Classical literature skills: SQA Advanced Higher Classical Studies quiz quiz

Classical literature through source based questions

Classical society through an essay

A research project

Greek translation

Retelling its plot in order

Drawing inferences about the ideas and values it reveals about its society

Counting the lines

Translating it into English

Naming as many devices as possible

Describing the plot

Explaining the effect a technique has on the audience, anchored in a quotation

Listing the characters

The marker's mood

The length of the exam

The candidate's handwriting

The conventions of the passage's genre

Because the passage is too short

Because they ask about typicality, genre or society, needing knowledge from beyond the extract

Because they are multiple choice

Because the passage is in Greek

Retelling the passage line by line instead of inferring values

Drawing too many inferences

Quoting too precisely

Answering the exact question

Summarise, translate, conclude

Name, count, list

State the value, anchor it with a quotation, explain the assumption

Read, copy, finish

Explaining the effect of a device

Quoting precisely

Linking technique to audience response

Labelling devices without explaining what they do

To show how the passage uses or departs from the genre's conventions

Only to name the genre

To ignore the passage

To translate the passage

As many as can be named

Two or three, developed

Exactly one

None

Writing it in the introduction

Repeating it three times

Supporting it with a quotation or precise reference to the words

Putting it in bold

It stays only on the passage

It ignores the passage entirely

It only discusses the society

It moves fluently between the passage and the wider work, genre and society

Inferring the attitude, pointing to the words, and explaining the assumption

Narrating what happens to the gods in the passage

Listing the gods named

Counting references to sacrifice

Because it was written twice

Because it has two authors

Because it is a deliberate work of art and also testimony about the society that made it

Because it is translated

Guess from the passage alone

Count its length

Ask whether it is interesting

Set it against specific knowledge of the rest of the text