These recent posts all remind me of when I was sitting my Admiralty Interpreter's examinations, the sole naval candidate in an examination room full of candidates from the other Services.
We had reached the section which involved transcribing the invigilator's spoken word from French to English and, sitting in directly in front of the invigilator, I was feverishly scribbling down my best guess at translation, trying hard to keep up with his brisk pace. Pausing to consider the idiomatic translation of a certain turn of phrase, I suddenly realised that he was watching me intently, without saying anything.
Hastily writing down my choice of words, I looked up and he then started reading again, at which point I clicked that he was taking his timing from me. Curiously enough, I slowed down thereafter, and even more curiously, I qualified as a French "interrupter" - and was then promptly went off to take up my next appointment - in Australia!
Jack