DPSI 2011

Lukasz Andrzejewski — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 08:08:00 +0000

Forum: Off topic
Topic: DPSI 2011
Poster: Lukasz Andrzejewski

Dear All,

Having taken the first part of the DPSI exam (consecutive, simultaneous and sight translation) I wanted to share my impressions with you.

Just for the record, I am taking the exam in London, the module is English Law and the pair of languages is Polish/English.

First of all, the most dreaded part - the simultaneous interpreting - turned out to be manageable: both the Polish and the English interlocutors spoke at a slower than natural, even slow natural, pace. This was a positive surprise for me. Also, at some stage, the English interlocutor read from my face, after I interpreted, that I hadn't translated all I was supposed to, and he asked me whether I wanted it to be repeated, to which I gladly consented.

Overall, the exam in my eyes must be labelled as manageable in terms of speech delivery and conducted in a supportive manner.

As regards preparation to the examination, I joined the Northampton University DPSI distance course, which turned out to be an absolute disaster, teaching nothing; so much so that I decided to discontinue to make use of it.

From the perspective of time, my advice would be to focus on practice, especially of simultaneous interpreting. It does seem to me that if one is able to do that, one shouldn't have problems interpreting consecutively, let alone dealing with sight translation.

I wouldn't devote so much time second time round to the preparation of the general glossary. The fact that the topics of role-plays are published two weeks before the exam allows one to prepare relevant glossaries, and having already practised interpreting at this stage excessively, one can get ready with the more helpull glossaries. It did work out well in my case, but I should've practised more interpreting ahead of the exam, I'm sure.

Hope it all helps a bit.

Lucas

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DPSI 2011