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Frustrated and upset after failing a translation test....(They just told me I passed it)
Thread poster: Bo Smith
Michael Newton
Michael Newton  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 03:38
Japanese to English
+ ...
Tests Sep 5, 2017

1) Recently I was given a test translation of 1500 words and a template to use for the finished translation. "We need this to assess your translation abilities". Needless to say, I did not do the translation.
2) Having inexplicably "failed" several test translations and not having been provided the corrected text, I would like to point out that some reviewers themselves are translators and do not want anyone "trespassing".


Maria da Glória Teixeira
 
Christopher Schröder
Christopher Schröder
United Kingdom
Member (2011)
Swedish to English
+ ...
Missing the point, I think Sep 5, 2017

You need to produce a flawless test translation because there will be other translators who do. Guess who gets the job?

 
Elena Woontner (X)
Elena Woontner (X)
United States
Local time: 00:38
English to Italian
+ ...
This. Yes. Jan 22, 2018

Michael Newton wrote:

1) Recently I was given a test translation of 1500 words and a template to use for the finished translation. "We need this to assess your translation abilities". Needless to say, I did not do the translation.
2) Having inexplicably "failed" several test translations and not having been provided the corrected text, I would like to point out that some reviewers themselves are translators and do not want anyone "trespassing".


 
Jiayin Jenny Zheng
Jiayin Jenny Zheng
United States
Local time: 02:38
Member (2014)
Chinese to English
This is pretty common Jan 28, 2018

Bo Smith wrote:

Greetings to my dear fellow translators:

I know I shouldn’t. But I just can’t help feeling so rejected. I just wish I had done a search on this topic in the forums before I accepted the test. I am new here and still trying to get familiarized.

Any feedback and experiences would be highly appreciated. And what can I do to make the agent to give me an answer? Or they will probably just ignore me?

Thank you all so much! This is a great place to share all the highs and lows, ups and downs as a translator. I wish I have known here earlier.

Update: They just told me I passed it! That was a misunderstanding.

[Edited at 2004-11-26 20:00]


Bo,

胜败乃兵家常事.

This is pretty common in Chinese-English translation/interpretation world. You never know how people grade you, it's not like a math test where 1+1 must equals 2. Which is why nowadays I would rather browse the forums here than translating a sample test.

If you want to feel better, most of the experienced translators still fail tests. One of my colleagues who interprets at a top institution in the world simply refuses to take these sample translation tests because the grading is just too random and not worth the effort. Just last week someone failed me because somehow I could not translate a fictional Chinese name into English "creatively". Yes, they just told me that I have guessed a name wrong, the right answer was another made-up name.


Lian Pang
Maria da Glória Teixeira
 
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Frustrated and upset after failing a translation test....(They just told me I passed it)







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