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Final/State Exam in Translation Studies
Thread poster: Oleksiy Markunin
Oleksiy Markunin
Oleksiy Markunin  Identity Verified
Canada
Local time: 07:47
Russian to English
+ ...
Jul 31, 2010

Dear all!

I'm involved in teaching translation and taking part in managing the state exam in translation. Every year we're trying to improve/adapt this exam to meet the requirement of our profession.

I'll tell you about our exam briefly. It consists of two parts: written translation + oral translation.

Written part: students have to translate a new text into their native language. The text is around 1000 characters, time - 60 minutes. Then they discuss diff... See more
Dear all!

I'm involved in teaching translation and taking part in managing the state exam in translation. Every year we're trying to improve/adapt this exam to meet the requirement of our profession.

I'll tell you about our exam briefly. It consists of two parts: written translation + oral translation.

Written part: students have to translate a new text into their native language. The text is around 1000 characters, time - 60 minutes. Then they discuss different translation problems with the examination board. So this task also involves knowing the theory of translation.

Oral part: first task is interpreting of the interview with some celebrity/politician/movie star/etc, i.e. consecutive interpreting. The second part is translating the text with the help of interpreter's shorthand. In oral part students translate into their native language and into the foreign one.


The question is to those involved in teaching translation in universities or maybe just happen to know this business inside out. How does your final/state exam in translation look like? What's the procedure? What's the context? What are the parts of this exam?

I'd appreciate any ideas or links to some info about this issue in US or European higher education establishments.

Thanks! ▲ Collapse
 
Veronica Lupascu
Veronica Lupascu  Identity Verified
Netherlands
Local time: 13:47
Dutch to Romanian
+ ...
Final Exam Aug 1, 2010

I was the one who had to pass the exam

Unfortunately we didn't have courses for interpreting, so no oral part in our final exam.

The written part contained texts to be translated in both directions, i.e. from foreign language into native language and from native language into foreign language. I don't see now, that I started translating, what is the purpose of the second part.

Then, we did... See more
I was the one who had to pass the exam

Unfortunately we didn't have courses for interpreting, so no oral part in our final exam.

The written part contained texts to be translated in both directions, i.e. from foreign language into native language and from native language into foreign language. I don't see now, that I started translating, what is the purpose of the second part.

Then, we did not have the opportunity, i would say, to discuss different translation problems. We could make notes about the way we translated difficult terms. I would suggest to discuss those translation "problems", based on translated text. There should be plenty of examples in 1000 words, especially if the text is highly technical. It would definitely help the student to focus on the answer. Also there may be some written questions concerning translation theory. It depends on how much time is assigned for the final exam. In my country we had 3 astronomic hours and you can imagine how many examining methods could be applied in 3 hours. Unfortunately nobody did and I would definitely prefer being at an exam as you describe

Good luck!



[Edited at 2010-08-01 09:32 GMT] ▲ Collapse
 


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Final/State Exam in Translation Studies






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