Greek and Latin prep for Fall Diagnostic Exams

[awells27]

As a newly admitted ancient history student, I have to take diagnostic exams in Greek and Latin this September.  Any recommendations on best grammar/readings to prepare with would be most appreciated.  My Greek is fairly decent, so this would be review, but I have not studied Latin in probably 10 years, so that it will very much be like starting over.  As there is a flood of texts, I just want the one that is comprehensive in grammar and graded readings.  Thanks.  

[heliogabalus]

I'd go for Keller and Russell's Learn to Read Latin and Learn to Read Greek. Exhaustive grammar and all the readings are authentic.

[awells27]

All right thanks.  How would you prepare Keller and Russel to the Reading Latin Series by Peter V Jones?  

Edited March 11, 2014 by awells27

[heliogabalus]

They take completely different approaches, but both should do the job. If you spend a lot of time with Keller and Russell you'll understand the language at a pretty intimate level. With the Cambridge style, you'll quickly get comfortable reading long passages, but you'll be reading Latin in a more instinctual way. I used to think that the former was the only way to go, but I've taught with a Cambridge style text and it worked much better than I would have expected. Just look at samples of both online and see which you respond to.

[I_<3Crixus]

Does anyone have a Greek keyboard on their Windows 8 laptop? I'm looking for something that can work in a Microsoft Word document - I like to type out certain passages that I'm studying in Latin and mark them up - it takes too long to write long Greek passages hahaha. I tried using the "symbol" font in Microsoft, but I couldn't get past the fact that they don't use the external sigma.

[ἠφανισμένος]

In WIndows 7, I use the built-in polytonic Greek keyboard -- which ought to be available in Windows 8 as well.  There's a bit of a learning curve, but if you spend a lot of time working with Greek, it's well worth it.  It has the additional advantage of using Unicode, so you can actually copy what you've typed into other programs (unlike SPIonic etc.).  The only characters I can't type are ῇ and ῷ, which are usually my first two "recently used symbols" in Word's Symbol box.  What do you mean by "external" sigma?  The polytonic Greek keyboard has separate keys for σ and ς.  

[Melian4]

You can also try http://www.typegreek.com-- it's really easy to use, has all the accents, and the font is elegant. The text you typed can be copied in a Word document without problem. 

[salvoquat]

any opinion on "Greek Through Reading" by Nairn & Nairn?