Lesson 3

[Janice]

Well, I'm in the midst of lesson 3 and as I expected, it's getting harder. I seem to do well with the arbitraries and know the letters, etc.; however, when doing the oral dictation I get stuck on a word and then lose the next few trying to write the one. I'm not sure if I should worry about accuracy at this point or just get the words out. I'm enjoying it though and am surprised that at just less than two weeks, I am in the 3rd of 20 theory lessons. It's impossible to imagine doing this at ANY speed at this point ~

[KJM]

I just thought I'd add a tip... I wasn't big on briefing in theory. For me personally, it was really important to learn how to write anything out. Then as soon as I started speedbuilding, I realized I needed to start briefing certain things (espescially all those Jury Charge briefs). What I did was go through my booklet of briefs (which came with my theory) and the ones that made sense, and I felt I could use, I made sentences with them and practiced those sentences five times each, writing them perfectly, at the beginning of each practice session. I would do about 20 sentences at a time. I continue to use this method with words I stumble on or any new briefs I want to incorporate into my writing. Hope this helps. : )

[Anthony D. Frisolone]

Having read the posts by Virginia and KJM and you, Janice, of course, I have to say that these are all issues discussed by reporting students for a very long time. Accuracy versus speed, developing good habits of practice, et cetera. I believe you have to strike a balance when practicing: Accuracy and speed, reinforcement of your theory. Early on I kind of fell into Virginia's situation and I paid for it by getting stuck for six months at 120. That's when I woke up and started practicing a lot. I am not going back on what I said in my previous post but I would like to add that you havce to balance your practice time between speed, accuracy, and theory reinforcement especially if you're still in theory. Once you pass your theory class, then the practice model becomes speed, accuracy, and reinforcing new outlines. I keep post-it notes in front of me with new outlines and I practice lower speeds to reinforce those new outlines. Then, after that part of practicing -- usually 15 minutes or so -- then I go for speed and push it as far as I can go.

You ladies inspire me to practice every day and do my best. Keep up the great work!

[Anthony D. Frisolone]

Janice, make a note of the word or words that are tripping you up and write each word 50 times or until you get it down without hesitation. Then practice that particular dictation over. Learn to take the hesitation out of your writing which I feel is the biggest stumbling block to effective speed building.

[KJM]

I would say in theory accuracy is the ONLY thing to focus on. Don't concern yourself with speed. You need to nail down your theory in order to gain speed later down the road. If you can, slow down the dictation until you can write it perfectly. You're doing great! Keep it up!