If you've been following my content, you should know by now that ✨ free ✨ is one of my favorite words. Don't get me wrong, I firmly believe in investing in your professional development and in your business, but who doesn't love free practice resources?
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Interpreting in legal settings requires specialized skills and knowledge, as well as a high level of proficiency in the languages being interpreted. For interpreters interested in obtaining a court certification or who want to practice to prepare to work in the legal field, there are a variety of free resources available to help develop these skills.
Here are some free mock exams that you can use to prepare for court certification exams, improve your legal interpreting skills, and stay up-to-date on legal terminology:
This assessment includes practice exercises to help interpreters interested in becoming court-certified evaluate their readiness to take the oral exam and/or practice their interpreting skills.
It's a PDF document only, without accompanying audio recordings. But don't worry, I got you 😉 because I created a YouTube video where I created the audio recordings for you. You're welcome!
Free practice exam for the written portion of the Federal Court Interpreter Certification Examination (FCICE). It is designed to help you prepare for the real exam by giving you a sense of the types of questions you may encounter and the difficulty level you can expect. It also includes answer keys for you to identify areas where additional practice or improvement is needed.
This is a series of audio recordings following the same parameters as the current Federal Court Interpreting Certification Oral Examination. This practice is missing links to documents for the sight translation exercises.
Court Interpreting Practice Materials by The NCSC
The National Center for State Courts (NCSC) has made available materials for court interpretation practice and skills-building. These materials are only available in PDF format and do not include audio recordings. Therefore, you'll need to create your own audio recordings to practice interpreting the content.
The sample questions show what to expect on the official written exam. The mock exam is a model for the question types and exam format. Additionally, taking the practice exam could help you identify areas of strength and areas that require more attention.
This is a sample of a multiple-choice written examination assessing English language proficiency and basic legal terminology. It covers the following areas: reading comprehension, sentence completion, grammar and language usage, vocabulary, synonyms and antonyms, idiomatic expressions, and legal terms.
This is a sample of a multiple-choice written examination assessing English and Spanish language proficiency and basic legal terminology. It covers the following areas: reading comprehension, sentence completion, grammar and language usage, vocabulary, synonyms and antonyms, idiomatic expressions, and legal terms.
Sample Court Interpreting Oral Test by the New York State Unified Court System (English and Spanish)
A short video that offers a sample of all oral portions you can expect to encounter in most court certification exams. The sight translation exercises can be found here. Click here for the full transcript of the video, which you can use to review your performance.
This is a short mock exam for prospective court interpreters. It has two parts. The first part tests your general language skills. You have to complete sentences, find synonyms and antonyms, and understand idioms. The second part focuses on court-related terms and how interpreters should behave. You'll have to complete sentences, answer questions about courts, arrange events in order, and choose the right actions in different situations.
Sharing is caring, so if you stumble upon other free practice tests that may benefit our colleagues, please post them in the comments.