The Texas BEI Basic, Advanced, and Master performance exams share one recorded format and one standard: render every source message completely, accurately, and at its original register. Confirm your eligibility and prerequisite credential, learn the exact parts of your level's test, then rehearse one-take recorded interpretations in both language directions under the exam's conditions.
What the three performance exams have in common
The Basic, Advanced, and Master tests are three levels of the same recorded, video-based examination. Every section gives you a stimulus — a video or a written document — to interpret from the source language into the target language, and the levels differ mainly in how hard that task is.
The Board for Evaluation of Interpreters (BEI) administers three interpreter performance tests: Basic, Advanced, and Master. In every section of every test, you receive a stimulus, either a video recording or a written document, and you interpret it from the source language into the target language.
The standard is the same throughout: your rendition should conserve everything conceptually relevant to the original message, without distorting or omitting meaning.
What changes across levels is difficulty. Three factors raise the challenge as you move up: the complexity of the language, the complexity of the topics and settings, and the speed of the speaker or signer.
What each level covers
Basic targets routine educational and social service language. Advanced moves into high-stakes but routine settings such as medical, mental health, and quasi-legal work. Master covers complex high-stakes material like contracts, specialist appointments, and special education meetings. Basic has four test parts; Advanced and Master have five.
The content of each level comes from an empirical job analysis of working Texas interpreters, so the settings below reflect what certified interpreters actually encounter rather than an academic syllabus.
Note the parts as you plan practice. The Basic test has four parts, while the Advanced and Master tests each add a second receptive part, splitting signed source material by whether it is ASL or signed English.
- Basic — four parts: expressive interpreting (spoken English to ASL), expressive transliterating (spoken English to signed English), receptive (signed to spoken English), and sight translation (written English to ASL).
- Advanced and Master — five parts: the same expressive and sight translation parts, plus two separate receptive parts, receptive interpreting (ASL to spoken English) and receptive transliterating (signed English to spoken English).
| Level | Settings emphasized | Example topics |
|---|---|---|
| Basic | Routine educational and social service settings | K–12 classroom presentations, school assemblies, homework assignments, school memos, orientations |
| Advanced | High-stakes routine settings: medical, social service, K–12 and higher education, routine mental health, routine quasi-legal | Doctor or dentist visits, applications for services, employment forms, counseling sessions |
| Master | Complex high-stakes settings: medical, mental health, quasi-legal, educational | Patient information and intake forms, contracts and contract negotiations, specialist meetings, special education meetings |
Interpreting, transliterating, and sight translation
Each part names both a direction and a target form, and the exam expects you to hit the named target precisely: ASL for interpreting, signed English for transliterating, natural spoken English for receptive work.
In the expressive interpreting part, you render spoken English into ASL — and the study guide is explicit that your rendition must be ASL, not signed English. In expressive transliterating, you render spoken English into signed English, choosing signs that match each word's meaning conceptually rather than defaulting to ASL structure.
On the receptive side, the Basic test has a single part asking you to watch signed material and speak it in English. The Advanced and Master tests separate this into receptive interpreting from ASL and receptive transliterating from signed English, and you are expected to speak in English syntax — restructuring is fine as long as meaning survives.
Sight translation is the only part without a video. You read a short written English document and interpret it into ASL for someone who is monolingual. The job analysis found Texas interpreters are frequently asked to do exactly this with documents.
Eligibility and how to apply
For the general performance route, meet the age, education and TEP requirements, then check any prerequisite certificate for Advanced or Master. Submit Form 3909 at least 60 calendar days before the scheduled test.
The baseline requirements for any BEI exam are being at least 18 years old, holding a high school diploma or equivalent, and having no conviction that could disqualify you from certification. The Test of English Proficiency (TEP) additionally requires 30 credit hours with a cumulative GPA of 2.0 or higher, and a performance test requires a passing TEP score plus an associate degree or at least 60 credit hours, also with a 2.0 or higher GPA.
