FORMING A PEER STUDY GROUP to Prepare for ATA's Certification Exam One approach to preparing for ATA's certification exam that has proven highly effective is working on short translations with colleagues in peer-based study groups. By Jason Knapp A TA certification is one of the industry's most respected and recognized credentials for translators. It's also one of the only widely recognized measures of competence for translation in the U.S.1 To earn ATA certification, a translator must pass a challenging three-hour proctored in-person or online exam. The exam assesses the language skills of a professional translator, including comprehension of the source-language text, translation techniques, and writing in the target language. The current pass rate is less than 20%.2 One approach to preparing for the exam that has proven highly effective is working 24 The ATA Chronicle | May/June 2022 on short translations with colleagues in peer-based study groups. In the Spring of 2021, I decided to launch an initiative with members of ATA's Spanish Language Division (SPD) and posted a message on the division's listserv asking if there was any interest in forming a study group. The response was overwhelmingly positive, so I began researching approaches to organizing a large study group. I found a 2017 article in The ATA Chronicle by Maria Guzenko and Eugenia Tietz-Sokolskaya outlining the steps they took with members of the Slavic Languages Division to form and administer a peer-based study group3 , and I'm very www.atanet.orghttp://www.atanet.org