Patrícia’s Journey with the CertTrans
Here we look at one particular student’s journey with linguisttraining.com’s CertTrans course, and the CIOLQ examination.
Patrícia is an English to European Portuguese translator, living in the UK. She has a PGCert from the Polytechnic Institute of Lisbon and a BA/BS from the University of Aveiro.
In 2024, she decided to officially qualify herself in translation and chose the CertTrans course by linguisttraining.com and qualification by the CIOLQ.
Patrícia joined our CertTrans course in August 2024.
The course teaches many modules on translation, such as Translation Skills, Reading & Reference Materials and Decoding & Encoding.
Patrícia says it’s…
"a great preparation course for the CertTrans exam. The Certificate in Translation Course has been perfect to prepare me for the CertTrans exam. For someone with no formal training in translation, I found it very informative and a good first introduction to translation techniques. It's a good combination of the theoretical and practical aspects of the translation process with many useful resources and exercises provided.”
Within the course, Patrícia undertook 8 Translation Practices which were proofread and reviewed by her LanguagePartnerᵀᴹ, an expert professional who we chose specifically to match Patrícia’s requirements. These Translation Practices are designed to mirror exactly what a student might encounter in the exam, with many of them being actual CIOLQ past exam papers from previous years. The 8 Translation Practices are split as follows; 4 x General Translation (Unit 01 of the CIOL CertTrans exam), 2 x Business & Commerce Translation (Unit 02 of the CIOL CertTrans exam) and 2 x Government & Public Service Translation (Unit 03 of the CIOL CertTrans exam).
She also had a face-to-face (video) Mentor Session with her LanguagePartnerᵀᴹ after completing her Practices, where she was able to discuss her work, the Translations she had submitted and any other queries she had about her translation skills. She says,
“The main highlight for me was the translation practices, reviewed by a professional, and also the mentor session. This was essential for me to understand what mistakes I was making, how I could improve my translation skills, and it also helped me feel more confident about the work I was producing.”
Patrícia completed the course in just over 3 months. The course is available to all enrolled students for a full 12 months however, so if she wants to dip back in to remind herself of some of the teachings, she can. Patrícia rated our course ‘5 out of 5’ on our elearning platform, Thinkific.
“I have completed the CertTrans exam only recently, but I would say this course is also a good learning tool even for those who may not take the exam."
In November 2024, Patrícia took the CertTrans examination with the CIOLQ, and having all the tools she needed from our CertTrans course and support, she passed with flying colours! In January 2025, she let us know;
"I just wanted to let you know that I’ve got my CertTrans exam results today and I passed both units with a Distinction! Thank you again for your help with the preparation, and also a big thank you to my LanguagePartner for all the support. 😊 Have a lovely weekend!"
Patrícia
Patrícia now specialises in ecommerce and marketing translation and can proudly display the post-nominal ‘CertTrans’ to her name - a recognised qualification that is equivalent to a Degree (Level 6) on the UK Ofqual scale.
We are so proud of Patrícia and her achievements!
We are also proud to be a high-quality provider of the CertTrans preparation course and have many other students who also achieved excellent results in the exam. To see more information about the course, click here, and to read information about the CIOLQ CertTrans exam, visit ciol.org.uk/CertTrans.
