Rivista internazionale di tecnica della traduzione n.11 - 2009

There is still little agreement on how to test the essential prerequisites of candidates applying for admission to translator training institutions; indeed, there is a substantial lack of scientific discussion on the quality assessment of admission translation exams. The following case study starts fromthe obvious premise that the appraisal of “potential” translation skills cannot rest on the same criteria used to judge the performance of students but should rather focus on requirements such as logical thinking and a basic ability tomanipulate linguistic structures. The first part of the study provides a description of the English into Italian translation test used in the 2009 admission examof the SSLMIT of Trieste. It is prospective in nature:major translation problems are outlined and virtual errors analyzed and evaluated according to quantitative criteria. The second part is devoted to the discussion of the most frequent types of actual errors and to a consistent quality assessment of the candidates' performance in order to establish whether the specific kind of translation test adequately serves the purpose of selection.