Candidate Information Bulletin National Center for State ... - Prometric

Candidate Information Bulletin
National Center for State Courts
Federal Court Interpreter Certification Examination
A message
from the
National Center
for State Courts
At a glance
The National Center for State Courts (NCSC) is contractor to the Administrative
Office of the United States Courts for the development and administration of the
Spanish/English Federal Court Interpreter Certification Examination.
The NCSC has contracted with Prometric Inc. to administer the FCICE’s Phase One
Written Examination in 2012. This bulletin provides you with information about the
process for scheduling and taking the examination
Follow these main steps if you are interested in taking the FCICE Phase One Written
Examination.
To participate in the Written Examination
1 Register for the examination at http://www.ncsc.org/fcice during the open
registration period.
2 Wait two business days (so that information flows from NCSC to Prometric).
3 Go to http://www.prometric.com/FCICE/default.htm to schedule an
appointment to take your written exam. (See Page 3.)
4 Appear for the scheduled exam, bringing required identification to the test
center. (See Page 4.)
5 NCSC will provide test results to candidates within eight weeks of the test
administration window.
To get answers not provided in this bulletin
Direct all questions and requests for information about registering for the
exam and general information to:
A message from the National Center
National Center for State Courts
for State Courts .............................. 1
300 Newport Ave., Williamsburg, VA 23185 At a glance .......................................... 1
757-259-7501
Understanding certification
FCICE@ncsc.org
and registration requirements ...... 2
Web site: http://www.ncsc.org/fcice
Registering for and scheduling your
exam ............................................... 2
Test centers........................................... 3
Completing the scheduling process .......... 3
Confirmation notice ................................ 3
Rescheduling your appointment ........ 4
Direct questions about scheduling your
Taking the computer-based Written
examination (after you have
exam ............................................... 4
successfully registered) to:
Test center regulations ...................... 5
Exam results ....................................... 6
Prometric
Phone: 866.428.6335
www.prometric.com/FCICE
Copyright © 2012 Prometric
Inc., a Delaware corporation.
All Rights Reserved.
1 Effective 20120413

UNDERSTANDING CERTIFICATION AND REGISTRATION REQUIREMENTS
Understanding
certification
and registration
requirements
How do I become a federally certified Spanish language court interpreter?
To be a federally certified court interpreter, you must first take and pass a two-part
(English and Spanish) Written Examination. Once you pass that examination, you
are eligible to register for the Oral Examination. If you pass the Oral Examination,
you will be federally certified and will receive official notification from the
Administrative Office of the United States Courts.
The minimum time required to become certified is two years. The Written
Examination is administered one year, with the Oral Examination administered in
the following year.
Is it possible to become federally certified without taking this examination?
No. There are no alternative examinations or qualifications for becoming federally
certified. State certification or having passing test results on tests administered by
other federal, state, or local agencies or interpreter training programs are not
accepted in lieu of the FCICE examinations. While there are some good educational
programs, having a “certificate” or diploma from one or more of these programs is
not a substitute for the FCICE, which is a performance test of interpreting skills.
How do I know if I’m qualified to take this examination?
The Examinee Handbook includes material entitled “Self-assessment of readiness to
take the FCICE” (Section 5). The assessment is designed to help you determine
whether your language proficiency and interpreting skills are sufficient for you to
have a reasonable chance of passing the examination. The assessment is only
helpful when you complete an honest assessment of your actual skill levels.
Registering for
and scheduling
your exam
What are the passing scores for the written and oral examinations?
To pass the Written Examination, candidates must score 75 or higher on both the
English and the Spanish sections of the test. To pass the Oral Examination,
candidates must obtain an overall score of 80 or higher.
The following instructions are intended to help you understand the registration and
scheduling processes for the Federal Court Interpreter Certification Examination.
You must complete the following steps:
1 Complete the exam registration process and pay your registration fee at
http://www.ncsc.org/fcice. 2 Wait two business days (to allow your
registration confirmation to flow to Prometric).
3 Go to http://www.prometric.com/FCICE/default.htm to schedule an
appointment to take your exam.
Unique FCICE identification number (ID). If you are registering for the
examination for the first time, you will be assigned a unique FCICE identification
number. If you have registered for this examination in the past, you were assigned
an ID number at that time. You must use your FCICE ID number when scheduling
your exam with Prometric. The number follows the candidate throughout the entire
testing process and protects a candidate’s sensitive information while still allowing
the candidate to be tracked on attendance rosters and score reports. Record and
keep this number for your records as it will be necessary for all future exam
scheduling.
Photo identification and name. Official identification is required for all
examinations and only the following will be accepted (current or issued within the
last five years):
Driver’s license or State DMV identification card.
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F EDERAL C OURT INT
ERPRETER CERTIFICATION EXAMINAT
ION
U.S. Passport or passport issued by a foreign government.
U.S. Military identification card.
Important For security purposes, you should registerr with the same
name thatt appears on
your photoo ID. If yourr registered name does not match
your photo ID, you might not be allowed to take the exam without additional
explanation.
Scheduling
protocols.
You may schedule your exam at any available time
at
a Prometric
test center.
Accommodations. If you require testing accommodations under the Americans
with Disabilities Act (ADA) due to a disability or impairment, you must submit a
letter to NCSC during the registrationn process indicating what the disability or
impairment
is and describing the recommended accommodation. The letter
must be
on the medical professional’s official letterhead, signed by the medical professional,
and be submitted to NCSC by the registration deadline. Faxed submissions are
acceptable for this purpose.
Test centers
Your written exam will be given by computer at a Prometric test center. A complete
list of test center locations may be found by goingg to www.prometric.com/FCICE
and clicking
on the “Do More” button. Alternatively, you may call 866.428.6335.
Test center
locations are
subject to change. Be sure to verify the address of
and
directions to your destination before you leave forr your exam. Exam sites cannot
answer questions regarding exam registrations, scheduling or rescheduling.
If you
have these types of questions, pleasee call 866.428.6335.
Completing the schedulin
ng process
You may accomplish the
process by completing all the steps in
the following
chart.
Schedulingg by phone or online
1 You may schedule an
exam appointment online at www.prometric.com/FCICE.
At the end of the process, you will be given a number confirming your appointment.
Record and keep this confirmation number for your records.
OR
You may schedule an
exam appointment by calling Prometric at
866.428.6335
between
5 a.m. and 6 p.m. (Pacific time), Monday throughh Friday. At the
end of the call, you
will be given a number confirming your appointment. Record and keep this
confirmation number for your records.
2 Once you complete the scheduling process, you will receive an email notice confirming
your exam date, time
and location. If you cannot receive confirmation via email, you
will need to contact Prometric at 866.428.6335.
Confirmation notice
Once you complete the scheduling process, you will receive an
email notice
confirming your exam date, time andd location. You will need to
reference that email
if you need to reschedule for any reason. You will not receive a mailed copy
of your
appointmen
details. If you do not receive your email confirmation within 24
hours,
or if you do
not have email, you are responsible for contacting Prometric at
866.428.6335.
3
Effective 20120413

