DPSI candidate advice

Recommendations to Candidates

General advice

• Candidates should bear in mind that the DPSI is a professional examination at degree level and ensure that they are proficient in both English and the target language prior to registering on a DPSI course. It is vital to be able to write well in the target language in order to be able to produce a translation which reads like an original piece of writing.

 

• Study past exam papers.

 

• Effective exam preparation can have a significant impact on results, as it can help you recognise your individual strengths and weaknesses and set strategies in place to address the weaknesses before attempting the exam. It is important to attempt some past exam papers and ask for objective and individual feedback from your trainer/teacher.

 

• Work at mastering the concepts and vocabulary used in the area you plan to work in and maintain the required level of knowledge.  Work towards use of language that is accurate but also sounds natural. Pro-actively seek exposure to situations you are likely to come across as an interpreter, as well as situations that improve your general knowledge and understanding of the environment people live and work in.

 

• Exams can be stressful but so can interpreting assignments. Control of the situation is vital. Develop coping techniques that will help ensure good quality of work whatever the circumstances.

 

• Candidates need to improve their linguistic skills to tackle complex sentence structures but this cannot be achieved overnight. Reading more good quality writing will help over time.

 

• Candidates should always exercise great care to transfer the exact information. Sometimes, it can be tempting to elaborate a little bit, especially if it is a familiar topic. 

 

• Although this is in essence an interpreting exam, the written element forms an integral part of the qualification and translation skills are needed more often than candidates perhaps realise. Often the requirement is to translate documents of crucial importance to service users, who are often vulnerable with no or very little English and who are perhaps facing prison or having their children removed, and strict accuracy is paramount to them.

 

• An interpreter’s job is to communicate, so you should be able to communicate accurately, appropriately and concisely. Therefore, you should have a broad, expressive vocabulary and excellent, in-depth knowledge of the grammatical nuances, quirks and rules of your target language, especially if it is your mother tongue. You should also be experienced in reading the sort of text you wish to create, in both your source and target language. One way to expand the range of your vocabulary is to compile a glossary of vocabularies, especially in your chosen pathway. Explore the different meanings of individual words and categories based on their usage in different contexts. You can improve your translation skills by learning and putting your knowledge into practice by starting with simpler texts and work your way up to a more complicated one.

 

• For interpreters it is very important to keep both of their languages alive and active. This can be achieved by reading, watching television programmes and possibly conversing in both languages – keeping in mind that you have to be exposed to the correct register as well; informal chats do not always suffice. This is especially important in the case of language pairs that do not share a history and a basic structure.

 

• Lack of general knowledge about legal vocabulary can be a problem. Candidates need to know the meaning of terms like “think-tank” and “law enforcement”. Candidates should learn translation strategies, such as how to translate names (e.g. National Crime Agency) and when not to translate them (Policy Exchange was translated incorrectly in almost all cases) and how to adapt figures e.g. billion, among others.

 

• Continuous Professional Development training is advantageous. Debating a new topic is never irrelevant; linguistically speaking it is an extraordinary tool. One topic leads to another and new language will be used all the time. There are always occasions where same language speakers will be present and this interaction offers an opportunity to practise the language in multiple ways. This process is called learning too.

 

• Read and write as much as possible in both languages. Compositions and dictations are a good starting point. Going back to basics helps improve persistent misconceptions and mistakes.

 

Advice on specialist terminology of your chosen pathway

• Prepare yourself before the exam and ensure you have a good command of the specialist terminology. Remember idiomatic translation of texts and providing a meaning for meaning rendering of texts are essential parts of exams at this level. Develop a vocabulary list containing idiomatic terminology and their equivalents in your language and in your subject matter and review and expand this list regularly.

 

• Also practise translating English texts in your subject area before the exam and ensure that the translation reads smoothly in your language, conveys all the points and is well presented.

 

• Keep your knowledge of current issues in the UK up-to-date, particularly in the subjects of your specialisation. Collect and study information leaflets freely available from public service offices and websites, in order to familiarise yourself with up-to-date expressions and jargon.

 

• Become familiar with the relevant terminology. The only way to achieve this is by regularly reading good quality specialist magazines/websites of both the source and target languages.

 

• It is essential for candidates to learn specialist vocabulary. They need to read documents in both languages to get an idea of the type of vocabulary and wording used.

 

• Candidates are also advised to read legal/medical/local government articles in order to be familiar with the relevant terminology. These articles do not have to be highly specialised but of a general nature. Reading them would help in choosing more appropriate specialist terms when translating.

 

• It is important to be familiar with the original legal, medical or governmental specific language in written English and the other language, and the formality of such documents. It is helpful to study by reading as well as listening to as many related topics as possible in both languages to build up a bank of terminology.

 

• Specialist vocabulary is essential to be kept up to date, and also a lot of thought should be given when translating names of organisations. When an exact translation equivalent cannot be found, than a paraphrase can be used that shows awareness of intercultural differences. For example, the term “target beneficiaries” could prove challenging. The way to tackle it is for the candidate to understand first what the expression means, and this can be achieved by paraphrasing it in English, first, and then try to get the equivalent in the other language in a form that makes sense and is understood by the intended reader. In some cases the translation has to be extended and cannot be kept in the same form as the original.

 

• Candidates should be aware of institutions and institutional names that do not have an equivalent in the target language country and decide on the best way to deal with this.

 

Advice on the use of dictionaries

• Read thoroughly; understand the text before you start your translation. Make a note of the word(s) you need to consult with the dictionary.

 

• The use of good dictionaries is helpful (monolingual and bilingual, as well as specialised dictionaries for your chosen area).

 

• Terminology should be double-checked in a monolingual dictionary if the candidate is in any doubt. When the word has several meanings, the context is paramount to decide which one is the most appropriate equivalent. An incorrect choice would necessarily distort the meaning and therefore negatively affect the translation.