ALTA Competency Exam (CALT)

It is a competency credential issued by a language-services company, not a statutory license and not a court-interpreting certification. It gives employers and clients evidence of assessed translation skill. Confirm with the awarding body exactly what the credential attests, and whether it carries a validity period that requires renewal.

Expect to translate authentic connected text under supervised conditions, with scored performance carrying most of the weight rather than multiple-choice recall. Item types, delivery mode, and permitted resources are set by ALTA. Read the current format description on their site before you book a seat.

Those figures change, and the awarding body publishes the current numbers on its own site. No third-party guide - including this one - should quote them from memory. Check ALTA's official CALT page for the current question count, seat time, fee, passing standard, and score validity period.

The difficulty is not obscure vocabulary; it is sustained accuracy. You have to handle idiomatic source text, hold register steady across a long passage, and write target prose a native editor would accept without slipping into literal calque. Strong bilinguals without translation training often find the writing standard stricter than expected.

Retake rules, any waiting period, and any additional fee are set by ALTA and have changed over time. Look up the current retake policy on the official site before you register, and plan your study timeline around the real possibility of a second attempt.

Start with target-language writing, because weak target prose caps your score no matter how well you comprehend the source. Then build domain terminology and register awareness, then run full timed translations with a source-to-target self-review. Leave ethics and professional standards for a focused review late in your plan.

Omissions and additions under time pressure, register mismatch such as answering a formal source in casual target, false friends and unverified cognates, source-language terms left untranslated without justification, and ignoring stated instructions about audience or style. Most of these are caught by one disciplined review pass.

Permitted resources are decided by the exam administrator and can vary by delivery format. Do not assume a dictionary, personal glossary, or machine translation is allowed. Confirm the rules for your specific sitting well in advance, and practice under exactly those conditions so nothing surprises you on test day.

Practising translators usually need weeks, not days, of deliberate practice to tighten register control and speed. Candidates newer to translation need longer to build the underlying skill. Diagnose first with a timed sample and an honest review, then book once your sample quality is stable across several passages.

No. This is independent study material, not affiliated with, endorsed by, or approved by ALTA. Always treat the awarding body's published handbook and exam outline as authoritative over any third-party summary, including this one, especially for logistics, scoring, and policy questions.