Oral Exam - Testing at a Site

The information on this page is for the oral exam only. You must already have passed the written exam in order to be eligible to take the oral exam. If you have not yet passed the written exam, choose Written Exam above.

Oral examinations are available in the following languages: Spanish, Russian, Cantonese, Mandarin, Vietnamese, and Korean. If you have passed the written exam and interpret for a language other than the six languages listed above, you will be informed if an oral exam in your language becomes available.

Oral Exam Testing Locations

1. Locate a Testing Center

Choose a location by clicking on the button below. Be sure to choose NBCMI for the type of exam.

Find a testing center

2. Schedule Your Exam

Email your program advisor and say that you are ready to schedule your oral exam.

If you do not know who your advisor is, send an email to [email protected] and state in the email that you are ready to schedule your oral exam. Include the following information in the email: your full name, complete contact information, which language you interpret, the date you passed the written exam, and the location where you want to take your oral exam. DO NOT CALL.

The National Board currently offers the Hub-CMI and the CMI (Certified Medical Interpreter) credentials. The Hub-CMI is a credential available to all interpreters, regardless of target language. If there’s a CMI certification available in your target language, your Hub-CMI credential will expire in two years with no option for renewal.

The CMI (Certified Medical Interpreter) certification is offered in six languages: Spanish, Cantonese, Mandarin, Russian, Korean, and Vietnamese. After achieving the Hub-CMI credential, you will be allowed 2 years to complete the oral exam to be awarded the CMI certification.

3. Take the Practice Test

The National Board recently made a practice test in order for candidates to become more familiar and comfortable navigating through our oral exam. The practice test can be helpful to practice the format of the test before taking it.

The practice test is only to help candidates with test navigation. It won’t help you to prepare for actual interpreting in a medical context. The role play scenarios on the practice test are not necessarily consistent with the types of role play scenarios on the actual oral exam.

To take the practice test, make sure you are using a PC computer. Go to the testing site: http://hosted.owlts.com/ and log in using the following username and password:

username:          practicetest

password:           practicetest

Please remember that it is your responsibility to know how to navigate through the oral exam, including how and when to record your renditions and request repetitions. If you fail to correctly navigate through the oral exam your score will be negatively impacted.

4. Prior to taking your NBCMI exam please be sure to visit  the candidate test preparation document located under "get prepared."

https://nbcmi.memberclicks.net/assets/docs/Candidate-Test-Preparation-Document-for-the-Oral-Exam-2020.pdf

Results: You will be notified of test results by email within 6-8 weeks. The passing scores for the oral exam for Cantonese, Korean, Russian and Spanish is 70%. The passing score for Mandarin is 80% and for Vietnamese it is 65%. To learn more on how the passing scores were developed please go to: https://www.certifiedmedicalinterpreters.org/reports-and-publications

Retakes: Candidates who do not pass the the oral exam may re-take the exam after a 3-month waiting period. The initial exam and re-test fees and application procedures are the same.  After 3 retakes you will be permitted 1 attempt per calendar year. You will be permitted to reapply and earn your Hub-CMI only one time after your original expiration date.   

Fees Expiration and Refunds Policies: The exam fees are non-refundable and an exam fee will expire after one year if the exam has not been taken.