The ATA Chronicle - May/June 2023 - 36

CERTIFICATION FORUM By Geoffrey S. Koby
Certification Pass Rates 2011-2021
It has been several years since statistics on the Certification Program's pass rates have been
published. The most recent previous set was 2004-2014. This article compares that set to the most
recent set of 11 years of complete data (2011-2021).
T
o describe the results
effectively and
avoid distortion, the
information has been divided
into two groups: 1) languages
with 40 or more exams in
the reporting period; and 2)
languages with extremely
low volumes (ELV), defined
as fewer than 40 exams in
the reporting period.
The overall pass rate for
ATA's Certification Program
for 2011-2021 was 19.90%
(2004-2014: 15.45%). A
total of 4,649 candidates
(2004-2014: 5,463) took the
exam in 31 language pairs
(2004-2014: 29), and 925
exams were rated " pass "
(2004-2014: 844). Of these
language pairs, 17 had 40
or more exams over this
period (2004-2014: 16).
The Chinese>English and
English>Arabic language
pairs (which started being
offered in 2016 and 2018,
respectively) are both newly
included in Table 1. The
individual language pairs
are also listed in Table 1 in
alphabetical order with the
number of exams and pass
rate for both sets of data.
Table 1: Language Pairs with 40 or More Certification Exams
(18 Language Pairs)
2011-2021
Language Pair
Arabic>English
Chinese>English*
French>English
German>English
Japanese>English
Portuguese>English
Russian>English
Spanish>English
Total and overall pass
rate, foreign into
English:
English>Arabic*
English>Chinese
English>French
English>German
English>Italian
English>Japanese
English>Polish
English>Portuguese
English>Russian
English>Spanish
Total and overall pass
rate, English into
foreign
Grand total and
overall program
pass rate
Number of
Exams
182
81
265
187
76
127
119
938
1,975
55
224
100
79
60
82
Now ELV
130
134
1,616
2,480
4,455
Pass Rate per
Language Pair
6.04%
44.44%
27.55%
33.69%
10.53%
27.56%
21.01%
19.40%
21.92%
9.09%
22.32%
4.00%
26.58%
23.33%
29.27%
N/A
14.62%
14.18%
16.21%
16.85%
19.10%
2004-2014 Comparison
Number of
Exams
211
N/A
269
239
113
131
124
1,038
2,125
N/A
246
165
106
91
95
85
145
197
2,040
3,170
5,295
Pass Rate per
Language Pair
9.00%
N/A
18.22%
26.78%
13.27%
22.14%
28.23%
12.04%
15.81%
N/A
13.41%
9.09%
27.36%
28.57%
16.84%
21.43%
28.97%
15.23%
11.76%
14.11%
14.79%
*Notes: Chinese>English started testing in 2016. English>Arabic started testing in 2018.
36 The ATA Chronicle | May/June 2023
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