This month’s news: Progress on Preparing for the ATA Exam to Become a Certified Translator

In my first post of 2021, I shared with readers—not without fear and trembling—my goal of sitting the ATA certification exam for French to English translators.

As a reminder, this exam has been designed for experienced translators. It tests for “professional translation skills”, which to me, involves having good research skills and being able to evaluate sources, working efficiently and to agreed-upon deadlines, knowing and using translation strategies relevant to your language pair, having excellent source language skills and cultural knowledge and of course, being able to write well in your native language. In an article published in the ATA Chronicle on this topic in 2019, a troubling statistic was cited: 80% of translators sitting the exam failed, for various reasons…

The French Language Division (FLD) Study Group

Since January, I have actively participated in the study group, an initiative that has truly been a critical factor in working toward my aim of becoming certified.

While both remote and virtual, this group helped me stay focused and connect with peers. Through the assigned texts, I’ve worked on general subjects that are typical of what an experienced professional could encounter.

With 6 months of practice under my belt and my exam date swiftly approaching, I accepted the challenge of writing about my experience and what I’d learned thus far for the FLD newsletter.

Read my testimonial online:

No longer Boston bound!

I initially thought that I would have to travel to sit for the certification exam. Thanks to development of an at-home testing model for this very specific context, the ATA has successfully rolled out its offer of remote exams. The exam schedule includes monthly or weekly sessions. I’ve signed up for a date in September—Watch this space for news on the remote testing experience!