Qualifiers

So it's been almost 3 weeks since I've passed my 200 4-v and now officially in qualifiers. It still doesn't feel real. I've been at this point before where I'm excited thinking I can get done with school by a certain time, but then still have the feeling that it's a little too far out of my reach. I know, it's ridiculous to think since I'm in qualifiers. I just really want to be able to pass the qualifier by May so that way I can take the next state test in June.

I'm also on Winter break right now which is from Dec. 16 - Jan 17. A WHOLE month. Ugh. I hate it because when left up to me to discipline myself to practice, it's so easy to do other things and get distracted, especially around the holiday times when you want to hang with friends and family. Over the break I've practiced 5 days. Man, I'm so behind. I really need to give myself a kick in the butt and stop being so lazy.

Well, anyway, this post wasn't to just complain about myself being so lazy. It was basically just to document and update the people who read this that I am now in qualifiers, and I really really think I can pass this qualifier for the next test in June! I just need to stick with the practicing. :)

Hope you all are doing well.

Don't give up // ENCOURAGEMENT

Today I was looking through some saved e-mails I had, and I came across an e-mail that was 2 years old I had sent to one of my former steno teachers from my online court reporting days at Bryan College. In the e-mail, I was asking her a few questions about how to practice, and I will directly quote what I also said in the e-mail: "It seems like I'm never going to be able to pass these stupid 120 literary tests that always have a ton of multi-syllabic words in them that always trip me up." This made me smile. This made me laugh. HA! 120! I'm at 200/225 right now, and I thought 120 was hard?! It just goes to show you that no matter how hard it seems to you at the time, you will ALWAYS get through the next speed if you just keep at it and keep practicing. No speed is impossible no matter how much you believe it at the time. You WILL progress, and you WILL pass those speed tests if you don't give up.

Anytime in the future that I have this same mentality of, oh, I'll never pass this speed. It's too hard, I will always refer back to this e-mail. I felt so happy knowing that I DID progress even though I thought it was impossible at the time. That's how it is with every speed. Just practice 10-15wpm higher than your goal speed, and then your goal speed will sound slower. Just keep practicing that way and you will break through the speed. Also, don't forget to end every practice session with a lower speed than your goal - if not to clean up your notes, but to also feel a lot better and end your practice session on a great note.

Another bit of advice that I have found out during my steno schooling: When you're in a high enough speed to where you can go out and do intern court and depo hours, do it! Go beyond the hours you need to get a better sense of what the real world will sound like, because it is NOT even close to how it is in school. People never talk at a consistent speed, and I still find myself getting a little upset about taking down how people normally talk because my brain can't switch gears that fast sometimes. We've only been trained to write down the same sustained speed. I'm working on it, though. I'm practicing more by writing on my machine to the TV shows or news reports. The news is really great because they usually talk pretty fast. Also, HLN is a great TV station too because they will show actual trials. I've also looked up some depositions on YouTube which are still pretty challenging to me, but I KNOW I will get better at it! (I just need to constantly refer back to that e-mail I sent my teacher.) :)

Oh, and I also find that when I go and do court hours, it just gets me pumped and ready to get out of school that much quicker because I enjoy it immensely. I can't wait to be starting a job that I'm going to love and get extreme fulfillment and satisfaction from. So if you're ever feeling like quitting or you hit a wall in speeds, just go do some court or depo hours and get that excitement again. It always helps me.

On the ball

So I've been really proud of myself lately. Just last week, we had a week off from school before the new Fall semester started on the 22nd. I practiced every day! I never do that. Partly is because I've been having Skype practice sessions with a few of my Twitter court reporting buddies which I LOVE and can't believe I didn't do this sooner! I love being accountable to be there at a certain time and being "forced" to write, even if I don't want to.

