CISSP German Exam Translations

[Alex_CISSP]

Since my native language is German and some new English terms in the flash cards and literature hinder the learning and reading flow, my question is whether it makes sense to take the exam in German if there is already the possibility.

Does anyone have sample questions to assess the German translation?

Of course I work in an international environment and will need the English terms later, I'm just asking about the exam.

[NicoleWoiderLee]

Hi Alex, ich habe das gleiche Problem. Die Fragen und Antworten sind teilweise um Nuancen unterschiedlich, ebenso werden von ISC2 nicht gängige Umschreibungen verwendet, was bedeutet, eine Menge Vokabeln lernen zu müssen. Ich tendiere dazu die Prüfung lieber auf deutsch abzukegen. Das funktioniert aber nur dann wenn die Übersetzung gut ist. Hierzu finde ich leider keine Beispiele.

Hi Alex, I have the same problem. Some of the questions and answers are nuanced and ISC2 uses non-standard paraphrases, which means you have to learn a lot of vocabulary. I tend to prefer to take the exam in German. But this only works if the translation is good. Unfortunately, I can't find any examples of this.

[denbesten]

The sample questions are neither a good measure of translation nor of the actual content.

The people who develop exam content are prohibited from participating in any training efforts. 

[NicoleWoiderLee]

Thank you for your prompt Feedback.
I got your point, but do you think the people who developed the exam and contributed to the translation can provide some feedback on how they assess their quality of translation? I assume before the exam questions are released they have been internaly tested from volunteers, who support ISC2?

If you are not a non native english speaker, you might not really understand the concerns non native english speaking persons are actually struggling with. Especially as the CISSP Exam is a --> read carefully! Exam, compared to other technical Exams.

Also no extra time is offered to non native english speaker (e.g. AWS, IBM allow extra 30 minutes).

I hope you don't missunderstand my reply.

[denbesten]

Everyone involved with exam creation is under strict NDA (Non-Disclosure Agreement).  It is very unlikely any of them would individually offer any comment.

Exam questions start out life by being placed on exams without affecting your score (that is, they are worth zero points). It is only after it has proven themself that they "count".  Even afterwards, ISC2 continually analyzes the exam results, looking for questions that are non-predictive (that is, people who pass tend to get it wrong), so over time, the exam is effectively learning from the test-takers.  I would presume that this same "psychometric analysis" is performed on the questions in each language, but I do not know for sure because I am not involved with exam development (which is also why I am free to speculate). 

Perhaps @tldutton, the exam department head could let us know if there is any statistical difference in the scoring that correlates with the language in which the exam is taken.

[tldutton]

All of our adapted (translated) exams are based on the original English versions.  The scoring is the same regardless of language.  Every English item that is destined for an adapted version of the exam is first translated word-for-word by our translation vendor then those translated versions are reviewed by volunteer members who hold that certification and are native speakers/readers/writers in the target language to ensure the translation makes sense in the context of IT/cybersecurity; not every technical term translates well from the English original, which is why we go through the adaptation process and sometimes leave the English version of the term.

[denbesten]

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@tldutton wrote:

All of our adapted (translated) exams are based on the original English versions.

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Just an idea.... I don't know if PearsonVue supports it, but would it be possible to allow people to switch back and forth between various languages as frequently as per each exam question?  Kinda like Amazon does with the flag icon just to the right of their search bar and to the left of their "sign in".

Might solve some of the anxiety if a multi-lingual person could switch back and forth if the translation was giving them problems.  And, taken to an extreme, it could simplify scheduling by offering a single multi-language version to all test-takers.  

But yes, it does completely depend on what PersonVue does and does not support.

[nuclearfallout]

I have a similar question about this. If you take the exam in German, you can view the English translation for each question ("translate button"). In this case, is the original question (in English) displayed, or is the German question translated back into English on the fly (using an translation tool)?

[CBMExamTeam]

@nuclearfallout Thank you for reaching out via the ISC2Community board.

For ALL languages, there is a "pop-up" displayed to the candidate. You click on the button to view the ENGLISH version of the item. There is no back-translation. The English version is running in sync with the "Other Language" version.

Wishing you all the best with your exam!

[nuclearfallout]

For all German speakers out there who are still unsure:

Ich hatte meine Prüfung zum CISSP gestern (06.07.2024) und kann definitiv bestätigen, dass die deutsche Übersetzungsqualität insgesamt in Ordnung ist. Zwar sind bei längeren Fragestellungen die Formulierungen manchmal etwas holprig, aber insgesamt trotzdem noch gut zu verstehen. Den Mythos, dass man eine "Firewall" mit "Feuerwand" oder "Brandmauer" übersetzen würde, kann ich ausräumen! 

Wenn ihr euch dennoch unsicher seid, könnt ihr trotzdem Deutsch wählen und euch zu jeder Frage die englische Originalformulierung anschauen. Auch die Antwortmöglichkeiten werden im Original angezeigt. Wenn man halbwegs gut vorbereitet ist, reicht die Zeit auch aus sich jede Frage vorsichtshalber noch einmal auf Englisch durchzulesen.

Ein weiterer Teilnehmer, der die Prüfung ebenfalls auf Deutsch gemacht hat, fand es soweit auch in Ordnung und konnte erfolgreich bestehen.

Viel Erfolg euch!