Schedule for the written exams for court interpreters during
2010
The first 2010 court interpreter written examinations will be held
on Friday, June 4, 2010, at the DMACC Urban Campus, 1100 7th St.,
Building 2, Room 206, in Des Moines, Iowa.
Applications to take the June 4 examination must be received in the
Office of Professional Regulation no later than 4:30 p.m. on Tuesday, May 25. No exceptions will be made. Dates for the fall written examination will
be determined at a later date.
Schedule
for the Oral Certification Exam during 2010
The first 2010 Oral Certification Exam will be held Friday, May
14, 2010 at the Judicial Branch Building at 1111 E. Court Ave in Des Moines, Iowa.
Applications to take the May 14, 2010 examination must be received in the
Office of Professional Regulation no later than 4:30 p.m. on April 14, 2010. NO exceptions will be made. Dates for the fall oral certification
examination will be determined at a later date.
Tests for Iowa Court Interpreters
A. Overview
Being bilingual is not sufficient to be a
qualified court interpreter. Court interpreters should have college-level
vocabularies in two languages - including slang, legal, and technical terms;
excellent memory skills and mental acuity; and substantial mental stamina. The
best way for a person to demonstrate the knowledge and skills necessary to be a
competent court interpreter is perform well on exams constructed to evaluate
the knowledge and skills required to be a court interpreter.
Before taking any of the written exams in Iowa,
an interpreter must attend a two-day court interpreter orientation
program. See "Training Programs" link at the top of this
page.
Each year the Office of Professional Regulation
conducts the following interpreter exams:
1)
Three written exams. These exams assess whether an interpreter can demonstrate
knowledge characteristic of a minimally
qualified court interpreter.
Two of the exams are multiple-choice and entirely in English.
Interpreters must pass the two multiple-choice exams to be listed on the Roster
of Court Interpreters. The third exam
involves written translation of English text into the interpreter's second
language. Interpreters must pass this
exam to qualify to take the oral interpretation exam for court interpreter
certification (Step 2).
2)
Oral
interpretation exam, or "certification exam." This difficult
three-part oral interpretation exam, developed by the Consortium for State
Court Interpreter Certification (Consortium), assesses an interpreter's
competence in three types of oral interpretation: sight interpretation of
documents, consecutive interpretation, and simultaneous interpretation. In Iowa, interpreters must pass all three
parts of the certification exam in a single test session to "pass"
the exam. Interpreters who take one of
the Consortium's certification exams in another state will be recognized as
certified in Iowa only if they pass all three parts of the exam (i.e., at least 70 percent correct on each
part) in a single test session. Passing
this exam is the final step toward achieving the status of
"certified" oral language court interpreter in Iowa. (See section F., below, for information on
certification requirements for sign language court interpreters.)
NOTE: If
you have questions after reading all the materials on this website, you may
email court.interpreter@iowacourts.gov.
B. Written Exams for Court Interpreters
1) Description of the written exams
All noncertified interpreters must pass two multiple-choice
exams (Exams 1 and 2 below) to be listed on Iowa's Roster of Court Interpreters.
To qualify to take the oral interpretation exam for court
interpreter certification, interpreters must also pass a written translation
test (Exam 3 below). All three written
exams are offered each time the written exams are conducted in Iowa.
ü Exam 1 - The Consortium's standard multiple-choice exam
This is the standard written exam developed by the
Consortium for State Court Interpreter Certification (Consortium). It includes 135 multiple-choice questions;
all of them are in English. It tests an
interpreter's knowledge in two general areas that are essential for minimally
qualified court interpreters:
A. Knowledge of the
English language (total of 75 questions):
a. General vocabulary (50)
b.
Slang (25)
B. Court-related
knowledge (total of 60 questions):
a.
Legal terms (36)
b.
Court-related issues and procedures (14)
c.
Interpreter ethics (10)
To pass Exam 1, interpreters must correctly answer at least 80
percent (108) of the 135 questions and correctly answer at least 75
percent in each of the two sections (A. and B.).
ü Exam 2 - Iowa's multiple-choice exam on the Code of
Professional Conduct for Judicial Branch Interpreters (Chapter 48 of the Iowa Court Rules)
The Iowa Court Rules require interpreters to pass a separate
exam on the Code of Professional Conduct to be included on the Roster of Court
Interpreters. Exam 2 includes 15 additional
questions on court interpreter ethics.
For purposes of scoring, these 15 questions will be combined with the
last 10 questions on ethics in Exam 1 for a total of 25 questions on ethics.
To pass Exam 2, examinees must correctly answer at least 75
percent (19) of the 25 questions on interpreter ethics (10 questions
from Exam 1 and 15 questions from Exam 2).
Note: Beginning in 2008, interpreters who passed a 25-question
test on the Code of Professional
Conduct during 2004 or 2005, but have not passed Exam 1 (above), must answer
all 135 questions on Exam 1 -- and -- the additional 15 questions in Exam 2.
ü Exam 3 -
Written translation exam
This exam tests an interpreter's ability to accurately
translate written English text into the written form of another language. (Sign language interpreters do not have to
take this part of the exam.) The exam
includes 10 sets of two to three sentences in English, which examinees must
translate into the written form of their second language. The written translation exam, which is
conducted at the same time as Exams 1 and 2, will be graded "pass" or
"not pass" by a certified court interpreter approved by the
Consortium.
For a detailed description of the written exams for court
interpreters, review the Overview
of the Written Exams for Iowa Court Interpreters.
