Introducing a unique standardized Latin exam—rooted in authentic source texts and designed to measure proficiency (active production) as well as achievement (comprehension and analysis) in Latin.
Coming early 2025.
We’ll be hosting an information session via Zoom in January 2025. Sign up to learn more.
There is a need for a transparent and objective standard to measure a student’s proficiency and recognize achievement in Latin education. The Latinitas Proficiency Exam achieves this by leveraging modern assessment technology while revisiting classical standards of excellence, with fidelity to the sources found across the tradition.
A ground-breaking, standardized Latin exam in three levels of difficulty – the only one to holistically test both a student’s achievement as well as proficiency in Latin.
In K-12 classes today, there are no universal standards for measuring Latin education outcomes. Your participation and feedback in this inaugural year will help us to develop real proficiency standards for the future.
The Latinitas Proficiency Exam establishes a new standard for excellence in Latin education. By uniting the enduring truths of the classical tradition with the very best of modern language pedagogy and assessment tools, the exam provides students, educators, and institutions with an objective, transparent measure of Latin mastery. The LPE encourages learners to engage deeply with the intellectual and cultural legacy of the Western tradition, fostering critical thinking, linguistic precision, and the pursuit of truth, beauty, and wisdom.
First and Second Declensions, First and Second Conjugations in the Present and Imperfect Indicative Active. Basic case usages and indicative constructions.
Core vocabulary of the first 100/200 words of Dickinson’s 2000 word list.
All morphology except for subjunctives, gerund(ives), supines and historical infinitives.
Core vocabulary of the first 500/1000 words of Dickinson’s 2000 word list.
All of Latin Grammar and syntax.
Core vocabulary of the first 750/1500+ words of Dickinson’s 2000 word list.
If you are unsure of which level test might be best for your students or curriculum, please contact us using the form below and we will be happy to help you choose the best fit!
We believe a Latin exam should evaluate both achievement and proficiency. In other words, VSI tests both the knowledge of Latin that a student has gained, and their ability to use this knowledge. Other frameworks such as ACTFL and CEFR do not include classical languages in their descriptions of language proficiency. Thus, we are establishing standards for Latin, based on ACTFL reading and writing standards of proficiency.
| VSI Testing Level | Adapted from ACTFL Proficiency Scale | ||
|---|---|---|---|
Level 1 | Novice | The student is able to demonstrate comprehension of the meaning of simple sentences in familiar contexts. A Novice student can write words, phrases, and simple memorized sentences. | |
Level 1/2 | Intermediate | An Intermediate level student is able to demonstrate comprehension of complex sentences in both familiar and novel topics in present tense. The student is also able to write strings of sentences in Latin. | |
Level 2/3 | Advanced | An Advanced level student is able to follow and demonstrate comprehension of a storyline. The student can also correctly answer questions about a story in present, past, and future timeframes. This level student can also write a short narrative in Latin utilizing present, past, and future timeframes, and describe events and objects in a complex manner. | |
Level 3 | Superior | A Superior level student can demonstrate comprehension of epic and lyric poetry. The student is able to demonstrate comprehension of complex Latin expository prose in past, present, and future. This level student can also write academic prose and original poetry in Latin. | |
For more information about ACTFL, you can visit their website here.
Sign up using the form below and we’ll let you know when it’s time to take the next step.
Place your order.
Have your students take the test.
An experienced educator like you has invaluable feedback to share. Give us the honest truth about the exam, collaborating with us to set the Latin standard moving forward.
Add your contact information to our email list so you can be the first to know about dates and deadlines for our Summer and Fall 2024 term and Summer immersion workshops.
Sign up now, so you can stop searching for ways to bring your faith to life and start discovering eternal truths today.
Co-Founder, Veterum Sapientia Institute
Magistra - Introductory Latin
Magistra Annula is Associate Professor of Latin at Belmont Abbey College, coming to North Carolina after a decade at Wyoming Catholic College. She teaches Latin at the Charlotte Diocese’s new St. Joseph College Seminary in addition to her work at Belmont. Earlier in her career she studied with Fr. Reginald Foster and at the Pontifical Salesian University in Rome. Returning to her native California, Nancy founded SALVI in 1997 and served on its board until 2019, directing SALVI workshops (Rusticationes) around the country and abroad. She holds her PhD (2006) from UCLA.
