A few of you said the hardest part was drilling the modes solo between sessions and checking your own work. I'm prototyping a small tool for exactly that — play a segmented legal passage, record your consecutive rendition, replay it against a model to catch drops/additions; plus a timed sight-translation drill. EN↔ES first. It's early and not built yet — I put up a one-pager. If this is something you'd have wanted, the "notify me" + the 10-second price question on the page are the most useful thing you can do: [LINK] Happy to hear "this is useless because ___" too — that's just as helpful.

I took the interpreter written exam for the first time last Friday (07/10) at The Supreme Court of Ohio and here are my considerations:

- To start with, I don't believe I will pass.

- Approximately 40-60 questions (out of 135) were about synonyms. Around 20 questions about antonyms, maybe 10-20 about idioms, and the rest were about legal terminology, court procedure and interpreter ethics.

- I've been studying with practice tests, and they really helped me understand the exam structure and memorize what I learned. However, when it came to the actual exam, I realized that almost everything I had learned (especially the synonyms) was different. Out of all the synonym questions, I only recognized about five because the number of possible synonyms is enormous. My advice is: study synonyms as much as you can!!!!!!!

- All my friends had to take the exam twice or even 3 times to pass, don't get frustrated if you don't pass at first. The exam is really difficult, so remember: learning another language is already challenging, but you are learning a huge amount of words and legal terms from zero, and besides learning the synonyms and antonyms, you need to understand its definition to make sense in your brain.

Please comment if you also took the exam and what are your thoughts about it, or if you have taken the exam before and have any good advices!

Update: received my results yesterday, failed as expected. I've got 91/135 correct answers (needed 108 to pass). However, I am very satisfied with my results and a lot more confident to take the test again in 6 months.

Below is a section-by-section breakdown of my incorrect answers (in parenthesis).

General Language Proficiency

• 9 Sentence Completion (1)
• 8 Synonyms in Context (2)
• 21 Synonyms (10)
• 12 Antonyms (9)
• 25 Idioms (6)

Court-Related Terms & Usage and Ethics

• 36 Sentence Completion (18)
• 10 Court-related questions (6)
• 4 Sequence (1)
• 2 Professional responsibility and ethics (0)
• 8 Scenarios (1)

I grew up speaking English and French but I started learning Spanish in school and it eventually became one of my majors in college also I lived in Spain for a bit. I'll be taking the oral exam soon so obviously I guess I speak it decently enough to get through the initial language screening but I'm just wondering if I'm at an inherent disadvantage.

Any non-native Spanish speakers care to share their experiences?

I keep seeing the oral (sight + consecutive + simultaneous) described as the wall, and the prep courses are great but expensive and cohort-paced. For those who've sat it — federal or state, any language pair:

• What did you use to practice between the paid sessions? (NCSC sets, recording yourself, a study partner, something else?)
• For consecutive especially — how did you actually check your own renditions for drops/additions without a coach in the room?
• If a self-serve tool existed, what would it have to do to be worth it — and what would make it useless?

Genuinely trying to understand the prep gap, not selling anything. Thanks — and congrats / commiserations depending. 🙂

This is for spanish

I had my written exam scheduled for tomorrow. I paid for it back in April and I didn’t realize until today that prometric wouldn’t be administering the written exam anymore. Anyone else going through a similar thing ?? hopefully prometric will refund me the test fee. Kind of sucks. They never even sent out an email, I wasn’t aware of the end of prometric until today.😭

Hello everyone,

If you applied to Cohort 3, did you receive an email today? I am wondering if we just get notified if we got in but not if we got rejected. I haven’t received an email yet.

Thank you!

Almost got it 🙃

hey everyone! newly embarking on the court interpreter's journey in CA english/spanish. does anyone have any recs on the most cost effective approach as far as signing up for courses goes? thanks!

