StenEd Theory consists of 40 lessons total--each focusing on a particular aspect of learning this new "language." That includes the alphabet, common letter combinations, numbers, high frequency words, "ch"/"sh" sounds, differentiating homonyms, etc... (and that is only what I have encountered so far).
Ideally, by the end of all 40 lessons, you will have a stronghold on StenEd, and can progress into the speed-building classes, where you do what you've learned so far...just much faster. And faster, and faster, and faster (x100)...
Now, 40 lessons is quite a lot, so my college has divided up the lessons into 2 classes:
Theory I : Lessons 1-20
Theory II: Lessons 21-40
Each theory class is expected to last a full semester (4 months).
I am currently enrolled in Theory I class, which ends at the end of May, but am already at Lesson 17.
At my current pace, completing all 40 lessons by then should be very doable. Especially when you consider the fact that during the duration of studying Lessons 1-17, I have also been working a 9-6 Monday-Friday (+1-hour daily bicycle commuting) job. So once I am free from said job, I will be able to dedicate myself fully to my studies.
The anticipation makes me drool!
NOTE: I actually plan on making some income in the form of freelance translation, but that hardly even qualifies as even a "part-time job."
Now, I hesitate even as I write this, because while I want to ambitious, I know the importance of setting realistic goals.
Still, I have 3 solid months from now until the end of May in order to complete 23 more lessons.
It took 1 month to reach 17 lessons, so I can calculate (even with my weak grasp of basic math) that 3 months should be more than enough time to reach this goal.
This post is to make me stay true to my word.
Let's do this.
Current Lesson - Lesson 17
Wednesday, February 27, 2013
Tuesday, February 26, 2013
Campus Visit
As I mentioned in my last post, I actually motorcycled down to campus to not only speak with the "IT specialist" but also my class instructor.
Now, seeing as I work full-time, it is exceedingly difficult to find the time to "just zip on down" to campus, so yesterday was a rare treat.
But don't think that this post is about complaints. Yesterday's visit was actually wonderful, and very invigorating! I actually always feel chipper and excited after speaking with my instructors. They're so kind and willing to explain everything in great detail.
My first order of business was to speak with the IT specialist about getting some forms of punctuation properly entered into my Total Eclipse dictionary so that it would display properly. I find it very useful to have all my keystrokes enter correctly through the Total Eclipse's realtime program, so that I can easily glance up and see if something wasn't stroked the right way.
Even though I got to clean up a few things, Aaron (the IT guy) eventually informed me that it's actually not worth my time to groom my dictionary too meticulously this early in my studies. This was quite eyeopening for me, and I felt a little thwarted that I'd come all the way down for this, only to be told that my efforts were in vain. And by "vain," I mean there was little real substance to justify wanting to clean up my dictionary too much.
The worse bit was when he bluntly stated, "If you obsess about your dictionary at this point, you'll soon become frustrated and drop out."
That really stung, and I bristled at the words "drop out."
Hearing that just makes me want to prove them wrong so badly.
The visit wasn't a total loss, however. I did get to have my quizzes graded in front of me, while I chatted with a fellow student. This student's name is Lauren and she shared some useful tips for studying and motivation! It was a pleasure to talk with her, as it reminded me that there are others clambering through the same lessons as myself, with similar frustrations and exaltations.
Turns out that I have received 99%-100% on all of my quizzes thus far (although lesson 5 seems to have gone missing for some reason...)!
And the instructor noted that she appreciated my thoroughly written-up quizzes where I note my own mistakes and methods for fixing them. She said she liked being able to see my "thought processes," and also noted that I ask insightful questions. (squeal!)
In fact, being able to have an instructor right there in front of me made it that much easier to ask questions and get answers nearly instantaneously! I'll be spoiled!
The visit also sparked the topic of my commuting down to class at the start of April.
I'll get more into this later on...
As for my lesson progress... Just this morning, I watched through the lesson 16 video, and am pumped and primed to tackle the exercises and quiz later tonight!
Current Lesson - Lesson 16
Now, seeing as I work full-time, it is exceedingly difficult to find the time to "just zip on down" to campus, so yesterday was a rare treat.
But don't think that this post is about complaints. Yesterday's visit was actually wonderful, and very invigorating! I actually always feel chipper and excited after speaking with my instructors. They're so kind and willing to explain everything in great detail.
My first order of business was to speak with the IT specialist about getting some forms of punctuation properly entered into my Total Eclipse dictionary so that it would display properly. I find it very useful to have all my keystrokes enter correctly through the Total Eclipse's realtime program, so that I can easily glance up and see if something wasn't stroked the right way.
Even though I got to clean up a few things, Aaron (the IT guy) eventually informed me that it's actually not worth my time to groom my dictionary too meticulously this early in my studies. This was quite eyeopening for me, and I felt a little thwarted that I'd come all the way down for this, only to be told that my efforts were in vain. And by "vain," I mean there was little real substance to justify wanting to clean up my dictionary too much.
The worse bit was when he bluntly stated, "If you obsess about your dictionary at this point, you'll soon become frustrated and drop out."
That really stung, and I bristled at the words "drop out."
Hearing that just makes me want to prove them wrong so badly.
