Testing Process Cycles

To be eligible for RID certification, candidates must first pass a knowledge exam and then pass a performance exam. Think of these as one whole exam, broken into parts, to assess the overall Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities (KSAs) that a nationally certified ASL interpreter should have to competently work in typical, non-specialized, interpreting settings. For the exam process to be psychometrically valid, they must be taken within a certain time frame from each other. RID and CASLI have a five-year testing process cycle, meaning candidates must take and pass all parts of the exams within a five-year window.

Exceptions to these Testing Process Cycles

Out of fairness to CDI candidates and due to the current lack of an available performance exam, the cycle for the current CDI-K to new performance exam will be extended from five (5) years to about eight (8) years. If a CDI candidate took and passed their CDI-K more than eight (8) years prior to the release of the new interpreter exams, their test cycle will be considered “expired”. However, the CASLI Board has taken additional consideration and offers an option for those who took and passed their CDI-K exams more than eight (8) years prior to the release of the new exams to obtain RID’s Provisional Deaf Interpreting Credential (PDIC) in order to qualify for the mandatory bridge plan and “gap” test.

    • Candidates who take and pass the new knowledge exam will qualify to take the new performance exam.
    • Candidates who passed the CDI-K exam AFTER 1/1/2013 must take and pass the mandatory bridge plan/“gap test” to qualify to take the new performance exam.
    • Candidates who passed the CDI-K exam PRIOR to 1/1/2013 and have obtained PDIC must take and pass the mandatory bridge plan/“gap test” to qualify to take the new performance exam.
    • Candidates who passed the CDI-K exam PRIOR to 1/1/2013 and have NOT obtained PDIC must take the new knowledge exam and then the new performance exam.

The 2016 RID Moratorium on the NIC-Interview and Performance Exam was from January 1, 2016 to November 1, 2016. Candidates who passed their NIC-Knowledge exam prior to the start of the moratorium had up to 10 months of time that they were eligible to test* but could not due to the moratorium added to their testing cycle.

These candidates who have taken their NIC-Knowledge exam after November 1, 2016 but have not yet passed their NIC-Interview and Performance Exam are currently caught in the CASLI Test Delivery Transition and their testing cycles have been paused during this time. And the time during this transition, now extended due to the COVID-19 global pandemic, will have up to one year of time during which they were eligible to test*, but could not, added to their testing process once the CASLI Testing System is fully operational again.

The time during this transition, now extended due to the COVID-19 global pandemic, will have up to one year of time during which they were eligible to test*, but could not, added to their testing process once the CASLI Testing System is fully operational again.

Candidates opt to test amidst the testing platform transition and global pandemic have started their testing process cycle “clock” when they take their performance exam.  No additional time after their performance exam date was taken will be added to their testing process cycle once the CASLI Testing System is fully operational again.

*Only time eligible to test is added to one’s testing process cycle. If a candidate has one year left in their testing process cycle, but takes the performance exam and does not pass, they have 6-month mandatory waiting period before they can retake their performance exam, leaving only 6 months of eligibility left in their testing process cycle.