? This month, I just got the somewhat belated three-stroke certificate of catti. Counting the days since I passed the exam, it has been 8 months.
After getting the certificate, I observed it carefully. The entire size is quite large, as big as an ordinary notebook, and much more impressive than a driver's license, licensed pharmacist certificate, or CET-4 or CET-6 certificate. The outer cover of the certificate is dark green, and there is a golden national emblem printed on the top of the front, which gives you a sense of sacred solemnity. Below the national emblem, there are the words "Occupational Qualification Certificate for Professional and Technical Personnel of the People's Republic of China and the People's Republic of China" printed on it, which is also conspicuous. in gold; the inner pages contain personal information and the seal of the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security.
? A seemingly simple certificate carries my efforts and dedication last year. My boss *** took the three catti exams twice, spanning the spring, summer, autumn and winter of 2017. I went through countless classroom self-study, countless vocabulary memorization, and countless translation exercises. Finally, in the second The battle captured this hilltop.
? Some capable and wise people may express confusion. Level 3 translation is not very difficult, especially for English majors or people who are good at English. It is just an entry-level translation, so it is necessary to spend so much money. Do you have time and experience to prepare? Some people may also ask, is this certificate so important and is it worth spending so much time on it?
? Yes, I just spent so much time, and I haven't gone to work yet. I basically concentrated on preparing for the exam, and I still took the exam twice. Unlike some people with good skills who can prepare for one month and pass it, or who can apply for both oral and translation subjects at once and pass them at the same time, I don't have this level and can only spend so much time. Also, this certificate may not be very valuable and will make you a winner in life, but it is the threshold for translation and a technical threshold. For those who want to get started with translation, this exam has important evaluation value. So it is necessary to take the exam. In addition, I really didn’t want to spend a year taking the exam. I originally hoped to pass it in the first half of the year, but the problem is that I didn’t pass the exam the first time! I didn’t want to give up just like that. I felt that I had a great chance of taking the exam again, so I took the exam in the second half of last year.
My general situation
? I have a master's degree in traditional Chinese medicine from a university in Guangzhou, graduated in 2013, and work in a well-known domestic pharmaceutical company. Due to long-term irregular work, I often stay up late and drink. The great mental stress caused physical illness, so he had to report illness and recuperate. When Xianfu was at home, he felt that wasting time was a waste of life, so he decided to take the exam for the certificate. I thought about many directions, asked some people, and finally chose the catti translation certificate based on my interests and hobbies and the practicality of the certificate. Since this was my first time applying for the translation exam, I started by choosing the three least difficult ones among the translation certificates. My English level at that time was: CET-6, but after I started working, I rarely learned English. I could read English Fluently Speaking intermittently. The vocabulary is not high and the foundation is not solid.
Start preparing for the first test
1. Memorize words
According to my own situation, I decided to start with vocabulary accumulation, because through some information on the Internet I learned that the vocabulary of level 3 translators is at least the professional level 4, and a vocabulary of 6000 to 8000 is required, which I definitely did not have at the time. So I took memorizing words as the first step to prepare for the exam. The main tool I use to memorize vocabulary is Baici Zhan. Everyone should know this app, and it doesn’t require any advertising from me. It is now one of the most commonly used English learning apps among college students. I also saw it in an English learning group and used it. The word categories in it are quite detailed, including TOEFL, IELTS, TOEIC, CET-4 and CET-6 vocabulary, etc., but there is no specialized catti vocabulary. I considered the difficulty and finally decided to focus on memorizing the vocabulary of the Eighth Vocational School. I memorized a little bit every day, and I persisted from January to March. Plus some related catti words I found online, I should have memorized more than 3,000 words. To be honest, I really have to lament that memory deteriorates as we age. It may also be due to not remembering for a long time. Of course, it is also due to physical discomfort and side effects of taking medicine. In short, I often memorize and forget. If I forget to memorize again, I can only memorize every day. You should review the words you learned the previous day to deepen your memory.
When I finished memorizing words in March, I probably couldn't remember that many words, but there were still many words left in my brain. Later results also proved that the familiarity of these words was of great help to the exam, especially the comprehensive part of translation.
2. Buy textbooks, read textbooks, and do questions
? After registering at the end of February, I immediately bought supporting textbooks online, all from foreign language publishing houses, including comprehensive textbooks , exercises, practical textbooks, exercises, as well as a collection of real test questions and a test-taking vocabulary manual. Then I started to prepare to read and review.
? But how to review, where to start reviewing, and how to plan? I don’t know at all. In addition, Guangzhou has entered a hot and humid stage in the first half of the year, so I am often in a state of confusion. But I still made some plans for myself, starting with practical textbooks. Because I don’t know much about translation. I only know that I need to translate Chinese into English and English into Chinese. But how to translate it specifically? Are there any rules? Any tips? Seeing that there are some examples, exercises and translation techniques in the textbook, let’s read this book first.
? In March and April, I read the contents of this practical textbook basically every day. I also did some simple exercises and recorded some notes on translation skills. I gradually began to understand something about translation. learn. Translation is not a simple conversion of meaning between words or sentences. From the perspective of translation, one must understand the original text, understand the intention of the original author, and then express it accurately in another language. Translation requires honesty, expressiveness and elegance. The translator is required to understand the background of the two languages ??and learn to think about problems in the two languages. So, I roughly understand the goal of this exam. Judging from my actual level, I don’t care about how beautiful the translation is or how gorgeous the words are. I just want to ensure that the translation is accurate. This is a more realistic goal.
