Hello fellow CRAH student,
How are you doing? Did you finish the program?

Hey fellow CRAH student? How are things going?

Hi Kimberly, check out The Brief Zone !
Great Drilling Material For Any Steno Theory...
www.thebriefzone.com

Me too. I having the same problem. It's hard to lock down practice time when the kids are home from school. I feel guilty sitting them in front of the t.v. all day. I'm really trying to steno late at night and early in the morning. I really want to get through this speed building.

Hi Kimberly,

I've been a busy beaver this weekend, finished chapter 5 and am into 6. I did a complete review of 1-5 before starting 6. I never get 100% but have been pretty close and felt confident to move onto 6. I am hooking up my computer to the writer just to test the waters. If I didn't mention it earlier, I have Eclipse which is an amazing CAT software program; I bought the full version last year when I was studying voicewriting. I may do some proofreading and/or scoping for a company owned by some friends of mine.
Enjoy the rest of the long weekend! You are making great progress and will be onto speedbuilding in no time.

It's too bad you're so far away from PHX. They have a DigitaCAT class this summer. That's how I learned. I think if you go through the manual, you should be okay. I think that's what our teacher did. The main thing is learning the keyboard for the editing shortcuts. Our teacher customized one for us, but I think a lot of the keyboard is done by DigitalCAT it's just a matter of learning what does what to get the shortcuts and not use it like a word processor. Feel free to e-mail me with questions or if you want to call me I'll give you my number. It's actually on my Website too: www.corinnescoping.com (E-mail too. It might be faster than through CSRNation.) However you want.

Yeah, the snow is in Flagstaff. We went up really late this year afer the ski area closed. We were able to hike up in the ski area and play in the snow there. I guess they had some this weekend too. Crazy weather, but it's nice because it's not too hot. That will come soon enough.

Be sure to list your name on the Stenovations Web site for scopists. I've gotten work through that. I also took an ad out in the JCR in the classifed section and have gotten some work through that too and Scopists.com.

Also join the scopists group in this site.

Do you think you'll be able to go to NCRA conventionin July? It'll probably be tough with the kids and all, huh. I'm planning on going, but not sure how to get there yet. Should I fly or drive? If I can go with someone it would be cheaper to drive, but I have to be there Thursday because I'm doing the CaseCATalyst class.

Good luck and if I can help you with anything, holler.

Hi Janice, the party was good, just 4 other little guys at the park pretty simple actually. For our family party we had chicken nuggets and a bonfire with smores!
I am still on 15, have not had more than 20 minutes to devote in one setting, I said I feel like I'm just snacking, I want to get in and have a CR meal!! School is done for all kids by Friday at noon, so I told them the next 10 days are mine to plow through this theory thing! Not really, but I do want to spend a good amount of time before summer classes, camps and teams begin in June.

I'm glad 4 was much smoother for you, next time you get stuck ( or think you are) move forward and then come back to it, that really does help me, it's amazing what I do know when I come back to it. Like 14 was a bit uneasy there are a lot of phrases to learn, it's actually simple, but I was feeling stuck after going over it all several times, than after working on 15 for a while I went back to 14 to review and test and it was easy breezy.

I am studying right now:) just stretching so thought I'd check my email and here you are..maybe I can get through 15 and test and get 16 done, it's a fairly simple one.

Hi Kimberly,
Just wanted to see how you're doing; have you mastered lesson 15? You are so close to the end and it's so encouraging! I'm starting lesson 5 today and was happy to see that 4 was much better than 3. I guess that's how it is; some lessons are much harder than others. How was your little boy's birthday party?

Best wishes,

Janice

Yes encourgaing indeed and I need it this AM:) Feeling a little lost in lesson 15 and not real settled yet with 14 although I did pass the test (4 errors) I went back to it today and my retention was a bit off..practice practice!

Hi again ~ I saw an update on the CRAH website if you are interested; a lady graduated in 18 months and just passed her RPR; VERY encouraging to see!

Thank you SO much for this link, Kimberly. I will read it while waiting in the carpool lane this afternoon; just knowing there is such a thread is a huge comfort! I know I can get through this and will do what it takes.

