By the way, how is studying Latin at University? Is it quite fast? I've thought about continuing VCE Latin at UoM as breadth and always wondered how people are able to learn Latin from scratch and be able to read/translate and anaylse texts so quickly. Seems mind-boggling to me
Haha no prob and yes, it is mind-boggling
Well more than half the students drop off after the first semester in Latin:/ Surprisingly enough, I've actually met a lot of VCE Latin students and to be honest, I'd say we are at exactly the same level (that is the aim of the first year after all). For example, I managed to match them in everything (surprisingly enough I even managed to out do them in certain areas) but I suppose that it comes down to the person as well. I never thought I'd be good at Latin until my professor asked me to continue with it...
Latin, from what I understand, is much harder at University. A lot of the VCE students get a shock coming in to it and many of the 2nd year students have had a year to perfect their essay writing skills for University, while VCE students have not. With that said, VCE students have had a longer time to learn the language. It's really hard for me to speak on behalf of everyone, I can only speak for myself. Personally, I didn't find learning the entire language difficult in a year (we are still studying the exceptions next year though) but that's because I worked ridiculously hard and I love it so much! Two of the best tutors I've ever had, started Latin at University and now they're at Yale and Harvard (not joking) completing their PhD.
Please remember that I also had Italian to back me up, which CERTAINLY helped. All in all, I think it really depends on the person. To be honest I'd say that both university students AND VCE students get quite a shock in Latin 3. Although, I've got some pretty hardcore Latin GENIUSES in my class right now, so I'm sure THEY'LL be fine.
The best advice I can give you is, do what you love and the rest will follow
Latin 3 is more literature based than grammar focused. It involves analysing the language at sophisticated levels etc but if you like this sort of thing, then I'm sure you'll do VERY WELL in it