opens with a certamen (why?), and the translation practiced in class is the literal kind the contests reward. Before each international contest in Latin and classical humanities, a separate preparation course of up to five sessions works through real past exams, many going back decades, and study guides of our own. Our students take part through the year, and their results are recorded as they come in.

CommendationsContest results, year by year LaurelsStudents, one at a time

Credit and standing

Emerson Latin works on the Carnegie Unit standard used in American secondary schools, is a registered chapter sponsor of the National Latin Honor Society through the American Classical League, and is pursuing accreditation with WASC. Students who have needed credit transferred to their schools have received it, on the strength of our syllabus and transcript.

Is this the right course for your child?

Fifteen minutes will settle it, and it costs nothing: in English with Ioannes Magister over Zoom, or in Korean with our administrator by phone. If your child already knows some Latin, a free Placement Reading shows exactly where to begin.

Book Fifteen Minutes, Free See the Winter Schedule
Book Fifteen Minutes, Free