Universität
Koblenz-Landau

Staatsexamen Translation

Edward Martin Anglistik

For the state exam in translation you translate two texts - a news report ('A-text') and a review ('B-text') - into English.
Each text is 185-200 words long. The time allowed is three hours.

The first of the two texts is the A-text, on some aspect of current affairs relating to the English-speaking world, mainly North America and the UK.

If you are writing your translation exam in March, the A-text will be taken from a German-language news report appearing between December 1 and January 15.

If you are writing your exam in September, the A-text will be taken from a German-language news report appearing between June 1 and July 15.

The A-text will cover some aspect of one of six topic areas which will have all been prominent in the German news media in the specified period.

You can contribute to the selection of these topic areas. As a group, all of you must agree on 12 topic areas and send them to my by e-mail on January 16 / July 16 respectively (or one or two days later if these dates fall on a weekend or a holiday). The e-mail must be addressed to me and to all the examinees and contain the previously agreed list of topic areas. Everyone must then send me a mail confirming that they have agreed to the list of topic areas.  

You can find a list of examinees' names on the "Landesprüfungsamt" website. The e-mail addresses can then normally be obtained from our secretary if you explain why you need them.

After receiving your list and your confirmations, I will then select six topic areas from the list. Please note: I reserve the right to change your topic areas if I think they are too broad or too narrow or inappropriate thematically. Similarly, if I do not get confirmation from everyone in the group, I will select my own topic areas.

I will announce the final six topic areas on this page as soon as possible after January 16 / July 16. 

The same procedure applies to the B-texts, see below.  

The B-text will be a general-language text. It will be an excerpt from a German-language review of an English-language book or film and will not require knowledge of specialist technical terminology. Instead it will test your ability to express yourself in English with a wide range of vocabulary and syntax and your ability to translate idioms, colloquialisms, metaphors and discourse markers. 

The selected review will be recent but not from the same limited time period as the A-text.

Instead of being given “topic areas” for the B-text, you will be given a list of up to eight titles, four book titles and four film titles. This will enable you to find English reviews of the films or books on the internet without knowing exactly when the film or book appeared. It is important in your preparation to read lots of English reviews to broaden your general vocabulary, range of syntax, and knowledge of idioms, discourse markers etc. 

You can contribute to the selection of these titles. As a group, all of you must agree on 12 titles, 6 books and 6 movies, and send them to my by e-mail on January 16 / July 16 respectively (or one or two days later if these dates fall on a weekend or a holiday). Please give the German title in brackets if it is significantly different from the English title. The e-mail must be addressed to me and to all the examinees and contain the previously agreed list of titles. Everyone must then send me a mail confirming that they have agreed to the list of topic areas. (You can get a list of examinees' names from the "Landesprüfungsamt" office in Koblenz.) I reserve the right to select other titles if I think yours are thematically inappropriate or if they have not been widely reviewed in the German media. Similarly, if I do not get confirmation from everyone in the group, I will select my own titles. I will announce the final list of titles on this page as soon as possible after January 16 / July 16.
 

Repeat exams also require an A-text and a B-text to be translated into English within three hours. Repeat exams usually have to be arranged at short notice. Because of this, the A-text will be selected from a news report appearing in a period of 3 weeks from the day that is exactly one month before the repeat exam.

For example:
if the repeat exam is scheduled for April 20, the period will be the 3 weeks from March 20, i.e. March 20 - April 9;
if the repeat exam is scheduled for November 20, the period will be the 3 weeks from October 20, i.e. October 20 - November 9.

Given the shortness of this period (three weeks instead of six in the normal exam), no topic areas can be named for the A-text, otherwise students taking a repeat exam would have an unfair advantage. However, the topic will be one that relates to current events in the English-speaking world and will have featured in the German press during that 3-week period. The B-text will be taken from either a film review or a book review, if possible from the same 3-week period but stretching a little further back in time if necessary to ensure the selection of an appropriate text; no titles can be given, for the reasons explained above. 

Dictionaries

In the exams, you may use any two of the following 4 monolingual English dictionaries (no older editions are permitted):

• Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary (7th edition, 2005; or the new, improved 8th edition, 2010)  
  
• Longman's Dictionary of Contemporary English (5th edition 2009) Please note: The 4th edition is out of date and not permitted
• Macmillan's Advanced Learner's Dictionary (2nd edition, 2007) Please note: The 1st edition is out of date and not permitted
• Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary (3rd edition, 2008) Please note: The 2nd edition is out of date and not permitted

Previous Exam Translation Texts (A and B)