Magister - Scholastic Theology
Pater Pelagius is a priest of the Diocese of Jefferson City, Missouri, ordained in 2010. He holds a PhD in systematic theology from the Catholic University of America and is the translator of several Scholastic works, including On the Motive of the Incarnation, the first volume in CUA’s Early Modern Catholic Sources series, and Book 2 of Thomas Aquinas’s Commentary on the Sentences, edited by the Aquinas Institute for the Study of Sacred Doctrine. Fr. Schrader is the author of The Shortcut to Scholastic Latin, published by the Paideia Institute Press. He has attended every Veterum Sapientia conference since its inception.
Chief Executive Officer
Christopher Owens completed licentiate studies at the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas (“the Angelicum”) with a concentration in Thomism, and is a doctoral candidate at the same university. His research investigates the question of predestination in the writings of the early Thomists. More generally, Christopher’s research interests in both philosophy and theology are focused on the preambles of faith, ontology, meta-ethics, and action theory as found principally in the Thomistic tradition, as well as in the medieval dialectic of the University of Paris. Additionally, Christopher serves on the editorial board for Philosophical News, the official journal of the European Society for Moral Philosophy, and is vice-president of the Albertus Magnus Center for Scholastic Studies, based in Norcia, Italy.
Magister
Fr. Joseph Matlak is a priest of the Eparchy of Saint Josaphat in Parma (Ukrainian Greek-Catholic). Born in Dunstable, Bedfordshire, England, he studied Ancient History at King’s College London, and completed seminary studies and a Licentiate in Sacred Theology at the Catholic University of America, Washington DC. He is currently finishing a doctorate at the Institute for Orthodox Christian Studies in Cambridge, England. He serves as administrator of Saint Basil the Great Parish in Charlotte, North Carolina, and is an instructor within the Honors College of Belmont Abbey College. He has previously worked in parishes and missions, schools, youth and young adult ministry, liturgical music, and Catholic media, among other roles.
Magister - Introductory Latin
Magister Marcus holds a B.A. in Liberal Arts from Thomas Aquinas College and a Latin Fluency Certificate from Academia Vivarium Novum, where he learned to speak Latin under Luigi Miraglia. He is currently a graduate student at Kentucky University, studying Latin under Terence Tunberg and Milena Minkova, and works as a classical languages’ instructor, Liberal Arts teacher, and editor at Instituto Hugo de São Vitor, Brazil.
Magister
Samuel Stahl earned a PhD in Classics at the State University of New York at Buffalo. His dissertation is an annotated verse translation from Claudian’s carmina minora; his passions, both personal and professional, include Christian poetry and ecumenism. In addition to his work with VSI, he teaches ELA at a Catholic grammar school in Western New York, where he lives with his wife and two cats.
Magister
Mr. Post holds a B.A. in philosophy from St. John’s Seminary College in Camarillo, CA and an M.A. in Medieval Studies from the Centre for Medieval Studies at the University of Toronto. His areas of study and interest include codicology and palaeography and creating medieval and classical inks and writing materials. He particularly enjoys working in his garden surrounded by plants from the classical world such as papyrus, acanthus, figs, olives and grapes which also gives him an opportunity to practice his botanical Latin. He is a lifelong resident of southern California where he has been teaching and promoting Latin since 2004 and where he resides with his wife and six children.
Magister
Kit Adderley became interested in Ancient Rome at a young age, and following a particularly interesting and formative Roman History class in high school, decided to study Classics at Franciscan University of Steubenville. While studying and in subsequent years, Kit was blessed to attend many spoken Latin programs both in the United States and in Rome. Kit has taught Latin for 10 years at the high school and middle school level in Texas and Minnesota, most recently designing and implementing a spoken Latin program for high school that enjoyed tremendous success. Kit currently works in the finance industry but continues to love Latin and the classical world and is excited to work with Veterum Sapientia in bringing that knowledge to others.
Coordinator for Marketing and Course Development
Matthew Ratcliff is a graduate from Belmont Abbey College, where he fell in love with Latin while studying under Nancy Llewellyn and Gregory DiPippo, and where he encountered the natural method for the first time. He has previously taught for Aquinas Learning Center in Charlotte for the 2023-2024 academic year. Matthew firmly believes that everyone can learn Latin well. He loves incorporating physical movement in the classroom and is excited to share the joy of the language with every class!
Director of Academic Development, Assistant to the Dean, Magister - Introductory Latin
Magister Gregorius was born and raised in Providence, Rhode Island, where he attended a high school which offered an excellent Latin program. He attended McGill University in Montreal, where he studied Classical Languages and Literature, and the Augustinian Patristic Institute in Rome, where he studied the Fathers of the Church. For 23 years, he worked as a tour guide in Rome, and for the last 15 years, he has been a regular contributor (and for 10 years editor) to the New Liturgical Movement website.
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