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.

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Mary Jo --

Thanks ...! I'm sure that will be of some use for all students.

--gdw
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"For a Good (steno) Time ..."
http://www.cheapandsleazy.net
Correction: Every single place I said mediate - it's supposed to meditate.
I attended a medically oriented (specific disease) national convention last year.

One of the medical doctors who spoke talked about meditation.

It seems that any form of meditation, including prayers from almost all religions, take you to the meditative state.

He has found the best results by doing the following for about 5 minutes:

Sit in any chair (or lie down), and make yourself comfortable;

Close your eyes, loosen your legs, arms, hands, fingers;

Breathe in;

On exhaling, say Ohmm... as you exhale. Don't force the utterance. Concentrate on it;

We're all human. We all make mistakes. So, if you think of something else while saying the utterance (or any other word/sound that makes you happy), then just say to yourself "mistake..." and then inhale, and begin again;

Do this for 5 minutes, or more if you wish.

In line with what's already been written in this thread, following with mentally doing steno in the head and virtually with the fingers/hands would probably help.

Meditation is recommended at least once a day, twice is even better (like upon waking and before going to sleep), or even 3x a day (like after lunch too).

Anyone can meditate; trust me. I didn't think I could until that doctor had us do it.
I am hitting 225. (200 is good). I have been looking for some variety in what I use for practice.
This past week I took out my 170/180 Lit (good). Then moved on to 200 Lit (heavy stuff). Tonight I am going to do 200 Q&A, then move to 225/240 Q&A.

The idea here is to not get into robot mode. Always change what you are doing.

I found this website (just now!!!). Some of you might be interested in it. Looks you can BUY 12 weeks of dictation for $32.00. It also has a great sight for learning DigitalCat.

http://www.speedbuilders.com
Speedbuilders.com has a 12 week special - for $32.85. That is a dirt cheap price for practice material. The special lets you pick from a range of material what to practice. The four week plan is like $11.00 - but no variety.
I did pay for twelve weeks from that one steno club. It comes once a week (Friday or Saturday) - and you get three takes. You can download them and save them.

I also went to realtime coach. I am not on computer, so I inquired if I could still use it.

If you're a student, you might want to think about using realtime coach. It's about $85.00 for a year. That is a good price.
Realtime Coach has several prices. It's only the half price IF you buy one of the other ones. So the one I thought was like $86.00 is more like $165.00. But that's really not a bad price for one year of practice materials.

I did spend $30.00 for twelve weeks of SpeedBuilders.com. I picked the 210 Q&A. Every Friday or Saturday I get an e-mail with the MP3's. I get three takes and one group of names and numbers. I download them and can keep them.

I'm content with what I'm getting. The dictation is good. I only had to spend $30.00 at one time and I keep the dictation. If I continued on, that $120.00 for a year and I keep the dictation.

For a student, this is a nice choice.

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