The Alpharetta High School Novice Certamen team competed in their first Certamen competition at Walton High School last month and brought home a second-place trophy. "Certamen," means "competition" or "struggle" in Latin, and the competition is structured like a quiz bowl with Roman themes. The game tests the players' knowledge and reflexes with fast questions about the Latin language itself as well as the history, mythology and culture of the civilization. Traditionally, a Certamen tournament is divided into novice, intermediate and advanced divisions. Schools with strong Latin programs, such as Walton, often dominate. To encourage more schools to compete, a true novice division was created for this meet, allowing newcomers to be scored against each other rather than against more experienced teams.
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