R ESCHEDULING YOU
R APPOIN
TMENT
Rescheduling
your
appointment
To avoid an
additional fee, you must contact Prometric at least
five full business
days (does
not include weekends and holidays) before the day
of your originally
scheduled appointment.
Rescheduling fees will apply as follows:
No feee if you reschedule on the sixth businesss day or sooner prior to your
appointment date.
$50 fee to reschedule up to fivee full working days before your test.
A full exam fee if you reschedulee less than five full working days before your
test, or
if you are denied admission into a test site for arriving more than
15 minutes late or for not providin ng valid ID on
the day of your test.
You may pay the $50 rescheduling fee with a Visa
or MasterCard by calling
Prometric at 866.428.6335.
If late or absent for your appointment
If you misss your appointment or arrive late and are not allowed to test, you
will
forfeit your
exam fees and will need to pay another exam fee when you schedule
your next examination in two years.
If you are unable to attend your scheduled exam due to illnesss or emergency, call
Prometric. Under certain
circumstances, the fee to
reschedule may be waived.
Prometric reserves the right to request documentation to support any illness or
emergency claim.
Emergency closingss
Severe weather or an emergency could require canceling scheduled exams.
If this
occurs, Prometric will attempt to contact you by phone or email; however, you may
check for testing site closures by calling Prometric. If the site is closed, your exam
will be rescheduled without a rescheduling fee.
If a test center is open for testing and you choose
not to appear for testing,
your fee
will be forfeited and you
will need to resubmit a new exam registration form
and pay
the exam fee(s) again in
two years.
Taking the
computer-based
Written exam
Important There are
no refunds or rescheduling if you fail
to appear for your
scheduled examination.
Arrival. You should arrive at least 300 minutes before your scheduled examination
appointmen
in order to verify your identification and allow time for you to sign in.
Computer
testing process
Your exam will be given by computerr at a Prometric test center using Prometric’s
user-friendly, Microsoft Windows -based, computerized testing
system. Before you
start the exam, you will receive a personalized tutorial to the testing system.
The tutorial features:
Moving the mouse and using the mouse to select answers and to change
answers.
Marking
a question for review.
Reviewing questions.
Viewing
a summary list of questions showing answered and unanswered
questions.
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4