2) Re-taking the written exams
Interpreters who pass only one or two of the three written
exams must re-take only the exam(s) they did not pass in the first test
session. According to the Consortium's
guidelines, an interpreter can take the same version of a written exam
only one time in a 12-month period and should never be allowed to take the same
version more than twice. Note:
Interpreters who pass only one of the multiple-choice exams (either Exam 1 or
Exam 2) must pass the other exam within 24 months after the first test
session. If they do not pass both exams
within 24 months, they will have to re-take and pass both exams to qualify for
the Roster of Court Interpreters.
Currently, there are two versions of Exam 1, the Consortium's
standard 135-question multiple-choice test, and one version of Exam 2 (Iowa
ethics test). We will rotate the test
versions so each is given at least once per year.
There are four versions of Exam 3 (the written translation
exam). We will rotate the versions of
the written translation exam each time we conduct the written exams. There is no required waiting period for
taking different versions of this exam.
3) Registration for the written exam
To
register for the exam you must submit the following to the Office of
Professional Regulation:
ü Exam registration form
ü Registration fee ($40 first-time exams; $20 for re-taking an
exam)
ü Application to be a Court Interpreter (if you haven't
already submitted one)
ü Release/Waiver form - to authorize a criminal background
check
Applications to take the
June 12 examination must be received in the Office of Professional Regulation
no later than 4:30 p.m. on Monday, June 1.
Applications to take the November 13 examination must be received in the
Office of Professional Regulation no later than 4:30 p.m. on Monday, November
2.
C. Oral Interpretation Exam for Court
Interpreter Certification
Before interpreters can register to take the oral interpretation
exams, they must:
1)
Pass a criminal history check (no
felonies or other crimes of dishonesty or moral turpitude);
2)
Qualify to be on the Roster of Court
Interpreters (attend a two-day court interpreter orientation program and pass
the multi-choice exams (Exams 1 and 2); see section B., above; AND
3)
Pass the written translation exam
(Exam 3); see section B., above.
Registration forms and information are available
on this website by clicking on the "Forms" link above.
1)
Description of the oral language certification exam
The Iowa judicial branch is a
member of the Consortium for State Court Interpreter Certification (Consortium)
and will offer the Consortium's oral interpretation exams for court interpreter
certification. Through
the use of recorded court testimony, other recorded in-court statements, and
legal documents, the certification exam assesses an interpreter's ability to
completely and accurately perform three types of oral interpreting:
ü Simultaneous interpreting
ü Consecutive interpreting
ü Oral interpretation of written documents
For more detailed information about the oral interpretation
exam review the Overview of the
Oral Exam for Court Interpreter Certification.
To
pass the oral (certification) exams in Iowa, an examinee must achieve a score
of at least 70 percent on each of the three parts in a single test
session.
2)
Oral languages for which there are court interpreter certification
exams
The
Office of Professional Regulation offers the Consortium's court interpreter
certification exams for the 14 non-English languages listed below:
|
▪Arabic
|
▪Cantonese
|
▪French
|
▪Haitian
Creole
|
▪Hmong
|
|
▪Korean
|
▪Laotian
|
▪Mandarin
|
▪Portuguese
|
▪Russian
|
|
▪Serbian-Croatian
|
▪Somali
|
▪Spanish
|
▪Vietnamese
|
|
D. Other Certification Exams for Oral Language
Court Interpreters
Interpreters who pass the court interpreter certification
exams developed and offered by the following organizations will also meet
Iowa's oral exam requirements for court interpreter certification:
ü The Federal Court
Interpreter Certification Program
ü The National Association of
Judiciary Interpreters and Translators
In addition, interpreters who pass court interpreter certification
exams developed by other states that do not use the Consortium's oral exams
(e.g., California) might be granted certification in Iowa if the tests are
deemed equally or more rigorous than the Consortium exams -- and if the
interpreter's scores on those exams meet or exceed the score requirements
established by the Iowa Supreme Court.
E. Practice Kit for Spanish Court Interpreters
Preparing for the Certification Exam
The
National Consortium for State Court Interpreter Certification has developed a Spanish Practice Oral
Examination Kit. The
Practice Examination Kit includes the following:
ü Instruction Manual
ü CD with audio files containing the practice exam and a
passing performance on the examination
ü Hard copies of the test scripts
The
Kit is designed to provide purchasers with a step-by-step process to increase
their understanding of four basic things:
ü What a real
Consortium performance examination looks like,
including the "scoring units."
Practicing with the kit before taking an operational examination will
give the individual an opportunity to take a practice examination and score it
in much the same way that trained raters do for the actual examinations.
ü The scoring
methodology used by the Consortium to score oral examinations in a fair and consistent way. Purchasers will create their own scoring
dictionaries and in the process, learn how to research words and phrases like
the trained raters do and make decisions about what should be acceptable or not
and why.
ü What a passing
performance is really like. The Consortium recorded the performance of a
certified court interpreter on this practice oral exam. Listening to the part of the CD will give the
purchaser a feel for the pace and quality of a passing performance on the exam.
ü Self-assessment
of one's own level of skill and readiness to take a Consortium exam. The purchaser will
have the opportunity to take the practice examination in a way that closely
replicates the actual test environment and to fairly and objectively assess his
or her current level of skill.
Candidates should be able to recognize strengths, identify weaknesses,
and learn what additional training or practice is needed to improve
performance.
If
an interpreter completes all of the assignments in a step-by-step manner and in
the order provided, users should gain a better understanding of what a real
exam is like. More importantly, users
should gain a more realistic view of
their own level of performance.
F. Certification
Exams for Sign Language Court Interpreters
To be classified as a "certified" court interpreter, sign language interpreters must pass a
specialized exam in court interpreting and obtain a Specialist Certificate:
Legal (SC:L) from the National Testing System of the Registry of Interpreters
for the Deaf (NTSRID). For more
information on the requirements for sign language interpreters in Iowa, visit
the website of the Deaf
Services Commission of the Iowa Department of Human Rights.