SWORN TRANSLATORS AND INTERPRETERS CANDIDATES’ PERFORMANCE ANALYSIS IN COLOMBIA

Abstract Sworn Translation and Interpreting as a professional activity in Colombia is carried out by those translators and interpreters that have approved the translation and interpreting examinations offered by two universities according to the law to the public at large. However, there is few social and legal visibility (Quiroz et al, 2015) for these professional community and the group of potential sworn translators and interpreters.. In this article, the results of the application of a sworn translation and interpreting exam will be described by using a quantitative approach. 134 candidates from 2011 to 2016 were studied at the School of Languages examination in Universidad de Antioquia. The overview of results indicates that at least 1 out of 10 candidates approved the test; women tend to have a better outcome, generally speaking; candidates working in the language pair French-Spanish perform better than those from the language pair English-Spanish. In terms of error analysis, the most common error in both sections is the terminological error. Besides, from the point of view of types of tests and competences, it is important to mention that interpreting is the most complex competence to overcome to most candidates.