Basic can be an applicant's first interpreter certificate. Advanced and Master have prerequisite-certificate lists in section 1.2(G). For example, BEI Basic or Level I–V can support an Advanced application; BEI Level III–V, OC:C or Advanced can support a Master application. The table also lists eligible RID/NIC credentials. Submit any required certificate copy for verification; another credential does not automatically qualify you for every level.
The November 2025 qualification rules contain conditional education exemptions for active, valid BEI certificates awarded through proceedings initiated before January 1, 2012. The upgrading exception includes renewal, disciplinary-status and other requirements. Do not assume that every current BEI holder is exempt; have HHSC DHHS confirm how section 1.2 applies to your record.
For the application itself, complete Form 3909 and mail it with a photo ID, an official transcript, and the fee at least 60 calendar days before a scheduled test date. Fees are nonrefundable: $145 for Basic, $170 for Advanced, and $195 for Master. Appointments are first-come, first-served, and a confirmed appointment is offered only once.
If you do not pass, you must wait six months from the test date, submit a new application and fee, and meet all eligibility requirements again. The results letter includes feedback meant to guide training before you retake.
- Be at least 18, hold a high school diploma or equivalent, and have no disqualifying conviction.
- Pass the TEP before applying for a performance test (specialty certificates excepted).
- Show an associate degree or 60+ credit hours with a 2.0+ GPA, unless you qualify for an exemption.
- For Advanced or Master, verify your existing certificate against section 1.2(G).
How the exams are scored
Your performance is scored two ways: an objective count of Objective Scoring Units you render with full meaning, and a holistic subjective score for delivery, adaptability, and pronunciation and fluency, each on a three-point scale.
Objective Scoring Units are the significant words, phrases, and clauses embedded in every part of the test — specialized terminology, register variation, rhetorical features, general vocabulary, grammar, and ASL features such as classifiers, nonmanual markers, fingerspelling accuracy, and use of sign space. Raters judge whether each unit's meaning reaches the consumer in understandable, coherent, fluent language. Grammatical perfection is not the goal; completeness and comprehensibility are.
The subjective assessment evaluates your whole performance in each part on three dimensions. Delivery covers pacing, coherence, and composure. Adaptability measures how resourcefully you handle changes and challenges in the text, with heavy circumlocution counting against you. Pronunciation and fluency covers accurate spoken English or clear, native-like signing without hesitation that disrupts communication.
One practical implication the study guide states directly: interpret each scenario as completely as you can. Partial renditions cost you scoring units you might otherwise have earned.
Practice exercise
This original written exercise practises message analysis, not signed performance. A supervisor says: "If the delivery is delayed, do not close the storage room until you have called the front desk." What condition, prohibition and sequence must an accurate rendition preserve?
Show answer
The condition is a delayed delivery. Under that condition, the instruction is not to close the storage room before calling the front desk. Keep the delay condition, the negation, the room, the required call and its destination. The sentence does not say what the front desk will instruct you to do next.
Removing the condition makes the instruction apply more broadly. Dropping "not" or reversing the order changes what the listener should do. This illustrates complete transfer of source meaning; it is not a BEI scoring rubric and does not assess signing.
Register: matching the level of the language
Register — the variety of language fitting the context — is part of the meaning you must conserve. Rendering casual speech in formal language, or formal language casually, can be scored incorrect even when every fact survives.
Raters assess whether you conserve the intent, style, tone, and language level of the speaker. The study guide illustrates with casual partings: a friendly sign-off rendered in stiff, ceremonial English fails because it changes the level of the language, and the same rule runs in reverse for formal sources.
The guide describes five levels of English formality: frozen (fixed, ceremonial language), formal (lectures and presentations), consultative (experts explaining with some technical terms while interacting), colloquial (everyday conversation with idioms), and intimate (close family and friends, often non-referential). You are expected to adjust across these levels during the exam so communication stays effective.
The reasoning applies to consumers, too: using high-register technical language with someone who lacks that vocabulary withholds understanding rather than sharing it. Match the level the source actually uses, not the level you find more comfortable.
