Fall Session Begins

So I'm just about rounding out my first week of the Fall Semester.

I didn't even post about how the full 3 weeks of "summer break" went, but boy am I glad I had them. I think I was honestly starting to get pretty antsy and eager to leave by the end of fall. But as my last post showed, that final day was well worth it! I passed all of my classes with flying colors, so now it's on to Fall Semester!

This semester will be pretty busy, if I do say so myself. The breakdown is as follows:

MONDAY:
- get in by 10am when the lab opens; do transcriptions or other homework
- 140 speed building class from 12:30-1:15
- possibly live read for the high-speeds
- 160 speed building class from 3:05:3:05
- 140 NIGHT speed building class from 6:00-7:45

TUESDAY:
- same
- same
- same
- Basic Medical Terminology from 5:45-10:00pm!!!!!

WEDNESDAY (see Monday)

THURSDAY:
- same
- same
- same
- Court and Depositions Procedures class from 4:15-7:45pm!

FRIDAY:
- no class (phew!)

As you can see...pretty garsh darn busy, I'd like to say. But I'm really excited! I've already tended the first Medical Terminology class, but I think it's going to be a blast! (an easy blast, heh heh heh) But honestly, I'm eager to learn about the human body and all the pathological and structural terms that come with it. Ironically enough, I'm also doing the extra medical terminology for my speedbuilding class anyhow, so it's a two birds with one stone situation.

So far as I've just begun venturing into the 140 level, I've had so-so results from my tests. It honestly reminds me of how it was when I first started the 120s. Sorta like, "Nooo way I'm gonna pass this test, but oh hey look, only double-digit number of errors."
I sense and I WANT to get through the 140 level a little faster than with 120. With the night classes and more dedicated time, I really think I'll be able to do that. My goal right now is to be done with 140 by mid-October. I feel like the 120 Lit and 140 JC will be the first to go, hopefully knocked out in just the next few weeks. The remaining two might take longer, but it'll be SOOO worth it for the following reasons:
(1) Scheduling. With 140 class at 12:30 and 160 down at 3:00, there is an incredibly awkward amount of time between them. Other students have echoed my thoughts that the gap in time is pretty annoying.
(2) Art modeling. That's right, I've just picked up art modeling to make a little extra cash, and boy do I love it!! However, many morning art classes finishing at 12:00pm which makes it tough to rush to school in time for 140. Once I'm out of there earlier class times, I'll be able to take on more gigs and further away ones, and still make it to campus on time.
I thoroughly enjoy my art modeling so far. The praise, the opportunity to be naked, and just the overall participation in art is such a good feeling!! I hope to continue it and do very well at it.

So yeah, let's see how my mid-October goal turns out!! Until later!

120 Level Passed!

Wow, I last wrote about mid-July, but it took until August 1st to complete the final 120 test. 3-Voice!!

I have to explain a few things about how momentous I feel this accomplishment has been.

First of all, I was feeling very down just a week ago, because I was frustrated about not passing this final test. I believe I'd mentioned in my last post that I had the goal of completing the 120 level by the end of the semester, but I was starting to feel convinced that I was not going to accomplish it.

There is only one chance a week to do each category, so 3-V were few and far in between. The only additional opportunity was on Thursday nights starting at 6pm. To be honest, I'd started feeling a little burned out over summer semester and was really starting to look forward to the 3-week break in August.

Would you believe it? I was REALLY close to not even staying late on Thursday for that last-of-all-last chances, but boy am I glad I did! I passed the 3-V test with 12 errors (15 being the max)! I was so elated, I immediately called up Martin and said, "We're going out for sushi!"

I think that this experience has reminded me that I shouldn't let myself get so down and frustrated. I mean, if you look at it, it was still a solid two weeks between tests which has been the pattern since I started speed building. Next time I start to get frustrated, I should remind myself that (1) this isn't a race, (2) it'll come when it comes, and (3) 2-3 weeks is the normal timeframe.

