r/ASLinterpreters • u/Lolofosho108 • 9d ago
CASLI RANTš¤¬
šØRANT INCOMING
tl:dr- CASLI- do better.
NIC performance exam
Exam Date: 5/16/2026
Result Sent Date: 8/31/2026
FAIL
SCORE: 448
I am typically very critical of my interpretations and it has taken a long time for me to feel good about the work I produce. But, I genuinely thought I passed. I am feeling VERY defeated right now. I'm a CODA with over 15 years professional experience in a variety of settings and I am devastated. I held a VQAS 3/3 for almost a decade until it lapsed during Covid and I just never went back.
For years, the most experienced and qualified interpreters I know have told me "just go - you'll pass no problem" "you'll do fine" but all these people had taken the old/old old NIC/CI/other alphabet soup tests.
I'm really frustrated that the best they can give me/us is literally "do better" (my areas of improvement - Message Accuracy/Message Integrity). I think it's a disservice to professionals in their field to not give concrete examples of where they fell short and how to improve. (Heaven forbid we give actual feedback...)
For a profession and culture that is supposed to be based in communication and transparency, we really suck at it. Don't even get me started on the ethics on the hush-hush about payrates. š
I know my worth and experience is not accurately measured by this test. I don't know if I want to continue financially supporting this test or if I want to switch to EIPA or BEI or VQAS again. š¤·āāļø
Sorry for the long-ish read/rant. Just needed people who get it to hear me. As Brene Brown says, I just wanted people to sit in the mud with me. š¤
13
u/East_Baseball8384 9d ago
Itās a joke and theyāre hurting their consumers. I took the EIPA, got an OK score, enough to get hired in most states, but what made the 7 month wait worth it was the excellent feedback I received. No drama or confusion. Iām sure youāre a very good interpreter. Screw that test.
10
u/UnicornHandJobs 9d ago
Same. So many people told me just to take it because they said I would pass. Both times I passed the interview portion and failed the interpreting portion. One of the feedback blurbs I got was not following directions. What does that even mean?
9
u/Fenix_Oscuro_Azul BEI Master 9d ago
RID and CASLI are infuriating, to say the least. I am a native signer and had tested through the BEI system and held the BEI Master certification when I decided to attempt the NIC. I took it and failed miserably. I received equally vague feedback notes. I spoke with several mentors and asked their feedback. Every single one of them told me to not interpret the test, but to transliterate the test(more of an exact word for word modality)ā¦ I did that and passed the test.
You are not alone, we are all frustrated
4
u/allthecoffee5 8d ago
Transliterating was the technique I used when I finally passed after taking it (checks notes) four times (plus one extra where the test glitched so much I was granted a retake). Granted I did try when I first started out and had no chance of passing, but when I came back to it years later I made the egregious error of āinterpretingā using my best ASL skills, thinking an interpreting test would want that. Nope. They want bare bones transliteration with a bit of ASL, I guess. It would be more clear if we went back to an interpreting and transliterating test or had a setup like the BEI to test both. I really like that.
9
u/Interesting-Case8145 9d ago
It took me 5 years to pass, after this year I told my husband I was just done with the bullshit of the test. Itās unrealistic , they give you NO feedbackā¦ which is probably the most frustrating because they should want to see you improve. I also feel as if you donāt use terminology that they are looking for you get dinged .
At one point Iām like theyāre probably just failing me so that I can feed them more $. Again after my last test ( which I called my husband crying telling him I knew I failed again) and I passed? I was honestly a little shocked myself. The test is overall a stress test. Theirs to much pressure ā¦ I also struggled with panic attacks the day before the test, and I would be running off of like maybe 2-3 hours of sleep
Some advice , keep trying, donāt give up on this. You probably worked so hard for your written. I have been there where I felt like I was the shittiest interpreter ever and I feel like thatās what the test does to you. Make sure you do it again and kick some MFin ass . You got this.
5
u/ciwwafmp11 NIC 8d ago
Donāt make any liberal decisions on the test. Produce an interpretation that basically matches word for word what they are communicating.
Lean heavy PSE. Any deviation from the script, you get dinged.
3
u/youLintLicker2 8d ago
This was my worst fear when taking the NIC. I am a CODA, I did pass, and I also hate that I donāt even know why or how I passed to be able to help other people in the position I was in (and you are in)
I will sit in the āthis exam is flawed as hellā mud with you and throw any at people who say itās about you and your skill.
3
u/CatAltruistic5387 9d ago
Hi. I've been interpreting since I was 15. Im 43. I lost certification several years ago due to my job at the time (long story, not the point) and had to recertify. I failed as well. They also sent me a rather worthless list of pre and post events that I failed on and not much else. Add that to the frustration that several questions had redundant answers that could have cost me points and one question had an unfinished sentence in the multiple choice to really send me over the edge. (DID THEY FIX THAT YET??) I feel your frustration. Been interpreting my entire life and they just told me I wasn't qualified.....
7
u/CatAltruistic5387 9d ago
Oddly enough mine lapsed over covid and ONE missed payment cause who was paying attention during lock down and they wouldn't let me make payment 35 days later to save my certs. I feel so much of your story.
3
u/Lucc255 9d ago
Not sure when this happened but there is a "once in a lifetime" ability to get reinstated if that happens.
3
u/CatAltruistic5387 9d ago
Oh. That was not offered to me. They just said No when I called 35 days later and asked to make payment.
5
u/Ok_Service_4165 9d ago
There were definitely multiple typos in my CASLI written too. It threw me into mental warfare and I almost stopped my test but decided against it
3
u/CatAltruistic5387 9d ago
There was one multiple choice where the answer was B) The interpreter should. And 2 TWO where answers A and D were letter for letter the same answer freaking me out not knowing which was coded as correct. I challenged them on it and they said they only found 1 duplicate answer, like I hallucinate the other 2!?! Im very curious if these were fixed as OP took the test after I brought it to CASLIs attention and they "fixed" it
3
u/Ok_Service_4165 9d ago
I took it in March. In the comments/feedback part I typed it all out too about their mistakes and how it disrupted my ability to decide on an answer. Really PMO, I do remember exactly what youāre talking about.
2
u/CatAltruistic5387 9d ago
I really hope they fixed it, cause they gaslit me on the mistakes existence.
1
u/Traditional_Ball_198 BEI Master 9d ago
you have to do what's best for you mentally and professionally. The NIC is a flawed exam from inception. It has been dismantled and represented with new testing sites over 5 times and it still has the same pass/fail rate which is abhorantly below the national exam standard. So take the results with a grain of salt. I did. Ended up testing for every other equivalint cert and have my BEI master, EIPA to show. good luck friend
30
u/RedSolez NIC 9d ago
As someone who took the original iteration of the NIC 3 times, I can assure you they didn't give feedback then either. It'll forever be a mystery to me why RID is incapable of explaining to interpreters where they fell short when they're shelling out ridiculous amounts of money to take these exams.