1.1 CASLI Generalist Exam Architecture & RID Certification System

The National Interpreter Certification (NIC) is awarded by the Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf (RID) and assessed by the Center for the Assessment of Sign Language Interpretation (CASLI). CASLI was formed on June 23, 2016 as a Virginia limited liability company that is solely owned by RID; it took over administration of RID's exams on July 1, 2016 and operates separately, with its own Board of Managers and Testing Committee. CASLI builds and scores the exams; RID owns the credential and every other certification requirement.

Getting the logistics right matters before you study anything else. Several widely repeated "NIC facts" circulating online actually describe the NIC-Knowledge Exam, which CASLI retired on January 1, 2021. This section states only what CASLI and RID currently publish — and says plainly where they publish nothing.

1. The three exams

CASLI administers three separately scored exams that feed RID certification. The Knowledge Exam is one exam in two parts, and the two parts are purchased, scheduled, timed, scored, and retaken independently of each other.

There is no single three-hour sitting that covers the whole Knowledge Exam. The three-hour clock belongs to the Fundamentals of Interpreting multiple-choice section alone.

Fundamentals of Interpreting (120 items)

CASLI splits the item pool exactly in half by language, and you cannot choose which language an item arrives in:

• 60 items in written English, with answer options in written English.
• 60 items in ASL, with the answer options also presented in ASL.

CASLI states that candidates "are expected to be able to comprehend all items in both English and ASL" and "will not be able to choose a language of preference for any item or items." Practically, that means an interpreter who reads well but has weak ASL receptive skill will lose half the exam, and vice versa.

Ethical Decision Making & Cultural Responsiveness (8 case studies)

Each case is a multi-step scenario presented in ASL narrative, with response options in written English. Three structural features change how you must answer:

1. Select as many actions as are needed — not one best answer. CASLI instructs candidates to "only select actions that are necessary; do not select actions that are not needed, not yet needed, or not appropriate at that point in the case."
2. "Not yet needed" is scored as wrong. Escalating prematurely (calling the agency, filing a grievance, disclosing) costs you even when the action would be right later.
3. No backtracking. Once you submit a step and move to the next step of the evolving scenario, you cannot return and change earlier responses.

CASLI Generalist Performance Exam: NIC

A computer-based constructed-response exam on the CASLI Exam System: video scenarios play on screen while a webcam records you. The six scenarios are general community settings and require ASL-to-English and English-to-ASL work using consecutive interpreting, simultaneous interpreting, sight translation, or any blend, as the scenario warrants. The video will not stop, pause, or rewind. This exam replaced the retired NIC Interview & Performance Exam, which CASLI retired on May 18, 2022.

2. Scoring: what CASLI publishes and what it does not

The Knowledge Exam

CASLI does not publish a numeric cut score or a scaled-score range for the CASLI Generalist Knowledge Exam. Results are reported to candidates as pass or fail for each part.

The often-quoted "scaled score of 500 on a 200–800 scale" is documented by CASLI only for the retired NIC-Knowledge Exam (150 items, retired January 1, 2021). Do not carry that figure into the current exam, and be wary of any prep source that does — it is a reliable marker that the source has not been updated since 2020.

What CASLI does publish is the method. A scoring committee, guided by a psychometrician, weights each assessment opportunity and sets a cut score representing minimum competence, and that standard can include per-domain minimums as well as an overall minimum — CASLI's own illustration describes a candidate needing a set overall score and at least a set percentage within each domain.

The Performance Exam

CASLI is explicit that the Performance Exam scoring "determines only the pass/fail status of each candidate" and is "not designed for or intended to be used to rank candidates or to assess the degree to which candidates are above or below the pass/fail point."

• Candidates who pass receive the single word "Pass." No score, no band, no sub-scores.
• Candidates who fail receive "Fail" plus Areas of Improvement feedback selected by raters from a pre-established list. CASLI states this feedback "is not diagnostic and does not represent a custom critique."
• There are six vignettes, and each vignette may be scored by as many as three different raters; the number of raters used depends on the scores the initial raters assign.
• Rubrics are vignette-specific and confidential, because publishing them would give away the exam content. To pass, a candidate must reach at least a minimum combined score across the exam.

Exam trap: any source quoting a "3.5 out of 5.0" NIC passing composite is describing something else — most often the EIPA, the K-12 Educational Interpreter Performance Assessment, where 3.5 is a common state cut-off. CASLI releases no numeric composite for the NIC Performance Exam.

3. Eligibility: the degree gate sits before the Performance Exam

This is the single most misunderstood rule in the RID pathway.