I should also mention that Thursday August 1 was also the semester's vocab final exam, of which I apparently scored 198 out of 200. I have reason to believe that the Scantron machine misread two of my entries because I had to erase a previous answer and fill in the correct one. Call me stubborn, but I KNOW that I got a perfect score. I should be happy either way, but I probably won't be satisfied until I have it looked into a little bit.

Anyhoo! I'm already in the second day of my vacation, and will write next about what my daily studying routine should be. No goals set for the break except to study, study, study! I wanna stay sharp for when I start up Fall semester again!

120s: 3 down 1 to go

Wow, I haven't updated in nearly a month solid!

Well, good news since last time. That's right, more tests~!
As usual, the breakdown:

100 Lit -- June 19
120 QA -- July 8
120 JC -- July 17

That leaves only the 3-V (three-voice) test left to pass. I had attempted one last Thursday with "only" 28 errors, and then another one tonight. It definitely wasn't a test-pass, and I doubt it was necessarily better than last week's. But either way, there are 2 weeks left in the session and it is my goal to pass it before the August break.
Compared to the 100-speed tests, 120 has felt like a slower rate of progress. But aside from that 4th of July weekend interruption, I've generally stuck to my pass-a-test-once-every-two-weeks pattern. I would chalk it up to the two law classes that I was taking, and the summer weather. Ha ha! Oh, a quick note about those law classes. Concepts of Criminal Law have already ended and I finished with a grade of 96.5%. Business Law is still going on, but I've got an A in it, with overall "grade" of 100%. Not exactly sure how that works, because I obviously didn't get 100 on every quiz or test, but I guess the extra credit points helped to fill the gap.

Back to the test passes, however, did you know that at the bottom of each "Congratulations! You've Passed ___ Test!" coversheet, there's a short note that reads simply:

This is an acknowledgement of a giant step forward in reaching your final goal.

Be proud and celebrate your progress!!

It may seem simple and trite, but I think there is a lot of power in those words. It's been said before that court reporters are generally perfectionists, and that they don't allow themselves to enjoy their victories. Instead, they're always looking towards the next goal. While this might sound like an admirable trait to a degree, I think that I should follow the wisdom of these words and allow myself to enjoy this victory, taking in stride when I do pass the final 120 3-V.

As with nearly every post I end with, my current goal is now: Complete 120 3-V before end of Summer!!

100 Speed Level Passed!

I finally found out today (Sunday) that my 100 QA test from last Thursday was a pass.
I knew it, knew it, knew it, but needed to wait until the professor was back from vacation to get the offiicial news.
And what wonderful news to receive! That means that I am officially out of the 100 level tests and on to 120!
I was absolutely convinced that I had passed an earlier 100 QA test on Monday, but ended up failing 4 errors over the limit. That was a lesson in not getting too cocky, indeed!

As with the previous level, I'll do a handy-dandy breakdown again of the pass dates, just for old time's sake:
80 Lit -- May 15, 2013
100 JC -- June 6, 2013
100 QA -- June 13, 2013

And mind you, there were nearly two solid weeks of vacation in between, so one can only imagine if I hadn't had that time off to "slack." As a reminder, imagine how those three weeks in August will be!! Thanks to Stenograph U, though, I have a feeling that I'll be able to stay sharp.

My goal for the end of month was to pass all of my 100 tests, and so I still have two more weeks left in the month to set a new goal. Let see...I should try passing the 100 Lit test. Yes, that's right.

Surprisingly enough, it is interesting to note that two of my 100 level tests were passed through Stenograph U! I hope that this does not mean I am lulled into the belief that only Stenograph U is the way to go!
And while we're on the subject of goals, I should also aim to pass a few more 100-level tests with a decent return grade.

Crazy, I'll now be sitting in at the 140-level class in order to focus more intensively on the 120 tests. I should also mention that last week, I did an optional three-voice 120 test just for kicks, and completed it with only--gasp!--80 errors! That may seem like a doozy, but hey, it's only in the double-digits.

Tomorrow, June 17 is also the first day of my academic classes (Business Law and Concepts of Criminal Law) so that should be interesting. Just reading the syllabus for one makes it seem overwhelming, but you know how that first day of class always makes you think, "How on earth am I going to manage it?!?!" but I'm confident that I simply will.

