Nemeth Certification

[Chris Clemens]

Hello to all,
I am looking at getting my Nemeth cert and I am looking for advice from anyone who has went thru this already. Just over all how difficult is it? Can I get assistance and/or advice from here?
Any advice about this is greatly appreciated.

Tina

[Chris Clemens]

Hi Tina,
If you have not already completed the lessons in An Introduction to Braille Mathematics, you should contact the National Federation for the Blind for information regarding the Nemeth course.
Yes, it is difficult, but will broaden your knowledge base and should (since there are few certified Nemeth transcribersres) result in further transcribing opportunities.
If you have already completed the lessons, then no, we cannot give any advice on the certification exam.
Betty

[Chris Clemens]

Hi,

I attempted the exam twice and did not make it. I successfully passed all 16 lessons of the Nemeth course through an NLS assigned instructor--you have to pass each lesson before you are allowed to go onto the next lesson. The course covered the math concepts well. I used to teach high school math so luckily the math concepts themselves weren't a problem for me.

But the course doesn't really cover the Nemeth formatting issues needed to pass the text.
I was praised by my grader how I did many complex math topics in braille correctly, but then I got the formatting wrong. My grader thought I was unusual but I think and have heard that my experience is common.
Who ever heard of taking a text covering formatting concepts you were not taught or exposed to?

For the past few months I believe, NFB was not letting anyone apply or take the Nemeth (and literary certification tests too) I was told. I think they may have been standardizing their grading procedures or restructuring the exams or something like that. I was told people can take the exams again now.

But what I found disheartening was the way the grade report is done. It's totally different from the literary test. Yes, they give you 1 chance to correct your 1st attempt, so that is why they can't tell you on which lines errors may have occurred (since you will be attempting to make corrections).
But then when you get the final report after you attempted to correct the 1st submission, you don't get told (like with the literary braille test) on what lines and pages of braille the errors occurred.
You just get told for example "Somewhere in this exam, this kind of error was made one time" and "3 times within the exam, this other kind of error was made".
It's just very hard to learn from your errors and see where the mistakes were when you don't get told what page and line the errors were on.
There were very complex triple integrals and all kinds of nested radicals and messy algebraic equations on the test, and it would have been nice to at least know if an error was made within a certain equation.
Basically you are just left guessing as to where your specific error occurred.

[betty.marshall]

[quote=betty.marshall]Hi Tina,
If you have not already completed the lessons in An Introduction to Braille Mathematics, you should contact the National Federation for the Blind for information regarding the Nemeth course.
Yes, it is difficult, but will broaden your knowledge base and should (since there are few certified Nemeth transcribersres) result in further transcribing opportunities.
If you have already completed the lessons, then no, we cannot give any advice on the certification exam.
Betty[/quote]

I was told this has a lot to do with Braille Formats also. So I have not taken the lessons yet and while I do take the lessons then I can get advice from here on the formats correct?
I do not have a teacher or someone to work with as of yet, I am still trying to make a decision on whether or not to attempt. 😉
So thank you to all who do give me advice.

[Lindy Walton]

I would like to respond to this conversation regarding the Nemeth certification exam and the professional expectations of a transcriber seeking certification. First, I will summarize braille training and certification options available to us.

The Literary Braille course published by the Library of Congress prepares one to take the Literary Braille certification exam which is the baseline certification for a transcriber. The literary braille certificate attests to the transcriber's ability to braille a library book, observing all the fundamental rules of the EBAE code. Library book formatting is taught as part of the literary course.

Many transcribers continue their training in order to produce braille textbooks and to produce work that falls beyond the scope of the literary code--math, foreign language, music, computer, chemistry, tactile graphics. The Library of Congress offers certification for music and math; textbook formatting certification is available through NBA. These are advanced exams for advanced certificates.

After passing the Braille Formats certification exam, a person has the tools to transcribe any kind of textbook at any level in any subject other than those covered by their own specific codes or guidelines (math, foreign language, music, computer, chemistry, tactile graphics). The rules of Braille Formats affect the transcription of textbooks brailled in any code, so long as there is not a specific contradictory rule in that other code . For example, Nemeth code has no specific rules for front matter, for headings, for literary lists, for boxed materials, or for tables. In these areas, as in certain others, the Braille Formats rules must be followed. When the Nemeth Code has a specific rule that contradicts Braille Formats, the Nemeth code rule must be followed. Examples of this include the formatting of itemized material, for displayed expressions, or for keying items in a table.

"An Introduction to Braille Mathematics" is an advanced course, appropriate only for an experienced transcriber. Perhaps there should be a prerequisite of a Braille Formats certification before a student is allowed into the Nemeth course, but that is as highly impractical as it is unlikely. At one point in history, a Nemeth student had to prove two years of textbook experience before being allowed to begin the course. Time and situations changed that, but still there is an expectation that a student taking the Nemeth course knows Braille Formats. Only the formats specific to the Nemeth code are covered in the Nemeth course. If a student passes all sixteen lessons but does not know Braille Formats, he is unlikely to pass the exam--nor should he, since all math material is textbook in nature.

Another point to understand is that a certification exam is not designed to be a teaching tool. The exam is testing the transcriber's ability to interpret and apply the braille codes and to understand the nature of the text in order to make logical formatting decisions. Errors are not specifically noted in the final report. When the code citations listed in the report are studied, the transcriber's problem-solving skills should lead her to understand and locate the infraction.

Nemeth certification attests that the transcriber can transcribe any math and science textbook at any level. Because Nemeth certification is a green light for a transcriber to take on advanced textbook work in math, physics, chemistry and science, failure to understand the basics of textbook formatting is a good reason not to be certified. I am sure you will agree that it is most important that people who don't know how are not given a certificate that says that they do.
edited by Lindy on 1/17/2012

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