? But my exam preparation process was too inefficient. On the one hand, the weather is hot and hot, on the other hand, I have chronic diseases, and I am taking several drugs, which have serious side effects and often cause brain confusion. In addition, I am often affected by some things in life, and I am easily distracted. Generally speaking, I have great difficulties in the review process. I have been procrastinating my review. I often confront myself, reading the book first but not wanting to read the book, and practicing but not wanting to practice. . . Before you know it, time has passed. I didn't start doing simulation questions until May. Judging from the practice results, the overall performance is passable, but the translation is very difficult, and the amount of training is not enough, especially the Chinese-English translation part. Basically, it is too late to practice, and I can only simply write When writing sentences, it takes a long time to think about each translation. My thinking has not been established yet, but there is nothing I can do. I have no time, so I can only bite the bullet and take the exam.
3. Take the exam
The exam on May 20 will be held as scheduled. The comprehensive part in the morning was okay. It was indeed based on the previous vocabulary. I had some impressions of many new words, which also helped my judgment a lot. Moreover, I had planned the time before, and basically the time for each part was quite accurate. By the way, I wrote the cloze at the end because there were many questions, 20 questions, and only 10 points per exam, which was not many points and was time-consuming. Therefore, I want to make sure that I am sure of the previous content. Even if I don’t have time to write the cloze in the end, I can still get some points by choosing randomly. Overall, I was satisfied with the test in the morning.
? The English-Chinese translation was pretty good in the afternoon, and the content was easy to understand. It was about an Italian family who discovered ancient relics while draining the sewers (what good luck). I felt pretty good at the time, and I translated it quite well. It went smoothly, and I continued to appreciate the works I translated, but I just lost track of time. The exam lasted for one to three hours in the afternoon. The English-Chinese translation was relatively simple, but the amount of questions was quite large. If I didn’t pay attention, I would forget the time. Sure enough, when I finished the English-Chinese translation to my satisfaction, I found that there were only more than 30 minutes left. My son panicked, what was I doing before, was I on vacation? Why does time go so fast? . . . Chinese-English translation is always my weakness, and the content of the exam is still an introduction to China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation. . . What the hell, completely broken. . . . I didn't even recognize it when I translated it, and there was a section in the middle that I really couldn't translate. . . Time passed by minute by second, and I looked up at the clock from time to time, for fear that it would be over all at once. . . At this time, I can’t remember any techniques, and I don’t care about grammar. I just hope that I can write a few more words and fish in troubled waters. . . Finally, the gun was handed over.
In addition, I also brought two small dictionaries with me, but because there were too few words, many words could not be found. . . I also went to the toilet in the middle because I hadn’t taken a 3-hour exam for a long time and my bladder couldn’t bear it anymore. (It depends on the teacher, not all of them can get it...)
? In this way, the first exam ended in a panic. As you can imagine, the results are more disastrous than good.
4. Exam summary
? After the exam, you must summarize it to be worthy of yourself.
? First, my insufficient accumulation of translation volume is also the main problem. Especially in the Chinese-English translation part, there is obviously not enough practice, and no translation routine has been formed, so you will definitely suffer in actual combat. Only by ensuring the amount of practice and being able to turn quickly and accurately in normal times can you be confident in the exam. Taking into account that everyone’s foundation is different, the sooner you are at a lower level, the better. You must practice more, be willing to work hard, and you have to punch to the core, not just to the point, but to practice until you can think of how to do it when you see it. , and I can write it right away.
? Second, it is also important to grasp the time of the exam. There are a lot of questions for English-Chinese translation, so you must arrange your time. Personally, I suggest that it should not exceed 2 hours, and at least 1 hour should be allowed for Chinese-English translation. , otherwise, it is easy to focus on one thing and lose the other.
? Third, the planning for this exam was not good enough, resulting in low efficiency. There is nothing I can do about it. For the first time I took the test, I also had problems with the review direction. I felt that there was no need to spend too much time on the textbook, and I didn’t remember anything in the end. If you are tight on time, you should just practice the simulation questions and real questions. Better.
? Fourth, the number of words must be enough. There are many new words in the comprehensive part, all of which are vocabulary from Specialty 4 and Specialty 8. If you can't pass the comprehensive part because of insufficient vocabulary, then it will be useless no matter how good you are in the practical translation test.
? Fifth, you must have faith and be able to persist. First of all, you have to determine whether you want to take the exam or not. If you start, don't give up easily. Or don't start and do something you think is more valuable. Anyway, no matter what you are interested in, you must persist and think more, both are indispensable.
? The test results came out 2 months later.
? I checked the test results with a calm mind. The result was 70 in comprehensive and 48 in practical. I am quite satisfied with this score, but of course it was expected that I failed. The overall performance is good; I am only 12 points short of passing the practical test, and I will definitely not get a few points for the Chinese-English translation. I mainly rely on the English-Chinese translation. So, if I focus on the Chinese-English translation part, I might be able to pass. Do I still have to take the exam again?
? Sure enough, I later applied for the three exams in the second half of the year. Because I see hope and don’t want my efforts in the first half of the year to go to waste.
The exam process in the second half of the year was also full of hardships, including the review process, the exam process, and even the process of waiting for results. So, please read the second half of the article for details on how I prepared for the exam!