Also, in the past couple of days, I've been practicing an hour and a half on top of going to school. Today was the only day that I just did the 45 min. Skype practice session. I was kind of feeling burned out today (and my writing hasn't been so great today), so I gave myself a break. I think it's good to take breaks when you really are feeling like you want to throw your machine out the window. Give yourself a break, and then hop back on the horse the next day. :)

Well, this is going to be a short entry. I mainly just wanted to make a quick little blog post because I wanted to share this wonderful article that I found about tips for being a new court reporter.


Click HERE for the article. (The post I'm referring to is dated 8/25/11)

Funny Video!!

I love this video. Soo funny!

Oh, the Memories

On a boring summer day in July of 2008, I was just surfing the internet, and happened to stumble upon an article on Yahoo about surprising jobs that have the potential to make $100,000. I saw court reporting on there, did a little research, and the rest is history. :)

This article brought back so many memories! Made me smile to realize that 3 years later, I'm still loving it, and I'm so excited to almost be done with school. I'm so blessed to know that I'm going to be doing something that I absolutely love and have a passion for, and I will also be making good money along the way.

Here is the article:
Five Surprising $100K Jobs That Don't Require a Degree

How did your journey in court reporting start? :)

-Alyson

Whether or not to Interrupt

Found a great article on one of the things that I'm already stressing over! Made me feel a little better, though. :)

To Interrupt or not to Interrupt, that is the question

-Alyson

Practice

Today I was feeling motivated to do some steno practice, so I did some! I wanted something interesting, though, so I practiced to A&E's documentary of Richard Ramirez, the Night Stalker. It was a really good push because the narrator talked at a pretty quick speed. That lasted about 40 minutes, so it was good practice.

I have also decided that every day that I'm at school, since I get there about 20 minutes early, I am going to make use of that time and practice briefs. Try to memorize at least 15 or more a day. So that would be 20 minutes before school even starts, and then 5 minutes before each new period begins that I could be memorizing briefs.. totalling about 30 minutes a day. Hopefully this will help me to get these faster speeds down since I only need to pass 2 more tests to officially be done with school!! The light at the end of the tunnel is getting brighter. I believe that, realistically, I will probably be ready to take the next CSR exam in February 2012, since you have to apply and pay for the exam at least one month before you take it.

Here is a list of briefs that I was memorizing today:

Evidentiary = EVRD
Repudiate = PAOU
Repudiation = PAOUGS
Constituded = TAOUT/D
Constitute = TAOUT
Abritrate = ARB
Arbitration = AERBGS
Substantive = STIV
Kidnap = KIP
Consent = SKENT
Demonstrate = DRAEUT
Boulevard = BL-FD
Knowingly = NOELG

XO, Aly

YAY!!

Hi, everyone!

Hope you are all doing well. :) I sure am. Today I passed my 180 4-voice!! I corrected it, and I was able to have 3 more errors and still pass. So that meant that a teacher would have to grade my test as well to double check how I corrected it, and to mark me off for any punctuation errors.

Seeing as I only had 3 more errors I could get, I pretty much just accepted the fact that I was not going to pass this one. I made the mistake of doing that a couple months ago with another 180 4-voice. I had like 15 more errors I could get, and I went beyond that just with punctuation errors alone! It was a hard test to punctuate because it had run-on sentences, fragments, you name it.

Anyway, so I waited for the teacher to grade my test, and he told me I passed!! I was sooo excited! He was, like, "Yeah, your punctuation was great. You don't have a problem with that." That made me feel great. :)

So now I need to focus on getting a 200 4-voice or a 225 Q/A. Then I will only need to pass the qualifier before I take the state test! I'm hoping I can take the next CSR test in February 2012. Fingers crossed.

