building your speed

[Tina]

Hi! I've been in school for about a year. I'm attempting to pass my 100 WPM right now. Any tips, advice, practice habits would be greatly appreciated.

[KJM]

Hi Tina. Fellow student here. I am working on my 130-140s. I have gotten some great tips from fellow students and pros on this and other CR forums that I am happy to pass along. Read your notes constantly. Shorten your writing. Practice at speeds above your goal. I also slow it down and practice writing super clean notes when I start feeling overwhelmed. Use Q&A extensions. Transcribe as much of what you are writing as possible. One thing I have learned personally is I need to warm up for at least an hour. I usually only pass tests in my second class. Practice the most difficult dictation you can. Have you been to the courtreportinghelp.com website? There are some great tips and free drills there. That's all I can think of right now, but I am sure others will chime in. Good luck to you.
~Kyla

[Tina]

Thanks for the advice Kyla. I appreciate it. I'm going to check out that website. Just curious-where do you attend school at? I take all of mine online at CRID.

[KJM]

I go to Humphreys College in Stockton, CA, and I also use an online program as a supplement.

[Tami]

Great advice, Kyla!

Think I'd hold off on the extensions for right now, though, Tina. They are wonderful -- I totally agree with that -- but at 100 wpm it might be a bit early. At 100 wpm I think you should really keep working on solidifying your theory. If there are shorter writing styles in your theory that you glossed over and thought they weren't worth your while, perhaps this is a good time to go back and get those. Kyla will confirm that, I'm sure. :)

I do believe in practicing over your goal speed. If you're not pushing yourself, you're probably going to camp out at a speed a lot longer than you'd like.

Put the hours in. They all pay off. Be dedicated. Stay on your machine at least six days a week. I think at least three hours a day will get you the best results. For every day you're off your machine, the practice the day before was probably for not.

If you're coming back for a second stroke for your inflected endings (-ed, -ing, -es, -s), now is probably a good time to slowly start incorporating them into your initial stroke.

Never give up. Always believe in yourself and know you can do it. That really is so important.

It's been a wonderful career for me, and I wish you the same good fortune. Good luck!

[Tina]

Thanks Tami! I appreciate all of your advice and words of encouragement. Everyone keeps saying to just stay with it. Keep practicing, keep practicing. I was hoping there was some "magic" trick I could try. Guess not. How long have you been in court reporting? Do you have a lot of free time?

[Lisa O'Sullivan]

Tina, in answer to your question of how long Tami's been in court reporting, that would be 27 years. I believe Cassandra's been in the field for 2 years.

[Tami]

So now you want to agree with me, Cassandra??

After what you said about me on the Sage College thread, which I will quote below, I find that rather shocking. :)

Oh, and I never said using briefs at 100 wpm was a bad thing. I just discouraged the use of the Q & A extensions that early on.



You may have talked to five students today, but if you're preaching away from the school's methodology, you are doing more harm than good. Don't interfere with the school's instruction and encourage them to brief before they've mastered speed. They need to reach 200 before they can aspire to reach 360. It's reporter's like you who bring down a school's statistics by interfering with a student's theory instruction. Your contact with them should be limited to motivation, encouragement, and skill development.

If you want to change the way reporters write, then go start your own school.

There was a woman in the news recently who loved her dog so much that she would chew up the food first and then feed it to the dog so it was in smaller pieces for her beloved little dog that she adored. After years of this loving practice, the dog's teeth rotted out of its mouth and it couldn't chew any food at all. Students may be dear to you, but what you're feeding them is counterproductive to their health and opportunity for success.

[Tami]

I don't think I took anything out of context, and that's why I quoted your whole post. You said, "It's reporters like you who bring down a school's statistics."

I just don't think there was anything fair about that comment, and I thought you were way out of line for throwing it out there. And if you want to talk ridiculous, I think your dog story falls nicely in that category.

I personally think there are a couple of schools out there loving me right now. I have helped three students qualify to take the CA CSR this year. I had another director of a school from Central California this weekend at the NCRA convention that thanked me for mentoring one of her students.

BTW, I'm sure I was the "person . . . who said that they think schools should be teaching shorter theories."

I do believe that. A lot of the reporters who have been around a while gasp when they hear what's being taught in the theories these days. I personally think it will come back around in the future. Keeping my fingers crossed. When it takes three strokes to write single syllable words like "bombed," "bombing," and "bombs," somebody needs to see the light.

Blaming the CA CSR's low pass rate on briefs is just so unbelievable. I just can't even believe you made the comment.

