Accredited Audio Transcriber (AAT) Exam

£50.00

Next Scheduled Examination Date: TBC

Ensure you have read the information below then APPLY ONLINE.

NOTES:

To comply with the Articles of Association, any person who desires to be admitted a Member of the Institute must:
(i) Submit to the Secretary an application form together with examination fee (this may be online via the form on this page).
(ii) Satisfy the council that they have been taking notes, scoping or transcribing audios for not less than three years, or have undertaken a bona fide course with appropriate mentorship (shadowing), or webinars, as agreed by Council.
(iii) Satisfy the Council that they have had a good general education. (For this purpose, please forward copies of all relevant certificates).
(iv) Pass an examination in practical notetaking of up to one hour’s duration, for AV, or STT examination, or 20 minutes’ audio recording for AT examination, or 30 minutes’ audio for AS examination, conducted by an Examiner appointed by the Council.
(v) Submit a transcript within three weeks of the date of the examination.
(vi) Candidates for the VR or STT examination must also provide a first draft computer print-out of the test piece (no editing/scoping).
(vii) Pass a written examination designed to test editing/comprehension skills.
(viii) There should be no conferring or sharing of examination audios or papers with other candidates.
(ix) There should be no posting of the examination material on social media.
(x) The completed transcript for any examination should be the candidates’ own work, i.e., with no conferring with other candidates, though case papers and the Internet may be used to assist the candidate in their transcript preparation.


BIVR Examination syllabus for Membership for Audio Transcribing (AT)

Prerequisites for undertaking Audio Transcribing examination:

Candidates should have a reasonably accurate typing speed of 65-75 wpm.

Typing may be tested online at the following sites:
https://www.typingtest.com or https://www.speedtypingonline.com/typing-test
though other sites are available.

Candidates should have undertaken several hours (up to 20 hours) audio transcribing work.

Candidates to keep a diary of their audio practice work to provide to the Examiner to indicate all the areas and timings of practice they have undertaken.

Candidates should be familiar with their word-processing software.

Candidates should have read the BIVR Guide (formerly the Manual), updated August 2019, available on the BIVR website.

For those who are unfamiliar with court proceedings, there is free online video and audio available, namely:

The Supreme Court:
https://www.supremecourt.uk/decided-cases/index.html
We must caution candidates that it should be noted that the use of these videos is for training purposes only and under no circumstances should candidates post information about them on social media!

BIVR has timed speed dictation on the members’ area of its website.
https://bivr.org.uk/members-area/downloads/

Candidates should Google for other examples if prospective Audio Transcribing candidates wish to get a flavour of court proceedings.

Candidates for examination will have access to the BIVR website for the purposes of accessing audios and the BIVR Guide.

There is also a plethora of information about court hearings on YouTube. This is just one example:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tZYvv_s5R-s

Candidates should Google for other examples.

The objective of the examination is to ensure that candidates have sufficient typing, comprehension, grammar and listening skills to transcribe an audio of proceedings accurately.

Candidates will be allocated a date and time to undertake the examination.

The Audio Transcriber examination will consist of:

(i) (i) Up to 20 minutes’ duration via pre-recorded downloadable material provided by BIVR.

Candidates will have up to 2 hours to transcribe the audio and the final transcript should be sent through to the Examiner immediately following completion.

Preparation material will be provided to the candidate by the Examiner just prior to the examination audio being downloaded. The case papers and the Internet may be used to assist the candidate in their transcript preparation.

Guidelines:

Candidates could spend 15 minutes to read through the preparation material sent to them and get the front page ready – speakers etc.

Candidates then effectively have 70 minutes to transcribe the 20-minute audio.

Candidates would then have 35 minutes for proofreading (including listening to audio again, but at speeded up rate, for example.

(ii) A multiple-choice theory examination. This will be provided to the candidate at the time of the examination.

The result will be conveyed to the candidate within three weeks of receipt.

The competencies are:

  1. Follow the style guide
  2. Transcript formatting
  3. Spelling and grammar
  4. Working to a deadline
  5. Knowledge of software (not CAT specific)
  6. Accuracy of content., i.e., the transcription matching the audio.
  7. Proofreading

The marking criteria:

The main emphasis is on the accuracy of their listening and comprehension skills and candidates will be graded on the final product, namely, the transcript.

The scoring is from 1 to 5 marks for each of the seven competencies.

The candidate may request to see their marked transcript.

The examiner, who checks the finished transcript, will indicate on the transcript where, if at all, the candidate has scored a mark below 5. For instance, where they have not followed the style guide. Thus the candidate should clearly see the point at which they have been given the lower score and why.

Core Competency scoring

SCORING DEFINITION
5 VHA – Very High Achievement Has demonstrated a very high level of skill competency in this area
4 HA – High Achievement Has demonstrated an acceptable level of skill/competency but could be developed
3 SA – Sound Achievement Has demonstrated some weaknesses in the skill/competency, although these could be overcome by training and development
2 LA – Low Achievement Has demonstrated considerable weaknesses in the skill/competency. More training in that area needed
1 VLA – Very Low Achievement Has demonstrated major weaknesses in the competency

In the following example of scoring, the candidate did not follow the style guide on two separate and distinct occasions, hence they have had 2 marks deducted from that competency.

COMPETENCY SCORE
Followed style guide 3
Transcript formatting 4
Spelling & grammar 3
Working to a deadline 2
Knowledge of software 4
Accuracy of content 3
Proofreading 1
TOTAL SCORE 20
MAXIMUM SCORE ACHIEVABLE 35
MINIMUM SCORE NEEDED (e.g. no less than 3s) 21

Some examples of poor proofreading could be evidenced:
• If different fonts are used;
• names are spelled differently throughout the transcript;
• extra line spacing;
• double words wrongly left in (which should be found on a spellcheck.)

Note: A name spelled wrongly throughout, which could have been checked from the case papers, will only attract one mark deducted provided it is spelling in the same wrong way throughout the whole transcript.

The result will be conveyed to the candidate within three weeks of receipt of their transcript.


AUDIO TRANSCRIBER EXAM APPLICATION:

£
Category: Tag: