· · · · ·
Stage I  ·  Latin Formation

ASAP Latin

Three years of classical Latin grammar, compressed into a single summer — with the rigor of a university course and the clarity of the Oxford method.

Schedule a Free Consultation

High School  ·  Register III  ·  30 Sessions

Format Live Online · Zoom
Sessions 30 Sessions · 10 Weeks
Level High School · Register III
Stage I · Latin Formation
Method Hybrid · Oxford-Based
Who This Course Is For

Is This You?

ASAP Latin was built for a particular student. You will recognize yourself immediately.

The Ambitious Beginner

You are beginning Latin in the fall and wish to arrive at school already fluent in grammar — not catching up, but three years ahead of a typical boarding or independent school's Latin curriculum, earned in a single summer.

The Student Who Wants Mastery

You have studied Latin for a year or two but feel the gaps — declensions half-remembered, subjunctives uncertain. You want comprehensive command before advancing further.

The Long-Term Emerson Student

You intend to continue into Stage II: AP Latin Sequence. ASAP Latin is your formation — the course that prepares you to read Caesar, Cicero, and Virgil with genuine fluency.

The College-Bound Classicist

You understand that classical languages carry weight in university applications and in intellectual formation. You are investing the summer where it will compound for years.

Prerequisites: No prior Latin is required for beginners. Those with some background in Latin will find the early sessions a swift and clarifying review. Students should expect approximately three to five hours of independent work per session — conservative figures for a course that covers three years of grammar in one summer.

Why the Alternatives Fall Short

Most Latin Programs Were Not Designed for This

School Latin, spread across three unhurried academic years, provides little time for sustained practice. Online platforms offer vocabulary drills but not the guided intellectual formation that serious Latin requires. Standard summer programs rarely cover all of Latin grammar in a single coherent sequence, and those that do rarely combine it with authentic literature. ASAP Latin was designed precisely to address this — a course comprehensive enough for university students, delivered with the pacing and care that younger students deserve.

Typical Alternatives

  • 3 academic years of school Latin
  • Fragmented grammar, slow pacing
  • No comprehensive arc to literature
  • Grammar-only or immersion-only
  • No clear pathway to AP or IB

ASAP Latin

  • All grammar in one summer
  • Oxford-method hybrid: rigor + fluency
  • Authentic Latin poetry at the close
  • University-level pacing and depth
  • Direct pathway to AP Latin Sequence

“Non multa, sed multum.”

— Pliny the Younger  ·  Not many things, but deeply.
The Oxford Heritage

A Curriculum Rooted in One of the Most Distinguished Traditions in Latin Pedagogy

ASAP Latin is a compressed and intensified version of the Oxford Latin 1·2·3 sequence — itself a curriculum of considerable pedigree. The Oxford Latin Course belongs to a tradition that seeks to unite language, literature, history, and culture into a single intellectual experience.

Oxford's creators explicitly designed their course as a synthesis of the best elements of both modern and traditional methods — combining the humanist reading tradition with the analytical precision of the British classical school. It stands as one of the great middle paths in modern Latin pedagogy.

ASAP Latin takes this synthesis and brings to it a further dimension: the pacing and comprehensiveness of a university-level course. The curriculum was originally designed for American college students — those expected to acquire mastery of the entire Latin grammatical system within a single intensive term. At Emerson Latin, this material is delivered across ten carefully structured summer weeks, preserving rigor while allowing students the time to work through assignments with genuine care.

“Rigorous without becoming sterile. Immersive without becoming vague. Literary without sacrificing structure.”

Oxford Latin's Three Traditions
I
The Humanist Reading Tradition Latin encountered through story, narrative, and continuous reading — as the Renaissance humanists taught it.
II
The Modern Reading Method Contextual vocabulary, inductive grammar, and repeated exposure to meaningful Latin — the twentieth-century reform movement.
III
British Classical Rigor Systematic grammar, morphology, syntax, and disciplined translation — the analytical backbone of classical education.
How It Works

The Hybrid Method

Neither purely traditional nor purely immersive — but both, in the right proportion.

ASAP Latin divides its instruction equally between two great traditions. Half the work belongs to the grammar-translation method — systematic, analytical, precise. The other half belongs to the reading approach and the nature method — contextual, narrative, immersive. Concept follows concept in a logical sequence, so that even advanced grammar arrives with clarity rather than difficulty.

This is not a compromise. It is a synthesis. And it is the reason students who complete this course arrive at authentic Latin poetry genuinely capable of reading — not merely prepared for translation exercises.