To sit for the CASLI Generalist Knowledge Exam you must:

• be age 18 or older;
• not already hold another national certification recognized by RID (CDI, CI/CT, NIC, NIC-Advanced, NIC-Master, NAD III/IV/V, CSC, RSC, MCSC, IT/IC, CLIP, CLIP-R, OTC, or any other RID general or specialist certification). Holders of an Ed:K-12 designation and nothing else are exempt from this bar;
• hold a valid RID account whose legal name, email, and RID member number match your CASLI Exam System account exactly;
• have paid the exam fee in full before the appointment.

No degree is required to take the Knowledge Exam. CASLI states directly that "there is no eligibility requirement to take the Knowledge exam" beyond holding an RID ID number and a CASLI account.

To sit for the CASLI Generalist Performance Exam: NIC you must additionally:

• have a passing score on the Knowledge Exam (both parts);
• be within your testing cycle;
• have satisfied RID's education requirement — a bachelor's degree (any major) or approval through RID's Alternative Pathway Program, submitted to RID's certification department;
• purchase the exam and schedule the appointment within one year of purchase.

RID's Alternative Pathway Program runs on an Educational Equivalency Application (EEA), a points system crediting college coursework, interpreting experience, interpreter-related training, professional certifications, and qualifying volunteer service. The degree requirement itself comes from motion C2003.05, passed by the RID membership at the 2003 National Conference.

Note the distinction between an RID account and RID membership: an RID ID number gets you into the exam system, RID membership gets you the discounted exam rate, and RID certified membership is a standing condition of keeping the credential once you earn it.

4. Fees, testing cycle, and retakes

Fees

CASLI's published rate schedule effective January 1, 2023 for the NIC pathway:

CASLI announced new examination rates on August 27, 2026, applying to exams requested on or after October 1, 2026; exams requested on or before September 30, 2026 kept the older rate for the 30-day purchase window. Confirm the current figure in your CASLI Exam System account before you budget, because CASLI had not adjusted these fees since January 2023.

The five-year Testing Process Cycle

• Trigger: the cycle starts on the date you are notified of your first PASS result on any CASLI exam portion.
• Length: five years from that notification date to finish everything — the remaining Knowledge portion, if any, and the Performance Exam.
• Expiry: if the cycle runs out, the testing process ends and the candidate must begin a new testing process with the CASLI Generalist Knowledge Exam. Extensions are possible for extenuating circumstances.

Retakes and the split-retake rule

• Knowledge Exam: a three-month waiting period, counted from the date you originally sat the exam — not from the date results arrived.
• Performance Exam: a six-month waiting period, counted the same way, and only if your testing cycle has not expired.
• Split retake: the two Knowledge parts are scored separately, so if you pass Fundamentals and fail Case Studies (or the reverse), you apply, pay for, and retake only the part you failed.

5. Published pass rates

CASLI publishes pass/fail data by fiscal year (July 1–June 30). Fiscal Year 2025 (July 1, 2024 – June 30, 2025):

FY2024 was comparable: 64%, 76%, and 41%. Two conclusions follow for your study plan. First, the Performance Exam is the real bottleneck — it fails the majority of candidates every year, and no amount of reading fixes an interpreting-skill gap. Second, Fundamentals fails roughly a third of candidates, so the multiple-choice portion is not a formality. CASLI cautions that pass rates describe the candidate pool, not any individual's odds.

6. Test-day mechanics

• Knowledge exams are scheduled through CASLI's contracted delivery partner; performance exams are scheduled with a Local Test Administrator. Arrive 15–20 minutes early; arriving less than 10 minutes before your slot may be treated as a missed appointment, which forfeits the exam and the fee.
• Bring your CASLI Exam System token and one current, original, government-issued photo ID whose name matches your account exactly. Employee and university IDs are not accepted.
• No personal items in the testing room — no phone, watch, wallet, or calculator. You get five sheets of scratch paper and a pen, collected at the end.
• You must remain seated for the whole exam, and the timer does not stop.
• For the performance exam, wear professional attire that contrasts with your skin tone; avoid bright white and red.
• Report any test-site or technical irregularity to the administrator immediately; the administrator has 30 minutes to fix it, after which you may stay or reschedule.

7. Where the exam content comes from

Both knowledge parts were built from national Job Task Analyses: the RID NIC Job Task Analysis (2015) and CASLI's Deaf Interpreter Job Task Analysis (2018). The Fundamentals blueprint organizes the work into four domains that follow the arc of an assignment, and this guide is mapped to them:

CASLI publishes no percentage weights for these domains. Any prep source presenting a weighted NIC blueprint ("20% ethics, 15% Deaf culture…") has invented those numbers. Ethics and cultural responsiveness are not a slice of a weighted pie at all — they are a separate, separately scored exam.