I agree about not having an answer guide for everything; I try not to bug support more than once every couple of days and each time I ask about the errors they tell me to move on when they hear I have been on a lesson for more than 3 days.

I will definitely share whenever I get a response from the lady who has completed the program. I would love to hear from her and hope she writes back at some point. Tips are so helpful.

I'm so used to abbreviations/short forms/arbs in my business that I love getting them here. I do believe that once you are a working reporter, the best briefs are those you create yourself as you will not forget them easily.

Enjoy your day in the zoo! I have done that as well, although never 3 times in a year!

Janice

Janice, that's funny the arbitraries are the most difficult for me, that's why I run through ALL of them each morning as a warm up:) I still forget some that we learned very early on. Some people come up with all these breifs, and I'm baffled, I need to keep that aspect simple for now I guess!
I don't always get 100% on the dictation, I move on when I have three or less, and I'm thinking of moving that up to 5 now that they are getting longer. I did get 100% yesterday, I think, as I mentioned I'm having issues with caps, so I requested a couple of q&a's in steno from support so I can see if I'm writing them correctly. That is one thing about this program, is there is not an answer guide for everything we write, so I do worry I'm getting somethings wrong?

So this morning I went back and wrote from dictation 6 and 7, seven was a killer for me (as was 11) and it was smooth and simple, so in your situation, I say move on, get the drills like you mentioned, I think the speed just comes along...we'll see!

That would be great if she was a graduate, I have not talked to anyone who completed the program.

I am off to practice another 20 minutes then heading to the zoo with my freshman daughter, this is my 3rd trip to the zoo with schools this year, I think the animals will know me by name!

Have a fun day!

You're absolutely right, Kimberly. I am going to stop sweating over the speed (or lack thereof!) when doing the CD dictation and concentrate on the drills for accuracy as much as possible. I find it very easy with the arbitraries and maybe that's because I have over 13,000 short forms I created to do medical transcription abbreviations over the past 14 years. Your working ahead is probably a great thing for you and obviously you are doing very well. Do you usually achieve 100% accuracy even on the CD dictation?

I too wish there were others in the program we could share with and learn from, but I am very grateful to have found the Yahoo group and this site from you. I left a message for CRDiva who is a graduate I believe from CRAH, but so far I have not heard back.

Have a great day!

Janice

I've tried just going over the words I have the most trouble with and they do get easier with more practice. I have not done any finger exercises, but I should probably look into these. The hardest times come with the CD dictation when I have trouble keeping up and then fall behind. I do know the letters and the arbitraries and can read the steno back fairly well. Hopefully it will get better in time.

Hi Kimberly, You are doing so wonderfully. I am a bit concerned because although I can get the words down in the drills (making some mistakes along the way) and I did the test almost perfectly, when I do the CD dictation I make quite a lot of mistakes. The support dept. says to move on but I am concerned about not getting it and if I have trouble keeping up at this meager speed, how will I do at a much higher rate? How many days do you spend on a lesson approx? And how many hours? I'm ballpark 3-4 hours a day and spending 2-3 days per lesson. I think I could do it for weeks and never get it perfect.

Hi Kimberly, I went to South Coast College of Court Reporting then had to take time off. I have been to the California exam. No $$$ to return to school so I'm trying to do it on my own and attend a Cerritos College on Saturdays. Not actively scoping but hoping to do so soon.

Hi Kimberly, I guess you could say I'm a retruning student too. I took a break for a few years. I'm excited to complete what I set out to do so long ago.

Take care.

I am excited to be here! I went to school 20 years ago, and looking forward to this "new" career.

I have been married for 17 years, we have 4 kids, 14, 11, 8, and almost 4!

I have been running my own Direct Sales company for over 7 years. I am so ready for a change, and hopefully one that pays better:)

I have decided to get trained throug Court Reporting at Home, being a CEO from home, I understand the demands that come with it. I feel comfortable with this decision and know the challenges that are coming with it. As of today, I plan on getting throug theory, learning some software and begin scoping througout the remainder of my studies.