Grammar-Translation (50%)

Every declension, every conjugation, every syntactical construction is introduced systematically and practiced analytically. Students learn to see the architecture of the Latin sentence — and to reconstruct it with precision in English.

The Reading & Nature Method (50%)

Grammar is always met in context. Students read connected Latin from the earliest sessions, encountering vocabulary through narrative and reinforcing forms through encounter rather than rote. The language becomes familiar, not merely known.

Alternate-Day Pacing

Classes meet every other day — preserving the days between for sustained independent work. This rhythm is deliberate: mastery in Latin is achieved not in the classroom alone, but through careful, repeated engagement with the material between sessions.

Cumulative Progression

Nothing in ASAP Latin is taught in isolation. Each concept builds upon the last, so that by the time students encounter the subjunctive or indirect speech, they possess the grammatical confidence to receive it without confusion.

Live Instruction & Recordings

All sessions are conducted live, with real-time discussion, guided translation, and direct engagement with the instructor. Students also receive full video recordings of every session for review — ensuring that nothing is lost and that each class may be revisited as often as needed.

University-Level Ambition

The curriculum was originally designed for American college students. The pacing is accordingly comprehensive. Students who complete this course leave with a command of Latin grammar and syntax that takes most school programs three academic years to reach.

What Students Learn

The Full Scope of Latin

In thirty sessions, students cover material that most schools distribute across three years — and arrive at authentic Latin poetry.

Latin Grammar

  • All five noun declensions, with adjective agreement
  • All conjugations — active and passive, indicative and subjunctive
  • Participles, infinitives, gerunds, and gerundives
  • Indirect statement, command, and question
  • Cum clauses, purpose clauses, and result clauses
  • Conditional sentences and their moods
  • Deponents, irregular and defective verbs

Syntax & Prose Style

  • The Latin period — structure and rhetorical effect
  • Hypotaxis, parataxis, and the syntax of argument
  • Ablative absolute and its prose functions
  • Latin word order: emphasis and periodic rhythm
  • Oratio obliqua — the grammar of reported speech
  • Analysis of complex sentences in preparation for AP, IB, and A-Level

Reading & Authentic Literature

  • Continuous reading in Latin from the first weeks
  • All grammar and syntax preparation oriented toward AP, IB, and A-Level Latin from the outset
  • Final eight sessions: authentic Latin poetry of Horace, read alongside continued grammar instruction
  • Close reading, scansion, and literary analysis of Horace's Odes and Epodes
  • Preparation for AP Latin Exam, IB Latin Higher Level, and Cambridge A-Level standards

Culture & History

  • Roman education, family, and civic life
  • The fall of the Republic and the Age of Augustus
  • Roman religion, mythology, and literary tradition
  • The cultural world of Horace and his Rome
  • Latin's place in the history of Western thought and law

Upon completion, students can translate and analyze authentic Latin prose and poetry at the level required by the AP Latin Exam, the IB Latin Higher Level, and the Cambridge A-Level. Those who continue into Stage II: AP Latin Sequence are prepared to read the Roman authors in earnest.

The Emerson Latin Pathway

A Coherent Classical Formation

ASAP Latin is not a terminus. It is the beginning.

ASAP

Stage I  ·  Latin Formation

All Latin grammar and syntax. Authentic poetry of Horace in the final eight sessions. Thirty sessions over ten weeks. The complete foundation.

You are here
II

Stage II  ·  AP Latin Sequence

Two paths, one destination. The literature path offers once-weekly Saturday sessions during the school year, devoting each term to a single Roman author — read thoroughly and in context — while preparing for international Latin and classical humanities competitions throughout the fall, winter, and spring terms. The formal AP Latin Prose and Poetry course is taken either in the following summer as an eight-week intensive, or in the following fall over Saturdays and Sundays leading to the May examination.

III

Stage III  ·  Advanced Authors Program

Once-weekly Latin literature courses at a considerably more demanding pace, covering a wider range of authors and genres, while preparing for the most elite and prestigious international competitions in Latin and the classical humanities. Reserved for students who have demonstrated the discipline and ambition that serious classical study requires.

The pathway from ASAP Latin to AP Latin Sequence is coherent, progressive, and well-established. Students who complete this formation arrive at the AP examination having read the Roman authors — not in preparation for them.

Academic Distinction

International Competitions

Not as trophies, but as milestones within a larger intellectual formation.

