Instead of going to Atom Time, students enrolled in a Latin class were taking the National Latin Exam (NLE) in the cafeteria on March 15. Students in all levels of Latin were required to take the exam as part of their grade.

The NLE was started in 1983 and since then, the number of students enrolled has dramatically increased due to the increased number of students taking a Latin class.

Students had a total of 45 minutes to complete the 40 question test, which consisted of three different parts; history, grammar and reading. The history section included of maps and questions relating to places around Rome and famous Roman people or gods. In the grammar section, students identified correct forms of words and correct definitions of words. Lastly, a passage in Latin was given and students answered questions concerning the passage and some relations to grammar. IB Latin students also took a poetry portion of the test.

“I thought the Latin II exam was easy because we learned all of the correct material, but I probably failed it,” sophomore Amy Reynolds said.

Though students were required to take the test for their class, many said they also wanted to take it because it looks good on college applications. If students score at a certain level, they can be awarded medals and scholarships.

“Last year I got an award for it, but this year I don’t think I will, so I think I did pretty bad,” junior Zeinab Safi said. “The front page was grammar and cultural questions which were all right, the back was a poem. The poem was the hardest part because we had to translate it then answer questions about it.”

Some thought that the desk was not difficult and that they were adequately prepared.

“The easiest part was the translation of vocabulary, because if you had previous knowledge it wasn’t hard,” sophomore Jaskiran Kaur said.

Others thought that the exam actually was a challenge.

“I took the Latin III poetry exam,” Safi said. “We did preparation in class by reading a poem and translating it, but I don’t think that was good enough.”

After the Latin students were finished with their exams they were treated to some cookies provided by Latin teacher Norm Ash.