Now, hopefully I can just get that one textbook off of Craigslist for $25... That'd be real nice.
I really should write up a blog about my new laptop that I got! Perhaps next week.

JC 100 Pass + Summer Session

Okay, so maybe hearing about whenever I pass a test one at a time isn't so interesting, but I'm still pretty darned proud!

As the subject header reads, I passed my first Jury Charge 100 test on May 6th 2013! AND it was a test done through Stenograph University with just 5 errors!

Before I get into it, let me explain a little about how the Summer semester is shaping up to be pretty different from Spring:

■No Night Classes■

That's right, they were not able to get enough students enrolled to fill up the minimum requirement for night classes, sooooo there are only daytime speedbuilding classes.

What this means for me are a few things:

- 9am-5pm routine! Mind you Spring semester's schedule was typically 9am-9pm, so this is a pretty significant difference in amount of time on campus. For better (getting home early to translate) or for worse...

- One test opportunity a day! Before, I had two opportunities a day, but now there is only one.

- On Thursday nights only, one of the instructors has been kind enough to volunteer to stay later to provide more dictation practice and even a test opportunity! I took the QA 100 last night, and I think it may have been a "good fail." I'll see when I transcribe it on Monday.

■Assigned/Academic Homework■

Seeing as I had just started Theory I last semester, I was technically exempt from having to do the "academic" portion of class. All I had to do was focus on Bridge lessons and speedbuilding.

But do you think I settled for that? Of course not! I went ahead and learned the 300 English vocabulary words, completed the sample sentence assignment for it, and and then passed the final exam with a score of 198/200!

That means that this semester requires Legal Vocabulary which involves NOT ONLY learning the vocabulary and passing the final exam, but also steno-writing out the vocab lists as well as transcribing/submitting short Legal-centric dictations on tape.

"Assigned Homework" are random practice dictation, worksheets, etc that the teacher comes up with. There are going to be 9 total, to be distributed along the 9 weeks of summer session. I think that they're designed to ensure that people are dedicating some time OUTSIDE the classroom to think/do/care about steno. These are quite easy and I aim to get them done by June 17, becaaaaause...

■Additional Classes■

Seeing as I don't have night classes, I've decided to take two (!) online classes: 1) Business Law and 2) Concepts of Criminal Law

Both classes begin June 17, which is why I'm aiming to get as much of the speedbuilding class homework out of the way before then. I've never taken a 100% online class like this before, so I'm curious what it will entail.

These credits will go towards my qualifications to take the CSR exam, so I'm stoked.

■Stenograph University■

As I mentioned above, I dished out $165 for the 7 months of this online service. It provides not only multiple practice dictation, optionals, but also DAILY TEST OPPORTUNITIES (Monday-Thursday).

THUS, I will actually get to have two test opportunities a day, just like the good old days!

I know it may sound like I'm obsessive about passing tests, and I understand that there is much more than just tests, but I like to know when I pass tests because they show that not only do have I have SOME comfort with that speed, but I can also do it under "pressure"!

I'm still at the stage with 100 tests where my heart starts to pound really hard and my fingers get sweaty. It's something that I have to get through because that is the kind of pressure one will experience of the job. Plus, passing tests really gets my confidence up, which helps me to learn and practice, which helps me to pass tests, which helps me to... Well, you get the idea.

Surprisingly enough, I didn't get the shakes at all with the online JC 100 test--maybe because I didn't really believe I had a chance in hell...but surprise!

Wow, what a doozy of an entry. And no pictures! Me so dull! Anyhoo, this just goes to show that even with these changes in the class schedule, I think I still have a pretty good chance of completing my goal of passing 100 level tests. I mean, I now only have one left to go and there are still 8 weeks left in the semester!

Thanks for reading! Hopefully these entries will help those new or interested in court reporting see a little of the process one goes through in school.

