“Why Study Latin?” Series — Reason #4: SAT and ACT Scores

Latin Boosts SAT and ACT Scores

While long-term Latin study has a variety of benefits, one in particular is most likely to get the attention of high-achieving students and parents — a significant increase in SAT and ACT scores. In previous articles in this series I’ve outlined precisely how Latin study improves students’ understanding and command of English vocabulary and grammar, which the SAT and ACT test in a very direct way. (In fact, students without a large English vocabulary and in-depth understanding of English grammar can’t possibly score well on the verbal part of these standardized tests.) I’ve also discussed how study of the Latin language develops students’ logical-thinking skills — which is also essential for success on these standardized tests. The structure and logic of the Latin sentence is so different from that of English that the process of translating sentences from Latin to English and English to Latin is necessarily quite complex. And while this makes Latin a more challenging language to learn (especially early on), this built-in complexity is hugely positive for the growth of students’ lateral-thinking abilities. Being forced to identify, apply, and reorganize a wide range of individual rules of grammar and information-points forces students to develop advanced logical-thinking skills. And unlike a broad knowledge of vocabulary and grammar, which is really only helpful on the verbal portion of the test, excellent logical-thinking skills give the student a huge boost on BOTH the verbal AND math sections of the SAT and ACT.  

Students who’ve studied Latin for at least a year will see significant improvement in the following three areas:

Obviously, growth in these areas is beneficial to the student in myriad ways, making him or her far more successful not just in other subjects in school but later on in life in general. One specific (and important) benefit of these skill sets is improved performance on the SAT and ACT standardized tests. In fact, in my experience there’s nothing a student can do that’s more effective for boosting SAT/ACT scores than to study Latin.

In the following article I’ll explain precisely how a solid knowledge of Latin improves students’ command of each of these three areas, then demonstrate how each plays a part in boosting standardized-test scores.

English Vocabulary

Approximately 56% of words in English are derived from Latin words, either directly borrowed from Latin or passed down through French. (Finkenstaedt 1973; Xiao 2020) In addition, many of the words in English with a Latin origin were later purposely Latinized, their spellings made to conform to the spellings of their Latin “parents”. These two characteristics of English allow students with a solid knowledge of Latin vocabulary to learn and remember English word spellings far more easily. Even more positive, though, is the significant improvement in the understanding of English word meanings. The vast majority of Latin words are combinations of shorter, more basic Latin words or of bases or stems with different prefixes added. The study of these components, their translations, and how they fit together gives Latin students insights into English word meanings that no other language can provide. I’ll do my best to illustrate these points with a couple examples.

First, let’s look at verb stems and prefixes and how their combination creates new meanings. If we start with the fourth principal part of the following basic Latin verb:

traho, trahere, traxi, TRACTUS (which means “drag”, “draw”, or “pull”)

Then add the prefix “ex-” (which means “from” or “out”),

It becomes:

“ex-” (“out”) + “tractus” (“pull”) = “extractus” => “extract” (“pull out”)

But if we switch the prefix to “con-” (which means “together”),

It becomes:

“con-” (“together”) + “tractus” (“pull”) = “contractus” => “contract” (“pull together”)

Or if we switch it to “re-” (which means “back” or “again”),

It becomes:

“re-” (“back”) + “tractus” (“pull”) = “retractus” => “retract” (“pull back”)

And this pattern holds across the entire Latin language. If a student knows the meaning of a basic Latin word and the meanings of a couple dozen Latin prefixes, then the student can quite easily guess the meanings of new verbs formed from a combination of the basic verb and a prefix. This then allows the student to guess the meanings of English words derived from these combination Latin verbs quite accurately. 

Second, let’s take a look at how the meanings of non-verb Latin words compounded from multiple basic Latin words can also be guessed quite easily.  

A good example is the English noun “equilibrium”, which comes from the Latin noun:

“aequilibrium, -i”

This is a combination of the adjective:

“aequus, -a, -um” (“equal” or “even”)

And the noun:

“libra, -ae” (“balance”).

And so together:

“aequus” (“equal”) + “libra” (“balance”) = “aequilibrium” => “equilibrium” (“equal balance”)

Another example is the English adjective “multilateral”, which comes from the Latin adjective:

“multilateralis, -e”

This is a combination of the adjective:

“multus, -a, -um” (“many” or “much”)

And the noun:

“latus, lateris” (“side”).

