A Guide to Oxford Classics Admission Test (CAT)

What is the CAT?

The Classics Admissions Test (CAT) is an assessment set by Oxford University for all prospective Classics students to check their level of Latin, Greek or their aptitude for languages in the case that they haven’t studied an ancient language yet.

The idea of the test is to get some idea of candidates language abilities before their A-Level results so they can use that to inform their offers sent out in January. In addition to this, Oxford is very clear that the test is designed to give them extra information to help them differentiate between candidates who are otherwise equally well-qualified.

Who needs to sit the CAT?

Anyone applying to study Classics (aka. Literae Humaniores) or a joint-honours Classics course (Classics & English, Classics & Oriental Studies etc) will need to sit at least one part of the CAT. With joint-honours courses you may have to sit another aptitude test too. How fun!

• For Classics & Modern Languages, you will have to sit the MLAT too. See here for advice on tackling that.
• For Classics & English, you will have to sit the ELAT too. See here for advice on acing that too.

You’ll need to sit the CAT no matter how much Latin, Greek or Ancient History you’ve done before. So even if you’re applying to Course II Classics, make sure you prepare.

When do I sit the CAT?

The test normally happens at the start of November in your final year of school (Year 13) about two weeks after your personal statement deadline. If you’re applying this year, the date of the test is:

Wednesday 2 November 2022

Will my school arrange everything for me?

Most probably, yes. Do double check though that they’ve arranged for you to sit the paper. If not, don’t panic, you can sit one at an independent test centre, but they might charge you for the privilege. Lucky, lucky you.

You can find a list of test centres here. Don’t be alarmed by the Cambridge logo, you can still sit your Oxford CAT there.

What does the CAT paper look like?

The CAT is split into 3 parts, each designed to test a different part of your Classics knowledge. Most students won’t have to sit all of it so see below for which bit you have to sit.

1. Latin Paper (1hr)
   Question 1: One passage of Latin poetry to be translated into English. (50 marks)
   Question 2: One passage of Latin prose to be translated into English. (50 marks)
    
2. Greek Paper (1hr)
   Question 1: One passage of Greek poetry to be translated into English. (50 marks)
   Question 2: One passage of Greek prose to be translated into English. (50 marks)
    
3. Aptitude Test (1hr)
   Section A: tests the workings of a real language. (25 marks)
   Section B: tests how well you will adapt to a new language. (50 marks)
   Section C: tests how well you know the workings of English. (25 marks)

Which CAT paper do I sit?

When you sit the test, you will get the same paper as everyone else, but most likely will only have to sit part or parts of it. So just answer the sections you need to and leave the others blank. Your test centre/school should moderate the time accordingly.

Which part(s) of the paper to sit depends on how much knowledge in the languages you will have when you arrive at uni:

• Classics Course I, Latin & Greek A Level Students: Parts 1 (Latin) and 2 (Greek)
• Classics Course I, Latin A Level Students: Part 1 (Latin)
• Classics Course I, Greek A Level Students: Part 2 (Greek)
• Classics Course II, No ancient language to A Level: Part 3 (Aptitude Test)
• Classics & Oriental Studies: Part 3 (Aptitude Test)*

*IMPORTANT NOTE - If you are applying for Classics & Oriental Studies and you are studying either Latin or Greek or both to A Level, you will need to sit the relevant papers too. So you might end up sitting the whole CAT exam, all 3 parts!

How important is the CAT test to my application?

Your result in the CAT plays a significant role in your acceptance or otherwise to Oxford, but it is not the be-all and end-all. As around 96% of Classics applicants get invited to interview, if you get a really low CAT score this might mean you don’t get an invite.

But the CAT isn’t just to get you through the door. Once you’ve completed your interview, your whole application is taken into consideration. So a great CAT score can stand against a wobbly interview and might tip things in your favour. That’s why it’s really vital you prepare properly and know what’s facing you in November!

