Typical Practice Routine

As the post header insinuates, I wanted to take the time to explain my typical practice routine for steno class.
Now, last night, I actually did not practice, because I was all out of sorts, but aside from this exception, I'm pretty good about practicing every day.
(And even if I didn't get on the writer, I did still practice the strokes at my desk with an imaginary one.)


Because I'm still in the midst of learning StenEd Theory, practice sessions are pretty regulated thanks greatly to the REALTIME THEORY: Lesson 1 in the StenEd Realtime, Conflict-Free Machine Shorthand Series.

There are even more variations within the series.
All of them sport a different colored oval. Interesting choice of design...

That is a doozy of a name, but let me break it down for you.

Realtime: This is the practice of doing stenography where the end result is already translated into English. Thus, enabling you to read back your transcript in...realtime! Back in the day, court reporters would have to dictate from their steno notes, but with realtime, now pretty much anyone can read it--so long as your writing was clean to start with!

Conflict-Free: Also back in the day (stenography has gone through so many changes and evolutionary steps, hasn't it?), because the court reporter would be the only one reading from her notes, it was totally fine if she chose to have a chord of keystrokes mean more than one thing!
For example, if she knew for herself that "SKWR" meant "justice" and also meant "skewer," that was completely fine! She could just sort it out later based on the context. However, now that realtime is such a desirable trait (again, so that anyone can read the dictation immediately), it is vital for every single chord to have it's ONE, SINGLE meaning. Additionally, the prevalent use of CAT (computer-aided transcription) programs means that it's easier to program a single chorded keystroke to translate into anything--and often the program can even warn you if the new definition you're inputting conflicts with a preexisting entry!

Machine: This is the writer.

Shorthand: I'm surprised to find this word used rather than "stenography," which is a more academic (aka smarty-pants) term.

Anyway, this is how I typically get through each lesson:

① Read the lesson ahead of time. I usually do this at my desk during lunch, or a bit throughout the day. I'll use my imaginary writer as I practice everything.
② Watch the online video for that lesson. This helps to clear up any finger positioning that I may have wrongfully assumed, plus it's chock-full of useful steno and study tips.
③ Use the Realtime portion of the Total Eclipse program for the practice dictations, practice words, etc that are brought up during the video lesson. I also like to futz around in Realtime, experimenting with more word combinations and try piecing together what I know to actually make full sentences.
④ Listen to the audio recordings of the exercises, and practice in Realtime still.
⑤ Listen to the audio recordings of the exercises, this time in the Lesson player portion of the program. There are times where I feel more at ease just listening to the audio as I type out the lesson's exercises, rather than reading it straight from the book's copy. I think that looking at the letters is actually a bit confusing--and after all, it's more in line with the job to focus on listening.
⑥ Repeat step 5 until I've earned 98% of higher on each exercise.
⑦ Mark the date of completion in my handy-dandy time keeper binder thingy.
⑧ Practice some of the video lesson dictation again in Realtime.
⑨ Get pumped for the lesson quiz at the end of the video. This is when I set up the paper feed into my writer, because the quizzes need to be recorded and graded.
⑩ Do the quiz!!
⑪ Scan and transcribe my notes (and mark up any mistakes) and submit them to the instructors. I typically do this the next day, because I've finished the quiz at night. If I do it mid-day (like on a weekend), I'll do this step almost immediately afterwards. I don't like to do this actually, because I appreciate the challenge of having to read my notes without relying on my immediate memory.
⑫ Rinse and repeat!

The whole process sums up to about 3+ hours worth of practice per lesson.
I haven't even gotten into reviewing past lessons, but that is something that I do quite sporadically.
This weekend, however, I plan on focusing a bit more on practicing reading my steno notes (after completing lesson 15).

Current Lesson - Lesson 15