The Official NAATI CCL Repeat Policy

Consecutive interpreting is an exhausting cognitive task. Even professional, certified interpreters occasionally lose focus for a split second, mishear a fast speaker, or fail to write down a crucial date in their shorthand notes.

NAATI understands this reality. They do not expect you to have flawless, robotic short-term memory. To accommodate human error, the NAATI CCL test format includes a built-in safety net: The Repeat Policy.

The core of the policy is incredibly simple, but heavily misunderstood by candidates:

What happens if you have already used your One Free Repeat, but you completely miss the audio on a later segment in the same dialogue? You are still allowed to ask the examiner to replay it. However, it will now cost you marks.

• Second Repeat (in the same dialogue): The examiner will replay the audio, but you will incur a deduction (typically -1 mark) from your total score for that dialogue.
• Third Repeat (in the same dialogue): The examiner will apply another deduction (-1 mark).
• Excessive Repeats: If you continually ask for repeats (e.g., 4 or 5 times), the examiner will heavily penalize your Language Quality (Fluency) score, as it demonstrates you lack the cognitive capacity to interpret in a real-time environment.

Crucial Decision: If you completely miss a 35-word legal paragraph and you have already used your free repeat, you MUST take the -1 mark penalty to hear it again. If you don't ask for a repeat, you will score zero for that segment, resulting in massive Major Omission penalties (-3 or -4 marks) that will instantly fail your exam.

You must execute the repeat request correctly to avoid Fluency deductions.

1. Wait for the Chime: Never interrupt the audio while it is playing. Wait until the segment finishes and the chime sounds.
2. Act Immediately: You must ask for the repeat within the 5-second window after the chime. Do not sit in silence for 10 seconds trying to remember the audio, and *then* ask for a repeat. That will incur a hesitation penalty.
3. Be Polite and Clear: Look at the webcam and clearly say, "Examiner, could you please repeat that segment?"
4. Prepare to Write: The examiner will press a button to replay the audio exactly once. Be ready with your pen to catch what you missed.

The biggest mistake candidates make is wasting their One Free Repeat on a minor error.

Imagine segment 2 is a short, 12-word greeting. You miss an adjective (e.g., "very"). If you ask for a repeat, you successfully translate the word "very" and save yourself a -0.5 mark Minor Omission. But you have now spent your Free Repeat.

Later, in segment 9, the doctor issues a 35-word prescription list. You panic and drop your pen, missing the entire sentence. Now, you are forced to take a -1 mark penalty to hear it again.

The Rule of Thumb: If you miss a minor adjective, generalize it and move on. Save your Free Repeat for catastrophic memory failures on long, complex segments containing numbers, dates, or technical jargon.