How to Prepare for the CAT

Latin Paper

Oxford says the Latin translation in the CAT is pitched to be around the difficulty of A Level, but the reality is you will best prepared if you have a wider knowledge of the grammar and vocab including things that are not covered by the A Level syllabus.

An added difficulty is that you are sitting this A Level style paper right at the beginning of Year 13, with only one year’s worth of Latin A Level learned.

However, don’t panic just yet. With enough preparation and by utilising the tips below, you’ll have plenty of time to get in shape before the CAT.

What Latin grammar do I need to learn?

• All the A Level grammar, both syntax and accidence. The verse paper often tests your working knowledge of case endings, singulars and plurals, and genders so make sure you know all 5 declensions off by heart. The prose paper by contrast will contain harder syntax, so knowing the uses of the subjunctive is key (sequence of tenses is really important here) and all indirect constructions and reported speech conventions.

• Outside of the A Level grammar, you want to be learning idiomatic rules. There are a few common ones below, but you’ll come up against more when translating with a teacher or tutor to help:

  • Variations in “suus” translations: soliders, family etc.

  • Romam, Romae, Roma: the moving around cities and islands.

  • Verse word order: words being promoted or delayed outside of subordinate clauses.

  • Common contractions in the past tense: negasse, venere etc.

  • ‘-ne’ becoming ‘-n’.

  • ‘deabus’ and 3rd presenting 1st and 2nd declensions.

What Latin vocab do I need to know for the CAT?

As you may already know, there is no official Latin A Level vocab list because the people that set the exams are mean, bitter and have a twisted sense of humour. However… if you use a course book such as the excellent John Taylor series (Latin Beyond GCSE), the vocab in the back of those books are a great starting point.

Is there any English to Latin translation?

No. But… English to Latin is an excellent way to practice accidence and vocal learning.

How should I prepare for the Latin paper?

You need to prepare by training yourself in 3 categories: translation, vocab and grammar.

Translation

The best way to prepare here is definitely by translating A Level standard chunks of Latin many many times. It can be helpful to use the past papers for the CAT given by Oxford (which can be found here) but make sure you leave yourself one or two to do in the weeks before the test.

Even better than A Level prescriptive Latin is to stretch yourself (when feeling more confident) to translating actual Latin from Roman authors. Here you will pick up some more of the idioms and contractions. Go through it with a tutor or teacher though so your head doesn’t explode.

Vocab & Grammar

Everyone will have a different way of learning this, but an excellent tip to getting it to stick in your head is practicing English to Latin sentences and translations. The ability to create Latin by finding the right verb endings and cases of nouns actually means your brain is creating much quicker connections to those words and how they are used. In practice, what this means is when you come to translate from Latin, you’ll be twice as accurate with your noun and verb endings and be able to recognise their possible uses twice as quickly.

How to prepare for the CAT Greek Paper

As a quick heads up: if you’re studying Greek and Latin and have read the Latin advice above, most of what I say there is applicable to Greek and you will bore yourself silly reading the same words twice. For Greek advice that differs from the Latin, look closely at ‘What grammar do I need to learn?’ and ‘What vocab do I need to know?’.

What is the level?

Oxford says the Greek translation in the CAT is pitched to be around the difficulty of A Level, but the reality is you will best prepared if you have a wider knowledge of the grammar and vocab including things that are not covered by the A Level syllabus.

An added difficulty is that you are sitting this A Level style paper right at the beginning of Year 13, with only one year’s worth of Greek A Level learned.

However, don’t panic just yet. With enough preparation and by utilising the tips below, you’ll have plenty of time to get in shape before the CAT.

What greek grammar do I need to learn?

• All the A Level grammar, both syntax and accidence. In Greek that means: know your verbs. All the endings for regular verbs, irregulars (pretty much every verb!), μι verbs and vowel contraction verbs should be learned and practiced (see below for how to do that!). On top of that, a good focus can be uses of the optative, subjunctive and participles. For those of you who study Latin too, make sure you don’t mix up participle use across the two languages. As well as verbs, pronoun and article translations are commonly mixed up and the cunning people at Oxford know this full well and will test out your αυτο-s time and time again.
• As there are so many irregular verbs, the grammar does not really extend beyond A Level as it does somewhat with Latin. So vocab learning becomes much much more important.

