Preparing for California Court Certification Exam (Spanish) Thread poster: Alexandra Goldburt
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I plan to take California Court Certification Exam in Spanish. Next time written exam is given is in May this year, followed by oral exam in July. I’d like to invite those who prepare for the exam to share your experiences.
What study materials do you use? Do you study every day? For how many hours? Do you have days when the motivation to study is simply not there? What do you do if it happens?
Do you have the moments of frustration, of self-doubt, of feeling tha... See more I plan to take California Court Certification Exam in Spanish. Next time written exam is given is in May this year, followed by oral exam in July. I’d like to invite those who prepare for the exam to share your experiences.
What study materials do you use? Do you study every day? For how many hours? Do you have days when the motivation to study is simply not there? What do you do if it happens?
Do you have the moments of frustration, of self-doubt, of feeling that it is useless and the desire to give up? What do you do to keep your spirits up when it happens?
I tried the written exam (Spanish) in April 2004, and I was very close to passing it. The passing grade is 70%, and I got 73% in English and 68.5% (yes, only 1.5% short) in Spanish. Since then, I’ve studied on and off, taking long breaks. I have recently resumed studying, and I’m very serious about doing it. I use ACEBO materials, which are superb.
I’d like to get in touch with my colleagues who are preparing for this exam. Not to study together – it is my opinion that studying is better done alone – but motivate and morally support each other, to have somebody to talk to at the moments when it seems an impossible task, to share tips and just to talk to somebody who is in the same boat.
All comments welcome. Thanks for your attention. ▲ Collapse
| | | | | Study Materials | Feb 29, 2008 |
I too am planning to take the exam in May. My question to you is, was ACEBO the only study materials you used? It was my understanding that the ACEBO materials were aimed at preparing an individual to take the oral exam not the written. Is that correct?
How did you prepare for the "synonyms" portion of the exam?
Thank you,
Ray Gonzalez
| | | | | I don't do anything particular to prepare for the "synonyms" portion of the exam | Feb 29, 2008 |
Senorg74 wrote:
I too am planning to take the exam in May. My question to you is, was ACEBO the only study materials you used? It was my understanding that the ACEBO materials were aimed at preparing an individual to take the oral exam not the written. Is that correct?
How did you prepare for the "synonyms" portion of the exam?
Thank you,
Ray Gonzalez
Hello, Ray, and thank you for your interest in my post.
ACEBO is the major part of the materials I use. Secondly, I use tapes for people who study to be court reporters. These tapes are not specifically made for court interpreters, but can be perfectly used as such.
It is correct that ACEBO does not directly prepare you for the written portion of the exam. However, because the written exam contains quite a bit of legal vocabulary, ACEBO helps you indirectly, because you memorize legal vocabulary as part of using the tapes and the book.
I know that materials to study synonyms exist somewhere, but frankly, I do not believe that they are worth my money. I am convinced that studying the lists of words is tedious and ineffective. This is not how our brains are wired!
I don’t do anything special to prepare for the synonyms part of the exam, or any part of the written exam, for that matter. I don’t use a book, or take a class that’s called “how to pass the written exam”. I don’t do anything at all, other than simply doing what I can to improve my knowledge of Spanish, which is my weakest of the Spanish – English pair.
I read a lot in the language (Spanish), taking care to look up every unfamiliar word in the dictionary. This takes a hell of self-discipline, because while you are reading, you just want to go on, and as long as you grasp the overall meaning, you don’t need to understand every single word. But to improve the level of your general language knowledge, you must do just that: look up every unfamiliar word, and make sure you memorize it.
Another great thing is to listen to books on tapes in Spanish – lots and lots of them, and listen to the same book over and over again. Not only it makes certain sentences and word combinations stuck in your mind, but it transforms time wasted while driving into productive study time.
If for you the language you need to improve is English, than you can simply do the same in English.
Best of luck to you. If you want to, drop me a line through my e-mail. I’ll see you in May!
Alexandra Goldburt
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