Stenography & Japanese

Ooh, so mysterious and so...samurai. (pfft)

For those of you who don't know, aside from stenography, Japanese language is one of the biggest THINGS in my life. What I mean by that is that it always had a place throughout my young adult life--whether it was studying it formally in high school and college, to spending a year abroad in the Tokyo area, to incorporating it into my professional career(s).
- editor of Japanese manga (@ TOKYOPOP)
- associate localization producer of Japanese video games (@ NAMCO BANDAI)
- freelance translation of Japanese entertainment (ex: manga, video games, novels, etc...)

Yeah, it's been a pretty big thing, so court reporting is my first break from it in the past, oh let's see, 10 years or so! That's a pretty big shift!

...Or is it?

See, since starting stenography, I learned pretty quickly that it is essentially a language. You're translating the steno language/code into English. Fascinating! And taking it a step further, time and time again I've found myself comparing the use of steno stroking, briefs, and phrases to the Japanese writing system.
Here is a quick breakdown of the Japanese writing system to give you some background:

① Hiragana ひらがな -- the phonetic alphabet of the language. You can write anything in this simple system of 48 characters. Such nice and soft symbols, compared to its counterpart...
- Katakana カタカナ -- the mirror opposite of the phonetic language, reserved specifically for foreign loan words (like "computer" and "Will Smith") or for slang. Okay, this one doesn't really have much to add to my steno + Japanese theory (thus it doesn't get it own number,) but I thought I should be thorough and lay it out there.
② Kanji 漢字 -- a vast system of characters adopted from the Chinese writing system. I mean, that's literally what "kanji" means. "Chinese letters." Anyway, these handy-dandy kanji characters can encompass entire words, phrases, meanings, and ideas.

Okay, I bet some of you are already starting to catch on with the whole hiragana versus kanji bit and how it relates to steno.
You know how when you don't know how to brief a word on your machine, you just "spell it out" or "write it out"?
You can essentially do the same with hiragana. Observe the silly sample sentence below:

なぜそのねこはつねにまどのちかくにすわっていますか。

Nice. It works. But, man, is it long.
Plus, thanks to the many homonyms of the Japanese language it can be hard to appropriately break up the symbols together to form the various words and grammatical parts of the sentence. It just started to run together like: "Nazesononekohatsunenimadonochikakunisuwatteimasuka?"

Here is that same sentence using kanji:

何故その猫は常に窓の近くに座っていますか。

Can you see how much shorter that is?!
And for those of you who know the language, it makes it that much easier to find the grammatical "pit stops" that signify the noun, verb, tense of the sentence. So now it reads more like this: "Naze sono neko wa tsune ni mado no chikaku ni suwatteimasu ka?

It's exactly the same with briefs, I find. They help you compress words or phrases into  a more succinct lines of code as you read them off your notes or program. They can help to break up long and convoluted written-out words with little "pit stops" as I like to think of them.

Huh, somehow I thought this entry would be more impressive as I was thinking it up, but now it seems sort of dull. Either way, hopefully someone out there has raised their eyebrows a bit at this entry and I've added a little food for thought to the universe!

Passed First 100-Level Test!

Wow, these posts are getting pretty sparse, and I'm only thinking to post when I've achieved a "great goal."

As the title says, my most recent "great goal" is that I just passed my Lit 80 test!

I'm quite pleased with myself because as you'll remember, my goal was to pass a 100-level test before the end of the semester, and--boom!--I managed it on the last day of classes!

Next Monday is not only the 200-word English vocabulary quiz (breezeville, I'm sure), but also a "Test-A-Thon" from 6pm-9pm.
This is our last chance to cram in additional tests that we request of the teacher to prepare in the hopes of passing one before the summer session.
It takes a while for me to "warm up" on Mondays, but my recent 100 JC was surprisingly good (only 31 errors!) so I think I may-may-may-may-may have a shot at this on Monday night.

This recent development has also inspired to update my Reach-120-Speed-Before-End-of-Summer goal. I now believe that I may be able to not only reach 120 but also... (drum roll, please)

Pass at least one 120-level test by the end of Summer Session. @_@

Can it be done? I think so.

Current Bridge Lesson -- Lesson 21