By Melanie Love and Maya Spitzer
Upper school Latin students earned top honors in the National Latin Examination.
25 top scorers were awarded gold medals with Summa Cum Laude certificates.
17 second place winners were awarded silver medals with Maxima Cum Laude certificates.
Nine Magna Cum Laude certificates and 11 Cum Laude certificates were also earned.
Additionally, three students were awarded for having written perfect papers: Yujin Park â10 at Level II, Claresta Joe-Wong â10 at Level III Prose and Andy Lucas â08 at Level VI.
âI had other tests so I didnât really prepare for it at all,â Park said. âI didnât think it was that hard because it was just the Latin II exam.â
The exam is a multi-level test of 40 multiple choice questions covering the Latin language, Roman history, mythology, culture and reading comprehension, Latin teacher Kathryn Price said.
Students took the exams at levels II, III Prose, IV Poetry, V and VI.
The exam was given in Ahmanson Lecture Hall.
The test was not mandatory, and any Latin student could take it.
The students were given 45 minutes to take the exam, but many didnât even need all that time.
âWe had a whole period to take the test, but it only took me about 25 minutes,â Park said.
âIt was really rewarding to win something in my last year of Latin at Harvard-Westlake,â Kirstin Purtich â08, who has been taking Latin since seventh grade, said.
Purtich was awarded a gold medal for her achievement.
âAdditional reporting by Michelle Nosratian
