Our Tests

Translation Skills Training™, having identified three distinct audiences in the field of Analytic Linguistics, has prepared a testing program for each one. Each successive exam is progressively more challenging, both in quantity (number of questions/time to complete) and quality (complexity of the questions).

Translation Skills Training™ tests six main skills that Analytic Linguists must possess (at a minimum of Interagency Language Roundtable [ILR] proficiency level 3) in order to ensure that they can satisfactorily perform their job functions.

• Read and comprehend
• Write in a professional register in English and Spanish
• Speak English and Spanish at a professional level
• Demonstrate critical thinking skills
• Produce high-quality work under pressure

This testing program is designed in alignment with academic linguistics skills but augmented by criteria and rubrics to measure candidates’ proficiency levels in the added competencies required to decipher the jargon, colloquialisms, and slang captured in unstructured environments in order to produce accurate, comprehensive translations that can be used to support legal proceedings.

This testing event extends an existing framework for coordinating and sharing information about language-related activities established by a consortium of federal agencies entitled the Interagency Language Roundtable (ILR) to train specifically for the translation, transcribing, and monitoring of communication intercepts. Specifically, these are highly nuanced and finely-tuned skills that are not taught in college, and until TST created its training program, there was no formal training available and these skills could only be acquired through the process of on-the-job experience.

The three levels differ with respect to length and complexity, being designed for different populations in the field of Analytic Linguistics, thus: