FOR STUDENTS ONLY

[Mary Jo Cochran]

I have had several discussions here with students - so I thought it would be easier to reach all of you this way.

I just started the one week free of Magnum Steno. I was a court reporter, was going on 240 when I finished school - and I had passed the RPR before I left school. It is to my benefit right now to use Magnum Steno (money providing). The difference is court reporters who have already reached 225 are working to improve, get shorter, get faster. Students want to build speed.

In just listening to the Introduction Video and the Don't Lose Your Gift Video - here is what I can can share with you for free (I'm sure Mark K won't get mad for giving info away).

HOW TO PRACTICE: Mark had on his video that he practices three or four times a day - maybe ten minute, maybe twenty minutes. Think about it. If you practice four times a day for a minimum of thirty minutes - that's two hours. You can do 30 minutes in the morning, 30 as soon as you get home, 30 around 7:30 and 30 around 10:00.

Someone on here mentioned practicing eight hours day. Did I read that right?

HOW TO BUILD SPEED: You practice at above what you can do. Get something for every word. Don't stop and think about what you did wrong - because it slows you down - just keep going. Don't use the (little star key) to indicate you made a mistake and then try to fix the mistake - because it slows you down.

You also need to get the Rythm. (I know what it is. All the court reporters know what it is). If you're just starting to build speed, you probably don't know what it is. Rythm takes you to a special place. You close out the outside world and all there is you, what you're listening to, your machine, and the voice in your head telling your fingers what to do.

DON'T LOSE YOUR GIFT: Man, I know that one. You don't use it, you lose it. So do it every day, not just at school, not just Monday - Friday. Do it every day - three or four times day - because your brain will react to what you tell it to do. You don't do it every day, your brain has lost that instruction.

Anyone who is interested can get one week of Magnum Steno for free. I'm sure the practice is way beyond what you can do. But the instructional, the motivational, the don't lose your gift videos are worth watching.

Think about it. Mark did 360 WPM on Q&A for one minute. He knows what he's preaching.
My first court reporting teacher had taken a court reporting program and didn't make it through. When she quit and an English teacher took over (yes, it was bad). When I transferred to Lansing, one teacher had been teaching court reporting for years (Wanda the Witch, and she was good), and she taught another teacher.

Compare Mark K to your teachers - and who do you think can teach you better.

[Tami]

It's for reporters, too!!

The ones that want to become SUPER REPORTERS!!!!!!!!! :)

[Sue @ The Brief Zone]

Thanks for sharing...you're absolutely right. Ten minutes here, ten minutes there and mixing it up between accuracy and building speed :-) check out The Brief Zone site....lots of great material also !

[Mary Jo Cochran]

I mean this tidbit discussion is for students only. Everybody else can afford to pay for Mark's website. All the students are getting is the gospel their teachers give them.

[Edris Lambert]

I finally found someone who knows that you need "rythm" - - it's amazing there isn't a class on this! My best work is when I can just pay attention to the rythm, only I don't really know why I can get into it when I'm not thinking about it. It's not my imagination after all! I am one test away from passing 180 if I could just keep my rythm going. Thank you.

[Mary Jo Cochran]

Rythm comes from inside of you. It is mental. You know you have it when you are "on pace" with the words. Before you realize it you have blocked out the outside word. The only WORLD you are in is the one where the words are flowing from. When it starts it might last for maybe a few words, then sentences. When you get it, you don't even think about it. It just happens.

That is why I like meditation. It helps you to get in touch with your rythm.

So - am I spelling "rythm" right? LOL. You all got the idea.

[Mary Jo Cochran]

Correction: Before you know it, you have blocked the outside WORLD.

[Ashley]

Okay, I'm a student almost out of 180 and I have researched everything under the sun that would possibly get me out of court reporting school faster. I am moving fast, but fast is never fast enough for us, is it?

Now, with that said, I have looked into Magnum Steno and contacted Mark and considered incorporating his endings or other principles to my writing but have since decided not to mess with it at this speed or point in the game. However, I have listened and considered with Mark teaches for speedbuilding and tried to really wrap my brain around it. The thing is, your target speed is not your control speed, so already your target is a push. To then increase 25-30% will make your target speed feel slower and more comfortable, but I do not understand how going 25-30% above your target will prevent drops.

I am what I would would the perfect dropper. I have very clean notes and a great accuracy rate (not just translate but actual accuracy) but I drop. Now, if I increase my dictation speed to 25-30% higher than what I am working toward but struggling with, how will that improve my drops or writing? If I could stay on the speaker and get something for everything, like Mark suggests, why not do that at the speed I am working to pass right now? I am open to hearing how this works and incorporating but, to me, this sounds like a good theory but impossible practice.

