common knowledge and Percy Jackson. There are several books that can give you
a strong grasp on Mythology: many start with Edith Hamilton’s Mythology and
move up to official sources like Morford and Lenardon’s Classical Mythology and
Edward Tripp’s The Meridian Handbook of
Classical Mythology. Lots of these books are very
long, though, and summaries and study guides of
them can be easily found online.
I’m going to lump History, Life, and
Literature together since they are usually the
subjects students come in with the least knowledge
of. History’s principal source is Cary and Scullard’s
A History of Rome, which is a very long textbook.
For that reason, you should start with online study
guides: both Ketan Ramakrishnan’s and Connor
Harrison’s are incredibly useful sources. Life is
mostly drawn from Harold Johnston’s Private Life
An OJCLer showing off
of the Romans, which, unlike most of the other
the awards you can win
official sources, is fairly short and freely accessible
online, so that’s what I would recommend. Literature, in comparison, is usually
only taught beginning in higher levels of Latin, and its main source is the
encyclopedia The Oxford Companion to Classical Literature. Thankfully, Ketan
also has a “ludicrously comprehensive” study guide for this too.
Now, it’s already difficult to gain a comprehensive knowledge of even one
of these subjects and near impossible to learn them all. However, even with a little
preparation, I think you’ll be surprised at how much you really know. That’s why I
like testing: it’s a direct way to earn more understanding and appreciation of
classical culture. It’s also a low-stress environment to compete against your friends
at Convention, and it gives a lot more ribbons than Certamen.
Some last-minute tips: make sure to get sleep the night before, eat
something, and don’t worry too much about how you do. One question isn’t going
to make or break your score and, if you must guess on all of them, 75 questions
actually go by pretty quickly. Bonam fortunam vobis omnibus!
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