Before starting more advanced work in Latin, students should be sure to finish the readings in the Lectiones Secundae graded reader. This will ensure that they are adequately prepared for third and fourth year work.

Typically, third year Latin students are taught Cicero and Ovid, and fourth year Horace and Catullus or Vergil. Without a teacher, however, these authors may prove to be too difficult. A better choice would be Latin Readings and More Latin Readings. These readers contain interlinear vocabulary and are edited and abridged to make the text accessible to an intermediate student. Students may also wish to try Personae Comicae, a collection of short plays. This text has similarly simplified vocabulary and style, and includes notes and vocabulary.

Another possibility is Elementary Latin Translation Book: Latin Readings for Review. This graded reader features readings in Roman history and Greek mythology. Since it is intended as a first-year review, however, Elementary Latin Translation Book may be too easy.

Students might find books such as Caesar: Invasion of Britain, Rome and Her Kings: Extracts from Livy, A Latin Vita of Alexander the Great, and Rest Lightly: An Anthology of Latin and Greek Tomb Inscriptions to be better suited to their abilities. These texts are all original Roman authors, and they offer notes and vocabulary to aid in translation.

English translations of these texts, however, are either unavailable or difficult to find. Students who feel they need a translation available might try Vergil's Aeneid, Books I and II, edited by Waldo E. Sweet. This edition (unlike the six-book edition by Pharr ordinarily used in high school classes) contains a simplified Latin paraphrase facing the original text, as well as notes. Many English translations of Vergil are available to check one's work. The notes (excerpts from Servius and others) are, however, in Latin, so students would need to have a dictionary available.

Finally, students may find it useful to have a grammar reference available. Bolchazy-Carducci Publishers offers Gildersleeve's Latin Grammar by B.L. Gildersleeve and G. Lodge and New Latin Grammar by C.E. Bennett. New Latin Grammar is generally the more concise and "user-friendly" book and would therefore be more appropriate for a third-year student.