What the Test Covers

The certification exam tests knowledge and skills in four basic areas:

Language Proficiency

• Must demonstrate fluency in both English and Spanish

• Must know and be able to properly use relevant vocabulary, acronyms, expressions, and a variety of language constructions

Culture Competency

• Must thoroughly understand both the American culture and the Latino immigrant culture, including the acculturation process

• Must understand and be able to address culture issues relevant to their field of responsibility

Ethics & Professionalism

• Must thoroughly understand and apply the standards of professional conduct and the interpreters’ code of ethics

Applied Interpretation Skills

• Candidates must pass an oral interpreting examination while fulfilling all other responsibilities of the interpreter; for example, they must demonstrate:

  • That they know how and when it is appropriate to explain cultural issues,

  • That they know how to handle unusual or difficult situations,

  • That they know how and when to ask for repetition or clarification,

  • etc.

Test Overview

The interpreter test consists of two parts, an online written test and a live online oral test. Each part is comprised of multiple sections.

The candidate must pass the written exam before he or she qualifies to take the oral exam.

Part 1 – The Written Test

The online written test contains questions of various types, including multiple choice, true/false, and various others. Questions are designed to challenge the candidate without attempting to mislead, or “trick” them. The written exam measures candidates’ knowledge in four areas:

Section 1 - Language Proficiency - To function as a skilled interpreter, the first requirement is language proficiency. The written exam tests literacy in both English and Spanish, including comprehension and fundamental language skills.

Section 2 - Vocabulary and Usage – The second area of knowledge essential to an interpreter is familiarity with a wide range of vocabulary and terminology and its proper usage. This includes discipline specific terminology, false cognates, idioms, and more.

Section 3 - Cultural Competency - The third area tested is culture. Candidates are tested on their knowledge of discipline related American culture and Latino immigrant culture.

Section 4 - Ethics and Professional Conduct - The final area of knowledge addressed by the written exam is knowledge of interpreter ethics and standards of professional conduct.

Scoring the Written Exam

Each question will have one correct answer. A score of at least 70% correct on each section of the written exam is required to pass. 

Part 2 – The Oral Exam

The oral exam measures the candidate’s ability to properly apply their knowledge while accurately and clearly rendering meaning from source to target language in each of the three modes of interpreting that are required of interpreters:

1. sight translation,

2. consecutive interpreting, and

3. simultaneous interpreting.

The candidate must demonstrate:

The oral exam consists of three sections:

Section 1 – Sight Translation

• Spanish to English – This part of the exam simulates an interpreter reading a Spanish language document aloud in English to an English-speaking person.

• English to Spanish – This part of the exam simulates an interpreter reading an English language document aloud in Spanish to a Spanish-speaking person.

 

Section 2 – Consecutive Interpreting

During this portion of the exam, the interpreter interprets English language questions, comments, statements, conversation, etc. (segments) into Spanish, and the Spanish responses into English.

Section 3 – Simultaneous Interpreting

This part of the exam is two monologues, one in English and one in Spanish, of approximately 400 words each, at an approximate speed of 120 words per minute. One hundred and twenty words per minute is slower than most ordinary speech.

During this portion of the exam, the candidate listens to each monologue and, while listening, interprets aloud from the source language into the target language.

Scoring the Oral Exam

The oral exam will be scored in two ways:

1. objectively, by the number of scoring units interpreted correctly, and

2. subjectively, by an overall subjective evaluation.

What are scoring units?

Scoring units are particular words and phrases that are selected to represent various features of language that interpreters encounter in their work, and that they must render accurately and completely, without altering the meaning or style of speech.

The types of scoring units that are distributed throughout the exam include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Grammar - words or phrases that might be interpreted incorrectly due to an inadequate command of grammar

• False cognates - words that sound or look alike in both languages, but that have different meanings

• General vocabulary - a range of nouns, verbs, adjectives, etc.

• Technical vocabulary - special terminology frequently encountered in discipline-specific situations

• Idioms and expressions - words or phrases in the source language which will usually result in lost meaning or nonsense if they are interpreted word-for-word into the target language

• Numbers, names, dates - these must be accurately preserved during the interpretation

• Modifiers, emphasis - adjective, adverbs, exclamations, etc. in the source language that must be accurately preserved in the target language

• Register/style - words or phrases characteristic of a style of speech (formal, casual, informal) that must be preserved in the interpretation, for example, “yeah” and “yes” mean the same, but make a different impression on the listener

• Position and special function - words or phrases that might be overlooked or left out because of their position in the sentence, such as embedded phrases or tagons, or because they are “fillers,” such as false starts, stalls, etc., and

• Slang/Colloquialisms - words or phrases that are slang or colloquial language.

How many scoring units must a candidate get right to pass the exam?

Each section of the exam has a fixed number of scoring units that are used to calculate the objective score for the oral examination. The candidate must score at least 70% correct on each of the three sections of the exam to pass.

Overall Subjective Evaluation

In addition to the evaluation of a candidate’s scoring unit assessment, each section of the exam is further evaluated by the examiners for consistency in interpreting and language skills. This is a subjective, structured assessment of interpreting and language skills that may not be captured within the framework of the scoring unit assessment. It is used to evaluate any consistently repeated mistakes, difficulty understanding a candidate due to speech habits or accent, and significant changes in meaning in non-scoring unit phrases of the exam. For example, on rare occasions a candidate might “hit” the correct interpretation of scoring units enough times to achieve the minimum acceptable score in an exam section, while routinely misinterpreting the entire unit of meaning within which the scoring unit has occurred. Candidates might also manage to correctly interpret many keywords, but frequently embellish the text or “make-up” words. These are serious breaches of interpreter ethics and professional conduct and may result in an unacceptable rating on that dimension of the evaluation. The subjective evaluation functions as a corrective measure of the quantitative performance criteria associated with the point score earned through interpretation of the scoring units.

Using this evaluation, the examiners will assign one of three values to the candidate’s performance on each of three dimensions: English Language Skills, Spanish Language Skills and Interpreting Skills. The values are Acceptable, Borderline, and Unacceptable.

Assignment of an Acceptable score occurs when the examiners believe that the candidate’s overall performance is competent or better. In such circumstances the scoring unit scoring will determine whether the candidate passes or fails the exam.

A Borderline classification is an indication to the candidate that his/her performance on the exam demonstrated weaknesses that concerned the examiner. This rating does not affect the objective (scoring unit) score, so a candidate will not fail the exam if a borderline rating is received and the candidate passes on the point score.

Examiners will assign an Unacceptable rating when a candidate's performance clearly does not meet minimum standards for interpreting. Usually, Unacceptable ratings are matched by scoring unit scores that do not meet the minimum standards for passing the exam. However, if an Unacceptable rating is given on any of the three dimensions of the subjective scoring system, the candidate will receive a failing grade for the exam, even if the objective (scoring unit) score is in the passing range.