I hope you made it to the Stenoswap and Mock CRR sessions given by the CCRA president. What wonderful presentations! She taught her daughter her short theory, and her daughter passed her CRR within the first two years of being a CR. Schools teach these long theories under the notion that you have to write everything out for accurate RT. I personally feel writing short makes you a better RT writer

I'm glad you feel good about standing behind what you said. To me, I think you should be just a bit remoresful for throwing such a harsh statement out there like that when you truly don't even know me and haven't a clue about what I do for students.

[Tami]

Oh, and as far as opening up my own school, I have definitely thought about it. I don't work for money. I haven't in a very long time. I work because I love my profession and writing on that little machine. It's definitely feasible for me to consider opening up a school.

I have a friend/co-worker who is a professor at our local junior college, and she's encouraged me more than once to submit a letter to the dean requesting them to consider adding a CR program. When I get all my kids on their own, maybe I'll do just that. Thanks for the suggestion.

[Tami]

You thought Lesia's daughter being taught her mom's theory and adopting her mom's dictionary lacked integrity?? You really think it is "almost like cheating"???

Oh, my, my, my . . .

I taught my son Mark Kislingbury's theory. He started writing with Mark's dictionary last summer. He's been qualified to take the CA CSR for a while now and is just waiting for his academics to catch up.

If anyone ever suggests for a second that that lacks intergrity and that he somewhat cheated to get to where he's at and where he's going, let me tell you, you're going to have one mad momma on your hands.

(BTW, I started with another girl's dictionary. I went through the same CR program a couple years after she did ('78-'80), and she ended up being one of my mentors when I became an Official when I was 20. I took her dictionary when I went on computer way back in 1987. Guess I cheated, too.)

I don't want to speak for Lesia, as we have never met -- except I did approach her after her last presentation and thanked her for doing such an awesome job -- but I think she might feel the same way as I do . . .

I feel I've provided the best tools possible for my son. He has worked sooo very hard to put those tools to great use, and now he's teaching me. He makes me incredibly proud.

As far as you saying you never, ever blamed a school's low pass rate on briefs, then what does "Some schools have banned briefing altogether because it is abused and then the school's CSR passing statistics drop" mean??

Perhaps I am taking that out of context, too.

Just to educate you, Cassandra, just because you learn a certain theory doesn't mean you can't incorporate other theory concepts into your own theory. I would never tell a student to switch a theory. As much as I hate a few on the market, I still encourage students to get solid in it and incorporate shorter writing principles into their own. Some theories make that a lot more difficult than others.

I know one student who has been very successful in incorporating Mark K.'s theory into the same theory you were taught. She's made it look easy. She's another one just waiting on those darn academics to catch up to her speed. Her only regret is not learning his theory from the get-go.

Happy Writing Short!!

Tami

[Tami]

Yes, my son is going through an accredited program, accredited by the CA CSR Board, and they welcomed him in open arms after I had taught him Mark Kislingbury's theory. (You're the one that is lacking the knowledge of the history.) My son now has his own dictionary. Think it's about 230,000 words. He's been working on it, tweaking it every day for a year now.

I think you're the one that could use help on your "critical reading skills," or perhaps that's the problem. You're being too critical.

I couldn't be happier with my son's school. He has wonderful teachers who are smart enough to give him free reign and rarely tell him "you can't," "no," and "don't." They're smart enough to let him fly and tell him "yes" and "of course you can."

I have never felt for a second that they questioned his theory. They obviously see the results. He's at a public school where the only focus is the students and what's in their best interests.

To start a dictionary from scratch is so unncessary. Your school beats its students over the head to write one way and one way only -- the long way -- and use no short forms whatsoever. You mean to tell me a pat dictionary cannot be provided to all those students when the time comes for their CAT classes??

Oh, I forgot. You typed your CSR. If you didn't, you probably would have considered that cheating, too.

No, I haven't memorized Mark's entire new book. In fact, I just purchased it myself at the convention and can't wait to start incorporating it into my writing style, but I already did start incorporating his theory into my writing style a couple years ago.

I'll give you the last word, Cassandra, because I can tell you will always take it, but you better think twice before you agree with me again because we obviously agree on very little.

The more I hear from you, the more it saddens me to think that you are in charge of a student mentoring program for one of the largest organizations in our state.

Happy Writing Short!!

Tami
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[Kelli Combs (admin)]

Guys, Please take a deep breath and help Tina pass the 100WPM.
:)