Wonderful Results of TJ Students on 2008 National Latin Exam

 

We are pleased to announce the wonderful results achieved by our students on the recent 2008 National Latin Exam:

 

On March 13, 192 Thomas Jefferson students took the examination along with 135,000 others worldwide, and almost all students received an award, with the majority receiving a Gold or Silver Medal. I have given the examination for the past 22 years and I am thrilled with these marvelous results. Every Latin 1 student received either a Gold (summa cum laude) or Silver Medal (maxima cum laude)!! In addition, our Latin 1 average score of 38 was well above the national average of 28. Three Latin I students: Arjun Chavern, Matthew Craddock, and Jenny Tobat earned perfect scores this year.

 

The Latin 2 students performed extremely well, with every student winning an award: summa, maxima, magna, cum laude. The TJ average was 37 while the national average was only a 28.  Nine outstanding Latin 2 students earned a perfect score: Evan Liu, Christine O'Donnell, Courtney Prothero, Quantam Wei, Krishnan Chander, Catherine Zucker, Willis Wendler, Ashwin Raja, and David Warrington.

 

The Latin 3 performed well too. The TJ average was 37, while the national average was only 27. Eight Latin 3 students: Daniel Li, Amith Ananthram, Alexander Spalding, Sarah Thomas, John Hife, Lorna Zhang, Anne Marie Creighton, and Christopher Zhang earned perfect score, with almost all other level three students earning a Maxima, Summa, or Magna Cum Laude.

 

The AP Latin students took either the Latin 3, 4 or 5 Poetry examinations and ALL students received awards. The standards for medals are set much higher at the upper-levels of Latin than they are at the lower levels. One student: Maya Wei received a perfect score on the fiercely contested Upper-Level poetry examination this year! In addition, ten students in their fifth year of Latin: Hannah Chartoff, Chester Markwalter, Thomas Williams, Jesse Wong, William Mcgrath, Nathan Harmata, Erin Glennon, Nishant Trivedi, Zach Mott, and Rita Patel earned gold medals on the very arduous Latin V examination.

 

All students who earned a perfect score will receive a framed hand crafted certificate. There were only 1,062 perfect scores this year out of 135,000 students who took the National Latin Examination world-wide. 21 perfect scores were earned by Thomas Jefferson Latin students.

 

Eighteen students in upper level Latin have earned four gold medals and have been awarded an Oxford Classical Dictionary by the National Latin Examination Committee for their tremendous achievement.

These marvelous Latin students are: Hannah Chartoff, Greg Epremian, Erin Glennon, Nathan Harmata, Allison Hegel, Keith Horita, Lara Howerton, Michael Kim, Xiaoxiao Lin, Chet Markwalter, Allison Ruth, Sam Pell, Eric Shi, Huyn Soo Suh, Eva Szymanski, Arvind Thiagarajan, Christina Wallin, and Lillian Waller.

This year we are lucky to have five distinguished students earn their FIFTH GOLD MEDAL on the National Latin Exam. This is a rare achievement in the Latin world and these students must be honored with great praise: Zach Mott, Tom Williams, Rita Patel, Will McGrath, Nishant Trivedi, Jesse Wong. They will receive a special book award.

 

Daniel Li (III), Amith Ananthram (III), and Anne Marie Creighton (III) also won the Carter Drake Goad Memorial book award for earning a perfect score for three consecutive years. Only 5 students in the United States qualified for such an honor this year!  

                                               

The fourth annual Latin Awards Ceremony will be held Wednesday, May 21st. Latin students will receive awards earned throughout the year: VJCL State Convention (held in November), Certamen competitions, Classical Association of Virginia Tournament, and the Medusa Mythology Examination.

 

Thank you,

Christine L. Conklin