Practice exercise
Like the previous exercise, this is analysis on paper, not signed performance practice. A friend tells you, "I'm toast — I totally forgot about that meeting tomorrow." Which rendering conserves register when you pass this along: (a) "I have failed to remember the meeting scheduled for tomorrow, which places me in a difficult position," or (b) "I completely forgot about tomorrow's meeting — I'm in trouble"?
Show answer
(b) conserves the register.
The source sits in colloquial register: everyday vocabulary plus the idiom "I'm toast." Option (a) keeps the facts but lifts the language into formal register, distorting the speaker's tone and intent — and the exam's scoring treats language level as part of meaning, so the shift alone can make the rendition incorrect. When you review your recorded practice, check not just what your target version says but how formally it says it.
Professional conduct under pressure
The performance test evaluates faithful transfer of the recorded source. Keep its meaning and register, and study the professional-conduct expectations separately.
The handbook lists the seven tenets of the RID Code of Professional Conduct among the essential professional attributes of a BEI-certified interpreter: confidential communication, the skills and knowledge the situation requires, conduct appropriate to the situation, respect for consumers and for colleagues, ethical business practices, and ongoing professional development.
During the performance task, render the assigned source completely and preserve its intended tone. In practice, compare your rendition with the original to identify omissions, additions or changes in meaning.
Sources: Chapter 1, General Interpreter Certification Policies and Procedures | Texas HHS Forms and Handbooks — Sections 1.1–1.9, including eligibility, fees, application, test-day rules, and renewal; Texas HHSC BEI Study Guide for General Interpreter Certification Candidates (February 2022 revision) — Chapter 6: Overview of the Performance Tests; Chapter 7: Evaluation of the Performance Tests
Test day: a one-take, recorded format
Arrive at least 30 minutes early with photo ID and the confirmation letter. Follow the recorded format: brief pauses occur between sections, but you cannot stop, rewind or replay the material on demand.
The logistics are strict. Electronic devices, bags, wallets, and outerwear stay out of the testing room, and you sign a confidentiality statement before testing; anything resembling cheating can cost you a certification. Once the test begins, the recording cannot be stopped, rewound, or replayed, materials pause only briefly between sections, and you may not leave the room — though you may sit or stand.
That format should shape how you practice, and this part is advice rather than an official requirement: rehearse by recording yourself interpreting unseen material straight through, in both directions, with no pausing or second attempts. Review the recording afterward for completeness, register, and repair behavior, since those are the dimensions raters score. The official BEI study guide explains the formats and rating criteria in detail and is the best reference for calibrating your self-review.
- Arrive 30+ minutes early; late by more than 15 minutes means forfeiting the test and the fee.
- Bring only photo ID and the confirmation letter; secure everything else in your vehicle.
- Expect a brief pause between sections, but no rewinding or reviewing your own performance.
Sources: Chapter 1, General Interpreter Certification Policies and Procedures | Texas HHS Forms and Handbooks — Sections 1.1–1.9, including eligibility, fees, application, test-day rules, and renewal; Texas HHSC BEI Study Guide for General Interpreter Certification Candidates (February 2022 revision) — Chapter 6: Overview of the Performance Tests; Chapter 7: Evaluation of the Performance Tests
After the exam: results, renewal, and next steps
Results arrive within 90 days. Successful candidates receive a certificate and must then renew annually and recertify every five years with continuing education; unsuccessful candidates wait six months and reapply.
The Texas HHS Deaf and Hard of Hearing Services office reports performance test results within 90 days. If you pass, your name joins the public database of certified interpreters and you are mailed a certificate, a wallet card, and information about maintaining it. If you don't pass, the notification letter includes feedback to guide training before your retake.
After certification, follow the annual renewal and five-year recertification requirements in the handbook. Keep those dates in a separate maintenance record while using your results feedback to plan further skill development.
Your next steps: confirm the current eligibility rules and testing dates with HHSC DHHS, download the official BEI study guide for the formats and rating criteria, and build a recorded, one-take practice routine for the level and parts you will actually face.
Sources
Facts checked against official sources: