Torch: WI | Page 15

Are you having trouble remembering complicated Certamen facts? Well, you’ve come to the right place! Here at Late Night Certamen Grind© , we care about your Certamen experience, and we wish to make it the best that it can be! Below, you’ll find some helpful tips to remember different Certamen facts. (some credit to Ian Hochberg and Linda Montross)

certamen tips and tricks

by shir bloch, wjcl president

Experiencing some difficulty with the hills of Rome? Just remember that Queen Victoria Eats Apple Pie and Chocolate Cake (QVEAPCC)! That takes care of all the hills: Quirinal, Viminal, Esquiline, Aventine, Palatine, Capitoline, Caelian.

Caligula and Claudius getting mixed up in that Certamen-jammed brain of yours? No problem! Just think of the alphabet. “A” comes before “L,” and thus, Caligula came before Claudius.

Wanna go from zero to Certamen hero? Well, the animated Hercules won’t help you do that. But it will help you remember that Megara was Hercules’ first wife, whom he killed. (Sorry Meg, but you wouldn’t say you were in love!)

Those 1st declension masculine nouns bugging you? Just remember the APPIAN words! Agricola, pirata, poeta, incola, auriga, nauta!

Missed this summer’s Certamen sessions? Not to worry, because Mrs. Osier taught us the way to remember those annoying adjectives who take -ius in the genative and -i in the dative. UNUS NAUTA (unus, nullus, uter, solus, neuter, alius, ullus, totus, alter) is the way to go!

Couldn’t decide between fries and chips? Have FRIPS, the five modern language derived from Latin! French, Romanian, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish.

Don’t don't fear fear, ‘cuz the Grind is really here! That’s right, another memory device. Verbs with unusual single imperatives can be a tad tricky, so just remember DDFF, dic, duc, fac, fer. (and be careful not to order a non-Latiner to make or do something…)

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