F EDERAL C OURT INT
ERPRETER CERTIFICATION EXAMINAT
ION
You have 15 minutes for
the tutorial. . The tutorial is not included as part of the
testing time. The time remaining for your exam iss displayed in the upper right-hand
corner of the computer screen.
If there is a power outage, the time will stop counting down. When power is
restored, the examination will resume at the pointt where it left
off.
Once the exam is finished, you will be asked to complete a brief survey sponsored
by the NCSC, as well as a computer-delivered questionnaire about your testing
experience.
Test Drive
tutorial
If you are anxious or concerned about taking a computer-administered examination,
you can take a separate, 30-minute practice run in advance of
your scheduled test
date. You will be able to
familiarize yourself with the look and feel of the computer-
lost on
based testing environment and minimize pre-test mistakes such as getting
the way to the center, failing to arrive with the correct I.D., etc. You will be
able to
take a live 15-minute sample test demonstrating
the testing process on an actual
computer.
Test center
regulations
The cost for the Test Drive tutorial is $30. Contactt Prometric at 866.428.6335 to
schedule a Test Drive.
Required identification
You must present a valid, government-issued form
of identification (that is current
or issued within the last five years) before you can test. The following are the only
acceptable forms of identification:
Driver’s
license or State DMV identification card.
U.S. Passport or passport issued by a foreign government.
U.S. Military identification card.
Important Failure to
provide appropriate identification at the time of the exam
is considered a missed appointment
. As a result, , you must register and pay
another registration feee during the next test cycle in two years.
If you cannot provide the identification listed above, contact Prometric before
scheduling your appointment to arrange an alternative way to meet this
requirement.
To ensure that all candidates are tested under equally favorable conditions,
the
following regulations and
procedures will be observed at each test center.
1 You will be continuously monitored by video, physical walk-throughs and the
observation window during your test.
2 You must present valid (unexpired) and acceptable ID(s) in order to take your
test. (See “Required
identification” in the above section).
3 You are
required to sign out on the test center roster each time you leave the
test room. You must
also sign back in and show your ID to
the Test Center
Administrator (TCA)
in order to be re-admitted to the test room. If you leave the
test room at any time, you will lose exam time.
4 You are
prohibited from communicating, publishing, reproducing, or
transmitting any part of your test, in any form
or by any means, verbal
or
written, for any purpose.
5 You must not talk to other candidates or refer to their screens, testing
materials, or written
notes in thee test room.
5
Effective 20120413

E XAM RESULTS
6 You may not use any written notes, published materials, or other testing aids,
except those allowed
by your test sponsor.
7 You are
allowed to bring soft ear plugs or center-supplied
tissues in the test
room.
8 Any clothing or jewelry items allowed to be worn in the test room must
remain
on your person at all times. Removed clothing
or jewelry items must be
stored
in a locker.
9 You must not bring
any personal/unauthorized items into the testing room.
Such items include but are not limited to: outerwear, hats,
food, drinks, purses,
briefcases, notebooks, pagers, watches, cellular telephones, recording devices,
and photographic equipment. Weapons are not allowed at any Prometric Test
center. You will be asked to empty and turn your pockets inside out prior to
every entry into the test room too confirm thatt you have no
prohibited items.
10 You will be scanned with a metal detector wand prior to every entry into the test
room. If you refuse,
you cannot test.
11 You must return all materials issued to you by the TCA at the end of your test.
12 You are
not allowed to use any electronic devices or phones during breaks.
13 Your test has no scheduled breaks.
14 Repeated or lengthy
departures from the test room for unscheduled breaks will
be reported by the TCA.
15 You must conduct yourself in a civil manner at all times when on the premises of
the test center. Exhibiting abusive behavior towards the TCA, or any other staff
member of the test center, may result in criminal prosecution.
16 To protect the privacy of all testers, the TCA can neither confirm nor deny if any
particular individual is present orr scheduled att the test center.
17 Personss not scheduled to take a test are not permitted to wait in the test center.
Important Failure to
follow any of these security procedures may result in the
disqualification of your examination. . Prometric reserves the right to audio
and
videotape any examination session.
If questions arise. Test center administrators are not allowed to answer
any
questions pertaining to the exam content. If you do not understand a question on
the examination, you should answer the question to the best of your ability.
Exam results
Copyrighted questions. All exam questions are property of the Administrative
Office of the U.S. Courts
and are protected by copyright. Federal law provides
severe civil and criminal penalties forr the unauthorized reproduction, distribution, or
exhibition of copyrighted
materials. Any candidate
who is found to have access to
equipment or material that could be used to assist in taking the examination or that
could be used to record or transmit any portion off an examination will be
permanently disqualifiedd from taking any test in the Federal Court Interpreter
Certification
Examination program.
Score reports will be issued by the NCSC within eight weeks of
the testing window.
Effective 20120413
6