As you may already know, there is no official Greek A Level vocab list because the people that set the exams continue to be mean, bitter and have all developed a twisted sense of humour. However… if you use a course book such as the excellent John Taylor series (Greek Beyond GCSE), the vocab in the back of those books are a great starting point.

For more vocab, and principal part training, you can pick up a lot from translation practice (see below) or from other books that train English to Greek. One great example is Writing Greek and this is a worthwhile purchase anyway.

Is there any English to Greek translation?

No. But… English to Greek is an excellent way to practice accidence and vocal learning, if you can stomach it.

How to prepare for the Greek CAT paper

You need to prepare by training yourself in 3 categories: translation, vocab and grammar.

Greek Translation

The best way to prepare here is definitely by translating A Level standard chunks of Greek many many times. It can be helpful to use the past papers for the CAT given by Oxford (which can be found here) but make sure you leave yourself one or two to do before the test.

Even better than A Level prescriptive Greek is to stretch yourself (when feeling more confident) to translating actual Greek from Attic Greek authors (Attic Greek just means the standard Greek you’ve learned in school). Go through it with a tutor or teacher though so your head doesn’t explode.

Greek Vocab & Grammar

Everyone will have a different way of learning this, but an excellent tip to getting it to stick in your head is practicing English to Greek sentences and translations. The ability to create Greek by finding the right verb endings and cases of nouns actually means your brain is creating much quicker connections to those words and how they are used. In practice, what this means is when you come to translate from Greek, you’ll be twice as accurate with your noun and verb endings and be able to recognise their possible uses twice as quickly.

CAT Language Aptitude Test

What they’re looking for?

The language aptitude test is designed to ensure you will be able to cope with the fast pace of Latin and/or Greek learning in your first couple of years at Oxford. In this test they are looking for you to demonstrate you can spot patterns within in a language and that  you can apply those patterns yourself.

Section A - Which rules are they testing me on?

As you’ll have seen at the top, Section A lets you muddle through a real, extant language (normally European and not widely studied) with questions often testing noun endings  and the patterns and rules behind them. They will give you examples that look like a noun table from a grammar book and then ask you to fill in your own table using new nouns.

The language boffins from Oxford want to be able to see that you can find a regular pattern for the ending of a word and apply it in different cases or numbers (singular/ plural). They will also want you to spot exceptions to this rule and to find the rule that governs the exceptions.

A really good way to practice this and to train yourself to quickly spot the rule is to start  by focussing on the letters that immediately end the word, both vowel and consonant. Also if you have a friend studying a language that you don’t (maybe they learn German or Italian), then borrow their grammar book and see if you can spot patterns in there without looking at the English explanation. Then see if you can replicate those patterns yourself.

Section B - How do I pick apart a fake language?

Section B is the longest and most heavily mark-weighted of the sections, and this is where the real workings of a conventional Latin or Greek base language are tested. Here you are given a fake language, often set up with certain parameters or quirks different from English, eg. ‘word order doesn’t matter’.

In Section B, like in the first section, examples will be provided for you to pick apart the rules from. These come in sentence form and in each example part there will normally be 2 or 3 new rules or endings they want you to spot.

The way to practice these is really just to do lots of them (past papers can be found here).

A key piece of advice though, is always do these questions in the order they give them to you, as they build on prior knowledge learned at the beginning of the section in the later questions.

Section C - What level of English do I need?

Most of us think we’re pretty good at English until we see something like Section C of the aptitude test. Often at school we aren’t asked to look closely at the workings of English and until we come to study a foreign language have no idea what, say, an ‘infinitive’ is or what to do with one.

In Section C you will not be asked technical questions about English as a language (Oxford aren’t interested in how many nerdy grammar words you know) but you will be asked to spot differences between uses of words and thus reveal you can spot the differences in English rules.