Emerson Latin students have earned gold medals and the highest honors in a range of prestigious international competitions in Latin language, Latin literature, and the classical humanities. These results are recorded here not as advertisement, but as a quiet statement of what this program produces.

From Stage II onward, students prepare throughout the year for competitions that test Latin reading, sight translation, literary analysis, essay writing, and classical cultural knowledge — at national and international levels. The most accomplished students eventually compete at the highest and most selective levels available in the field.

These competitions serve a purpose beyond recognition. They are the occasions that demand the highest precision in reading, the deepest engagement with the texts, and the broadest command of classical civilization. They are, in the Emersonian view, the natural consequence of genuine formation — not the goal itself, but the proof of it.

What Class Looks Like

A Serious Classroom, Online

I

Live Instruction

Every session is conducted in real time. Grammar is explained, questioned, and clarified by a single expert instructor who knows each student's progress intimately.

II

Guided Translation

Students translate together in class — not in silence, but in dialogue. Errors are corrected with care. Understanding is confirmed before the session advances.

III

Session Recordings

Full video recordings of every session are made available to students. Nothing is lost. Each class may be revisited as often as needed — a resource of particular value when reviewing difficult grammar before the next session.

IV

Assignments

Between sessions, students complete Latin vocabulary, reading, and grammar assignments designed to consolidate what has been introduced in class. The alternate-day rhythm exists precisely to make this independent work possible.

Common Questions

Frequently Asked

Is ASAP Latin suitable for a complete beginner?
Yes. The course begins at first principles and proceeds systematically through all of Latin grammar. Beginners who work diligently will complete the course with a comprehensive command of Latin that students at many schools do not attain in three years. The pace is demanding, but the sequence is designed to carry willing students from zero to genuine reading fluency.
How does ASAP Latin differ from Emerson Latin's Intensive Latin course?
Intensive Latin is conducted entirely through the grammar-translation method, meeting five days a week for four consecutive weeks — an immersive sprint. ASAP Latin uses a hybrid approach (half grammar-translation, half the reading and nature method), meets every other day across ten weeks, and was originally designed at the level of an American university course. The hybrid method and the extended pacing allow students to encounter Latin through narrative and reading as well as analysis — and to do so at a more considered rhythm.
How does ASAP Latin differ from Oxford Latin 1·2·3?
Oxford Latin 1·2·3 is a summer intensive course also offered by Emerson Latin, covering all Latin grammar and syntax through the full Oxford Latin Course sequence. ASAP Latin is a compressed and more rigorous version of this material — designed to move more quickly while reaching the same destination. ASAP Latin is for students who want to cover three years of grammar in the shortest viable time without sacrificing depth.
How much independent work is expected outside of class?
Students should expect approximately three to five hours of independent work on each day following a session — vocabulary study, reading practice, and grammar exercises. These are conservative figures. The alternate-day schedule is designed specifically to preserve this time. Latin is not mastered in the classroom alone, and the assignments are an essential part of the course's intellectual architecture.
What happens after ASAP Latin?
Students who complete ASAP Latin may continue into Stage II: AP Latin Sequence. During the school year, a once-weekly Saturday literature course provides sustained reading in authentic Roman authors alongside preparation for international competitions throughout the fall, winter, and spring terms. Students may then elect the full AP Latin Prose and Poetry course either in the following summer as an eight-week intensive, or in the following fall over Saturdays and Sundays, leading to the May AP examination.
Are homeschooled students welcome?
Entirely. A significant portion of Emerson Latin's students are homeschooled. The rigorous, mentor-guided structure of the course serves homeschooled students particularly well, providing the sustained classical instruction that is difficult to assemble otherwise.
What level of Latin is reached upon completion?
Students who complete the course can translate and analyze authentic Latin prose and poetry at the standard required by the AP Latin Exam, the IB Latin Higher Level, and the Cambridge A-Level. In the final eight sessions, students read the authentic poetry of Horace alongside continued grammar instruction — and arrive at the close of the course already inside the Latin literary tradition.

A student who arrives in September having completed ASAP Latin does not begin Latin. He continues it. He reads where others conjugate. He analyzes where others memorize. And he does so because one summer, he chose to do the thing properly.

— The Emerson Latin Formation
Limited Enrollment

Begin the Formation

ASAP Latin enrolls a small number of students each summer. A placement consultation is the first step. We will advise honestly on whether this course is the right fit and what preparation, if any, is advisable beforehand.

Schedule a Placement Consultation

High School  ·  Register III  ·  30 Sessions  ·  10 Weeks