Quest Greek Islands

CTP: Course Review

Quest Greek Islands has recently taken part in a CTP Translation Course, in which they could review the course for the benefit of our readers. As you already may know, Quest Greek Islands runs a scheme in which one of the Quest Greek Islands staff will take part in the course and review it for our readers. These courses are specially picked to make sure that they are suitable and beneficial to our readers who live abroad. We have recently taken both a TEFL course by Global English and now a CTP Translation certification course. Translating and English teaching are popular career choices for those who live in foreign countries and through our course reviews; we hope that you will be able to find a suitable course for you.

The CTP translation course is available in many different languages. The course can be done 100% online and the exam is also conducted online, which makes it perfect for those who live abroad. The course provider is an American company, which explains why the course prices are in USD.

Included in with the course are the following:
-Directory of exclusive translation agencies
-Video clips on working as a translator
-Articles on the translation business
-Audio clips

CTP recommend that you undergo four to six months of study and revision before taking the examination. During this time, you must study the course information provided by CTP, as well as reading three additional books that are required for the course (which CTP do not provide).
The examinations are held each season, so there are a total of four possible examination dates throughout the year. You must contact CTP in advance if you wish to book your examination with them, as the places fill up quickly.
On the day of the examination you will be sent your log in details and you will be able to access the exam from your computer (on the internet) at any time during that day. Once you have logged in to the exam you will not be able to log back out and therefore must complete the examination during the allowed time.
The exam includes around eighty questions; many of them are in reference to the three books that are required for study. There are a few essay questions and two translation questions, one translation is from your source-target language and the other is target-source language.
To gain a certificate at the end of the exam, you must get at least an 80% pass; otherwise you will have to pay to retake the test.

Advantages for taking this course
The course is cheap and there is some valuable information provided in the course.

The course can be studied and completed completely online.

Disadvantages for the course
The three books that are required reading are very hard to get hold of if you are not living in the USA. Although they can be purchased in the UK, they are difficult to get hold of and getting them delivered abroad is difficult. The Quest Greek Islands team were unable to get hold of these books and therefore struggled to complete the course successfully.

Some of the video tutorials and articles do not play properly and the site is very difficult to find your way around. Some of the materials are repeated.
The examination is said to take about three hours to complete, which we felt was a long time, considering that you cannot log out and in again and must complete the test in one sitting.

Overall
This course does give you a good insight in to the world of translation and the directory of translation agencies is useful. However, the course is not really designed for people who live outside of the UK or USA, so it can't really be taken by people all over the world.
Communications between us and CTP were good, considering the time difference.
The course focuses mainly on the translation profession and not on language practise and theory.