Online tutoring
Latin tutors
Assessed almost entirely through translation and literary analysis. It is a precision subject: the grammar is a closed system, and a single misread ending changes the meaning of a sentence.
- USD 20-40 per hour
- IGCSE
- A Level
- University
Who takes Latin, and who should
Students taking Latin at school, those building a classics or humanities profile, and anyone who finds the puzzle of unseen translation genuinely enjoyable. It suits precise thinkers: Latin is a closed grammatical system, and students who like that certainty tend to do well in it.
Where students actually lose marks
These are the patterns we see repeatedly. None of them are about ability, and every one of them is trainable, which is why a diagnosis is worth more than a general offer of help.
- Translating by guessing from vocabulary rather than by parsing the endings
- Noun and verb paradigms not fully automatic, which makes unseen passages slow and unreliable
- Subordinate clause constructions (indirect statement, purpose, result) not recognised under time pressure
- Set-text literature translated accurately but analysed superficially, where the marks are for style and effect
Latin at each level
Latin at IGCSE and GCSE
Unseen translation and set texts. Making the noun and verb paradigms genuinely automatic is worth more than any amount of vocabulary learning, because unseen translation depends entirely on recognising endings at speed rather than guessing from recognisable words.
Latin at AS and A Level
Longer unseen passages and substantial set texts in verse and prose, assessed on both accurate translation and literary analysis. Subordinate clause constructions (indirect statement, purpose, result) are where students lose the thread of a sentence under time pressure.
Latin at University
Classics degrees expect fluent reading of unadapted texts alongside literary and historical scholarship, with a set-text volume well beyond school level and an assumption that grammatical analysis is already automatic rather than something to be worked out.
What Latin tutoring costs
| Level | Typical years | Per hour |
|---|---|---|
| IGCSE and GCSE | Years 10-11 | USD 20-28 |
| AS and A Level | Years 12-13 | USD 28-34 |
| University | Undergraduate | USD 34-40 |
One-to-one, per 60-minute lesson, billed monthly against lessons actually taught. The same rates apply in every city we teach in, and the subject does not change the price. Paired and small-group rates are on the pricing page.
How lessons run
One-to-one over video with a shared whiteboard, so tutor and student work on the same page at the same time. Sixty minutes weekly as standard, twice weekly in the eight weeks before a paper.
Every session starts with marked work from the previous week, moves to the day's topic with a worked example, and ends with the student attempting a real past paper question while the tutor watches how they approach it. After it you get a written note from the tutor saying what was covered and what needs to happen next. The full process is here.
Latin: questions parents ask
What makes unseen translation difficult?
Guessing from vocabulary instead of parsing the endings. Latin word order is flexible, so meaning is carried by inflection: a student who reads for recognisable words rather than analysing the morphology will misread sentences confidently.
How much should be memorised?
The paradigms, completely and automatically. Vocabulary can be worked around; a hesitation over whether an ending is dative or ablative stops a translation dead. This is the highest-return work in the subject.
Is Latin useful beyond classics?
It builds precision in grammatical analysis that transfers to modern languages, law and linguistics, and universities generally regard it as a rigorous subject. Whether it is the right use of a student's time depends on their other options.