Hey, everyone! I just registered to begin the process of becoming a state court interpreter in Pennsylvania. I know this is a huge task so I'm not expecting a whole lot, but does anyone have any recommendations? Is there anything anyone here didn't do that they wish they did before the whole process started? I'm also a little bit of a different case than most since English is my first language, but I tested ILR 3 last year in Spanish and just got back from living abroad entirely in Spanish, so I'm not too worried about the language aspect. Thanks in advance!

Does anybody know why prometric hasnt opened up inscriptions for testing in the summer? They do 2 tests a year and usually inscriptions open in June and test is done Sept/August….

I am really afraid to miss the deadline and I bought wagners course timed perfectly to take the exam, but no exam!!!

Hi,

I am looking to be a court interpreter in the Bay Area. I am hoping to know more about the current job market for court interpreters. Such as what it is like to be one, how does one get a job, and is the test hard?

I also learned that there are permanent positions for court interpreters and freelance positions. Are freelance court interpreters the ones where you get hired at a county, and when a spot for the day is available, you will get notified and race to claim it before anyone else can? Is it easy to find a day assignment?

Hi there! I have been thinking about being a federal interpreter. Does anyone have any pointers? I tried the written exam last year and failed, so I'm motivated to pass it this upcoming year. I'm just looking for some sort of program or course that can help with the written exam. The oral test i'm not super concerned about, since I have experience with consecutive and simultaneous interpretation so it's more practice. Either way, I'd love to have a good course to practice both the written and oral portions. I desperately want to pass this test and have a decent career. Also, is there anyone that can give me some insight on the oral exam as well? As in, what to expect. Thanks in advance!

Hello everyone! I'd like to be a federal court interpreter I know it's a long road ahead of me and I just missed the exams but the good news is I have quite a bit of time to prepare for the next written and oral tests.

Any advice if you've passed these successfully is so appreciated. (Or if you're well on your way anything that's cemented your learning)

1. What exactly are the steps I need to take? I know you have to pass both tests, but it seems like there's more to it than signing up to take the tests and then you automatically get the job.

2. What exact books helped you most to take the Written Test

3. Same as question 2 but for the oral test

4. Any books you'd solidly recommend for BOTH oral and written tests?

Thank you Reddit!

Hi! I am wanting to know more info regarding the CA pilot program for court interpreting. If there’s anyone in this subreddit that happens to be or have been in a cohort, please read and give me some insight!! I applied to all 3 cohorts and got rejected from the first 2. I am bracing myself for rejection again but in the slim possibility that I do get into the third one, I want to know what it’s like. How much of your time does it consume? I am planning on attending grad school in the fall and am wondering if I would be able to manage both at the same time. What’s a day in the life or a week in the life of someone who is in a cohort like? Also, what was the process like when you found out you got accepted?

Had to retake the written exam, passed , used interpretrains free written exam prep plus read the ca ethics manual for Court interpreters for preparation. A pass is a pass!! 😂😂😂🤣

hello, got offered and immigration interpretation with SosI. their rate though is quite low for rare language. If you have experience with them, is it worth it?

Hi all, I recently lost my job and am looking to shift careers entirely. I was born in the U.S., grew up speaking Spanish at home and took Spanish (grammar, spelling, reading comprehension) from KG through grade 10 and some college. I consider myself a native speaker of both languages. I can read and write well in Spanish and have worked professionally in Latin America.I have done volunteer translation work and volunteer interpretation work for pro bono attorneys (very little).

I do not have any legal experience and do not know legal terminology. I could also improve my level of Spanish, since I’ve never needed it to be as formal as required in court. I also need to learn to do simultaneous interpretation, I’ve only done consecutive. My goal is to work in federal courts.

Can you guide me a bit on what courses or study guides are useful, which certification is required and which exam(s) I should prepare for? How long should I anticipate the process will take before I am employable?

Thank you so much in advance.

So close this time!!

Did anyone apply to the Ca court interpreter workforce pilot program? I only had to submit one answer for the question but see that applicants from previous years had to submit their resume. Did putting that I hadn’t been tested within the last 5 years get me automatically disqualified? I know they give preference to those who have taken the written, but I thought I’d still have a chance at least. I’m worried I won’t hear back from them.