And so together:

“multus” (“many”) + “lateris” (“side”) = “multilateralis” => “multilateral” (“many-sided”)

This combining of multiple words into new longer words or of basic verbs with a limited number of prefixes is characteristic of the Latin language. And since the Latin student can’t help but develop an understanding of these patterns over time, it becomes extremely easy for him or her to guess the meanings of compound Latin words (and their English derivatives) accurately and with little effort. It isn’t an exaggeration to say that gaining an understanding of how Latin vocabulary works while simultaneously learning the meanings of a relatively small number of basic Latin words is the EASIEST and MOST EFFECTIVE way to expand one’s English vocabulary. As you might guess, this deeper understanding of Latin (and related English) vocabulary is a huge boon to any student looking to raise his or her SAT/ACT verbal test scores.

English Grammar

One of the best ways (if not the VERY best way) to learn the subtleties of English grammar is by studying Latin. Because the logic of a Latin sentence is so different from that of an English sentence, students are forced to move beyond their vague, intuitive understanding of grammar toward a clear, conscious understanding — translating between these two languages would be impossible otherwise. Most modern European languages, on the other hand, have a sentence structure so similar to that of English that students are (unfortunately) never forced to move very far beyond an intuitive understanding of sentence structure and grammar. 

The following is a summary of the four basic English sentence templates. Though there are many variations, every English sentence or clause will fit into one of these four.

1) subject – action verb – direct object – “to” – indirect object

Ex.: “A man gives a present to the woman.”

2) subject – action verb – indirect object – direct object

Ex.: “A man gives the woman a present.”

3) subject – linking verb – predicate nominative

Ex. “The man is a teacher.”

4) subject – linking verb – predicate adjective

Ex.: “The man is tall.”

English speakers have an intuitive understanding of these four templates, knowing the role that each noun has in the sentence by its position in the template. A Latin sentence, on the other hand, has a completely different structure and logic. Latin has all the same roles for nouns (subject, indirect object, direct object, possessive, etc.), but the role of a noun isn’t determined by its position in the sentence. Rather, the ending on the noun, which varies according to the noun’s case and number (singular or plural), determines the role. This concept becomes clearer in the following example.

English Sentence: “The girl gives the girls a girl of the girls.”

Latin Translation: “Puella dat puellis puellam puellarum.”

I’ve used the same noun several times in this sentence as a way to make the structural differences between the two languages a bit clearer. As demonstrated in the four templates above, English indicates the role of each noun by its position in the sentence and/or an introductory word or words (e.g., “of”). The subject precedes the verb, the direct and indirect objects follow the verb, and the possessive is preceded by the word “of”. Latin, on the other hand, indicates the role of each noun by its ending. (“Puell-a” = subject; “puell-is” = indirect object; “puell-am” = direct object; “puell-arum” = possessive.) The upshot of this very different method of indicating the role of each noun is that the pieces of a Latin sentence don’t need to be in any particular order, and therefore the following variations on the Latin sentence all have the exact same meaning:

“Puella dat puellis puellam puellarum.”

“Puellarum puellam puella puellis dat.”

“Dat puella puellam puellarum puellis.”

“Puellis dat puellam puellarum puella.”

And these are just some of the possible Latin translations! As you might guess, this structural difference makes it impossible for the student to translate between Latin and English without an extremely clear idea of the grammar of both languages. For this reason, Latin students have a far better grasp of English grammar overall than students of modern languages, and so tend to score much higher on the SAT and ACT verbal sections.

Logical Skills

Because translation from Latin to English (and vice versa) requires transporting meaning from a sentence with one type of structure to one with a completely different type of structure, the student is forced not just to acquire a detailed understanding of both but also to develop some very advanced logical skills. Unlike translation between English and most modern European languages, which doesn’t require the English-speaking student to move outside of an intuitive understanding of sentence structure, translation between English and Latin necessitates the comprehension and application of a wide range of grammatical rules in the context of a complex and ever-changing process.  

This complex process of translation between Latin and English must be learned gradually over the course of years, and while this is clearly a significant time commitment, the benefits are great. Not only does the student learn the subtleties of English grammar and vocabulary far better than he or she would through study of a modern language, but at the same time, that student is forced to develop logical problem-solving skills that will make a huge difference on both parts (verbal AND math) of the SAT and ACT, raising the student’s scores significantly.

Check out the main article in this series: Why Study Latin?

References

1. Finkenstaedt, Thomas; Wolff, Dieter (1973). Ordered Profusion: Studies in Dictionaries and the English Lexicon. C. Winter. p. 119. ISBN 3-533-02253-6.
2. Xiao, Xiao (2020). “The study of loanwords in English”. Journal of Contemporary Educational Research. 4 (12): 36–43.