XO, Aly

Feeling motivated

Most of the time I find it hard to get motivated to practice at home after a day of schooling, and always a little harder on the weekends. My excuse for during the weekdays when I have school, is that I'm mentally exhausted, and also my hand muscles feel strained because of the 225 - 240wpm sustained Q/A or even literary material during 2 out of the 3 periods of my school. I know I need to hear speeds that fast because I need to train my brain to listen that quickly and then transfer what they're saying to my fingers instantaneously, but I feel that sometimes my fingers are so out of control that I'm just slapping random keys and if I had my realtime plugged in, only about 2% of the words would come out correctly. I feel like that is just hindering my writing because my fingers are not learning the correct strokes, they're just going everywhere.

One of the things that motivates me a little more to practice is if I practice to something interesting to me. It's so refreshing to be able to just practice to something interesting when all day at school I'm hearing jury charge after jury charge, and I can pretty much recite those word for word now. And one of my teachers likes to torture us -- I'm pretty sure -- because she will sometimes decide to read us zoning regulations or estate planning at excess speeds of 200+. I just want to shoot myself to put me out of my misery! lol

So today, I asked my mom if she would be able to read me some short stories out of Readers Digest. Side Note: The teacher that likes to torture us sometimes breaks up the monotony with stories out of there so she redeems herself with that. :) But anway, so I had my mom read the short story once, slow, and then a second time fast. Her fast speed was probably about 200wpm which is good. :) She read to me for about 40 minutes because she had other errands to do today. It was a good little practice, and then for about 30 minutes after that I put briefs in my dicionary. I want my realtime to look amazing!!

That's what I practiced for today. :) I know it's not much, but it's better than none at all. I need to start getting ready for the day as well because I'm going to a BBQ with all my friends for a pre-4th of July party. Hope you all have a fabulous weekend!

XO, Aly

Court Reporting Article

Hi, all!

I found a really cool court reporting article that I would like to share with you. Check it out here! :)

Hope you are all doing great and keeping out of the heat!

XoXo, Aly

Good morning!

Good morning, everyone!

Just woke up a little while ago. Today my speedbuilding classes were canceled because we were short a couple of the readers. So I guess that means it's up to me to not be lazy and jump on my machine to get a little practice time in! Thinking about practicing to some 180-200 4-voice DVD's, and then some 225 Jury Charge.

Tomorrow is also the CSR test in Los Angeles, so congrats to everyone who has gotten to that point, and good luck! I actually went to the CSR in Los Angeles this past March with some girls from my school (we're all at the same speed.) Of course, this was only for practice and to see how the set up was. I encourage everyone to go and check it out! I didn't actually take the CSR, but every time they do have the CSR, they always have practice sessions the night before and the morning of the test. These practice sessions are great! And that's what the girls and I did from my school.

On another note, I was on YouTube this morning, and I'm subscribed to Mark Kislingbury's videos. (In case someone doesn't know who he is, he holds the award for the fastest writer at 360wpm!) His name is 'magumsteno' in case you would like to subscribe as well. Here is one of his videos that was intriguing to me:



I was taught StenEd Theory and I've always been trying to shorten my writing; however, he shortens his to such an extent that I do not know how he memorizes all those 3 or 4 word phrases! To me it just sounds like it would be difficult to memorize those all, especially if you do not hear them very often. I also don't know how easy it would be for me to try to read all these one-word strokes that I have in my notes. For now, I am just trying to find briefs for words that I am having to do 3 or 4 strokes on. I believe that will help me with my speed. Thoughts?

XO, Aly

It's been a while

Hey, all!

Not too sure how many will still check out my blog since I haven't posted in, like, half a year lol.

So update on my school progress.. I am not officially in the 200's yet, but my school allows me to sit up in the higher speed classes because I have passed my 180 Lit and 180 Jury charge. I just haven't passed my 180 4-voice yet. Although a month ago I almost passed a 180 4-voice. I missed it by 3 (and it was all because of punctuation errors) I could have killed myself! I was so mad and disappointed :(

Oh, well though.. I guess the time will come soon enough for me. I just need to keep at it and practice, practice, practice!

Hope everyone is doing well and, if you'd like, please leave me a comment letting me know where you are at in school! :)

XO, Aly