Welcome to one part of the the most popular Latin APcurriculum on Udemy!
These materials are designed to help students prepare for the APLatin exam, which consists of selections taken from Vergil's Aeneid and Caesar's Gallic Wars. The particular course takes up the passages required by the APexam from Caesar's Gallic Wars.
As such, please keep in mind that they aren't for beginning Latin students, or even those who are just entering the intermediate level. The course is for students who've put in a couple of years of Latin grammar and elementary to intermediate Latin reading, and who are now ready for the next level: the prestigious Latin LP exam.
I mention this because occasionally a student without adequate preparing will attempt to take the class, only to find it's not at his/her level. This causes hard feelings, as you can detect in a recent review posted to Udemy: "difficult to follow a clear single line translation, he just gives parts of it and jumps to another part and jumps to another part, very unclear."
That's because this isn't a translation class. There are translation aplenty of the Gallic Wars. The purpose of my method is to get students so good at Latin that they aren't really "translating" most of it anymore, but just reading it. That takes time, but it is an achievable goal.
On the exam, you will be tested on their ability to translate literally, to analyze, and to interpret the text. You will practice sight-reading and translating literally so that their translations not only are accurate and precise, but also make sense in English. Other specific skills that will be required for the AP examination include the ability:
To write a literal English translation of a Latin passage on the syllabus
To explicate specific words or phrases in context
To identify the context and significance of short excerpts from texts listed in the chosen syllabus
To identify and analyze characteristic or noteworthy features of the authors' modes of expression, including their use of imagery, figures of speech, sound effects, and metrical effects, as seen in specific passages
To discuss particular motifs or general themes not only suggested by passages but also relevant to other selections
