Classics
Some of the Cambridge colleges, which will remain anonymous, put a lot of pressure on their
students. Classics at Peterhouse is more relaxed. Sure you’ll work hard, but here you actually get
the opportunity to enjoy it; let me explain. The basic structure goes something like this. At the
end of the year, you have 4 or 6 papers (6 if you choose to do prose composition: the choice is all
yours and you won’t be pressured to do it here): Latin literature, Greek literature, Latin prose
composition, Greek prose composition, linguistic structures, and “the essay one”. The ‘literature’
papers are translations into English and you’ll have one supervision a week (all supervisions are
an hour) preparing for them, alternating weekly between Latin and Greek. The ‘composition’ papers
are English - Latin/Greek (you can even do verse composition if you think you’re hard enough) and,
if you choose to do them, that’s a second supervision a week.
Language supervisions (so one or two a week, depending on if you want to do prose) are taken by the Peterhouse Director of Studies, Dr Pattenden (or Dr. P, as he’s affectionately known by the classicists here): he’s very good, he’s very supportive, he comes with a sense of humour dryer than a camel’s backside, and in short, he’s an absolute legend. Also, he knows all the other members of the faculty, so he picks only the best supervisors for his students (makes a BIG difference). Linguistic structures is a paper based around acute grammar knowledge and literary criticism: it’s not a barrel of laughs, but you can have as much or as little help as you feel you need in preparing for it, and you won’t be made to endure linguistic structures supervisions unless you ask for some. The final paper, which I called “the essay one”, calls for you to write some essays on topics that you choose to study throughout the year. You have to do Greek literature and Latin literature, but the other four options, of which you choose two and are supervised by people outside college (handpicked by Dr. P) are ancient history, philosophy, philology & linguistics and art & archaeology. That makes the course über-flexible, as you can literally do what you want, and per option (so for me that was Greek literature, Latin literature, ancient history and art & archaeology) you have one supervision a fortnight for which you usually have to write an essay on which you then get feedback. When supervised by Dr. P it’ll be one-to-one (good because you can tailor the supervision to anything you need help with), when with the others Dr. P tries to make sure you’re in a small group (fantastic for bouncing ideas off one another. And arguing), say three or four.
Other plus-points for Peterhouse.
- There aren’t many classicists (be warned, you may be the only one in your year, though you meet plenty of classicists at lectures and in out-of-college supervisions), which means your needs get the focus and the classicists in the college, being never more than half a dozen, all know one another really well.
- The library has a MASSIVE Classics collection; this is really really good, because it means you virtually always have the books you need, instead of always having to waste your time walking to the faculty only to find someone else has the book holed up in Girton for the next two weeks.
- The Classics faculty is on the Sidgwick site, about a 10 minute walk away, so Peterhouse is really well positioned for proximity to lectures and the town centre.
- When you’re practising exams, Dr. P makes sure you get sent a tray piled high with coffee and biscuits to help you on your way.
Rob Dickason