Do you truly find that you are able to get something for everything at a speed 25-30% faster than your target and upwards of 35-40% over your control (actual speed)?

[Tami]

No, Nick, I don't think that is the same advice students are getting at school.

Aren't you at Sage in S.D.??

If so, you obviously have "trail" classes, which personally I think is a total waste of time, but obviously there should be no "slop" involved there.

Another CSRnation member posted recently that there was no push given before qualifiers at Sage.

Well, I personally think that makes it pretty tough.

I suggested to a Sage student stuck in qualifiers last spring that she join the Club, push to the outer limits, and she qualifed within two weeks of joining. She kept up with the Club through the CA CSR and easily passed the test in June.

If you're a write perfect/drop student, that doesn't get you out of school. Since you obviously can write clean, I personally think you should start pushing at those upper speeds. I feel once you've established yourself as being able to write clean, there is no such thing as shattering your notes permanently.

If the other way isn't working for you, perhaps you should try the new approach.

I personally have practiced MK's speedbuilding methods and have been very successful at it, and I know many other students and reporters who have done the same with terrific results.

I wish you the best of luck, Nick, whatever you decide to do!

[Glen Warner]

Mary Jo wrote: Someone on here mentioned practicing eight hours day. Did I read that right?

Hi, Mary Jo.

Yes, you read it right. Fortunately, the student typed it wrong. He meant 8 hours per week ...!

I am going to be returning to CR school next month. Hopefully I'll be able to pick up a copy of the Stenomaster theory book and modify my writing as I go through speed building (not starting over from scratch; just at a really slooooowwww speed: 40 wpm). I'll have 10 days to get to my "real" speed, then I can change classes, so we'll see.

I do like your -- well, Mark's -- 30 minute practice sessions, and plan on using that starting this week!

For those of you wondering how writing way over your comfort level will work, you should read Mark_Sez on my (cheap and sleazy) website, where he explains his methodology in response to an inquiry from one of the denizens of the Court Reporting Students Yahoo group.

Finally, Mary Jo, I think you may have posted this somewhere, but when you get a chance, would you reiterate your meditation method here in this thread? Might do a lot of good.

(By the way ... it's rhythm.)

--gdw
-------------------------
"For a Good (steno) Time ....."
http://www.cheapandsleazy.net

[Edris Lambert]

I stand corrected:)

Thanks!

[Mary Jo Cochran]

Finally, Mary Jo, I think you may have posted this somewhere, but when you get a chance, would you reiterate your meditation method here in this thread? Might do a lot of good.

I started out at Bakers in Flint. Their grading was A (90%) - D (60%). Yes, we could pass to the next level with a D. Our papers ONLY GOT GRADED with an A - D. (We didn't know it, but tells you how badly the program was). By my last year there, word was getting around how easy the program was - and about five students from Lansing Community College transferred over - and graduated real fast.

After I transferred to Lansing, my speed went from 225 to 140. The program had changed and reality had set in. I bet none of you went through this.

After six months my speed was was 160/170. Not much progress. I figured I needed to change something.

All I had left aside from practicing and concentration - was to change what was in my head. That's where mediation comes from.

cont.

[Mary Jo Cochran]

cont.
I decided upon mediation because monks mediate. It helps them get in touch with inner beings and with God. I have started meditating again. I was surprised. Aside from freeing my mind from all the crap in it, I felt ENERGIZED. For about ten minutes I felt like a brand new person.

Use a closet, a walk-in is nice. Back then I had a 24inch x 12ft closet. Close the door, no light. I also closed my bedroom door. I didn't want to be bothered by anybody. Have a nice fat pillow to sit on so your butt doesn't hurt. Wear loose clothes.

Sit cross legged. Sit straight up, shoulders back, head straight. Rest your wrists on your knees.
I used thoughts of being in the clouds. I invisioned myself leaving the Earth and being in the clouds. No thoughts. Any thoughts that came to me, I quickly ignored them and concentrated on being in the clouds. You should get to where you have no thoughts in your head, you are literally emotionally in the clouds, and you won't even feel your body.

When you get to that state, start writing in your head. Take dictation that you remember, write it in your head and let it flow out of your fingers. Your fingers should necessarily move. But when you start practicing this, all of a sudden, when you start practicing for real, it will just start coming out.