The visit wasn't a total loss, however. I did get to have my quizzes graded in front of me, while I chatted with a fellow student. This student's name is Lauren and she shared some useful tips for studying and motivation! It was a pleasure to talk with her, as it reminded me that there are others clambering through the same lessons as myself, with similar frustrations and exaltations.
Turns out that I have received 99%-100% on all of my quizzes thus far (although lesson 5 seems to have gone missing for some reason...)!
And the instructor noted that she appreciated my thoroughly written-up quizzes where I note my own mistakes and methods for fixing them. She said she liked being able to see my "thought processes," and also noted that I ask insightful questions. (squeal!)
In fact, being able to have an instructor right there in front of me made it that much easier to ask questions and get answers nearly instantaneously! I'll be spoiled!
The visit also sparked the topic of my commuting down to class at the start of April.
I'll get more into this later on...
As for my lesson progress... Just this morning, I watched through the lesson 16 video, and am pumped and primed to tackle the exercises and quiz later tonight!
Current Lesson - Lesson 16
Monday, February 25, 2013
Practicing for Numbers
Since my last post on Lesson 15's numbers, I have since passed the quiz and moved on to Lesson 16!
I was pretty nervous about Lesson 15 at first, because it seemed like there was a lot to cover, and plus there were some parts of the theory in the book that differed from what the instructors in the video were saying.
Additionally, the fact that my Total Eclipse program wasn't registering quite a few of the keystroke briefs was getting a bit annoying.
I'll actually be head down later today to speak with the college's CTR IT specialist about adapting my Total Eclipse dictionary. Should be fun!
Regarding Lesson 15 and numbers, I owe a lot of my quick practice to the following websites:
RANDOM Clock Times
RANDOM Calendar Dates
This handy-dandy sight generators a number of random clock times, calendar dates, and all sorts of things I imagine. This was particularly useful for drill practicing, just doing date after date, or clock time after clock time.
Highly recommend! I hope it helps out fellow students who just need some good grinding material.
Next up is Lesson 16, where it's a whole lot about soundalike words! Yikes!
Current Lesson - Lesson 16
I was pretty nervous about Lesson 15 at first, because it seemed like there was a lot to cover, and plus there were some parts of the theory in the book that differed from what the instructors in the video were saying.
Additionally, the fact that my Total Eclipse program wasn't registering quite a few of the keystroke briefs was getting a bit annoying.
I'll actually be head down later today to speak with the college's CTR IT specialist about adapting my Total Eclipse dictionary. Should be fun!
Regarding Lesson 15 and numbers, I owe a lot of my quick practice to the following websites:
RANDOM Clock Times
RANDOM Calendar Dates
This handy-dandy sight generators a number of random clock times, calendar dates, and all sorts of things I imagine. This was particularly useful for drill practicing, just doing date after date, or clock time after clock time.
Highly recommend! I hope it helps out fellow students who just need some good grinding material.
Next up is Lesson 16, where it's a whole lot about soundalike words! Yikes!
Current Lesson - Lesson 16
Friday, February 22, 2013
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.
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
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...
All of them sport a different colored oval. Interesting choice of design...
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
Thursday, February 21, 2013
Grades...and Numbers
I completed my lesson 14 quiz last night. Did just fine, but dropped the "EU" in one word.
Should have been "baked." Ended up as "backed."
Thankfully, my instructors have told me that so long as I catch my own mistakes, it's not really detracted from my score (?). I'm actually curious to see what this really means.
I'm so used to taking community college classes just for fun (Adv. Japanese, American Sign Language, Vietnamese...notice a pattern?), that I've never really had to worry about having good grades. Not that getting good grades has been an issue (I am the obsessive-student type), but this time around, it's a bit more "for real." If the grades were bad enough, surely I would be held back, but how is that determined? And that reminds me, how does this semester's class end? A final exam? I don't recall!
Anyhoo, I've just started number-centric lesson 15 today, and while there appears to be a lot of new material, it doesn't seem particularly hard.
(At least, not as hard as Lesson 12-13 were! Phew-boy! Those are definitely some lessons that I will have to go back to and review often!)
Lesson 15 has me learning how to input numbers, the proper order of keystrokes for three-digit numbers, time & dates, days of the week & months of the year, and plurals of numbers.
Seems like a lot, doesn't it?
Well, I'm feeling mighty confident, so I'm guessing that I'll get through it by EOD Saturday.
Current Lesson - Lesson 15
Should have been "baked." Ended up as "backed."
Thankfully, my instructors have told me that so long as I catch my own mistakes, it's not really detracted from my score (?). I'm actually curious to see what this really means.
I'm so used to taking community college classes just for fun (Adv. Japanese, American Sign Language, Vietnamese...notice a pattern?), that I've never really had to worry about having good grades. Not that getting good grades has been an issue (I am the obsessive-student type), but this time around, it's a bit more "for real." If the grades were bad enough, surely I would be held back, but how is that determined? And that reminds me, how does this semester's class end? A final exam? I don't recall!
Someone's spidey-senses are tingling with those numbers.
Anyhoo, I've just started number-centric lesson 15 today, and while there appears to be a lot of new material, it doesn't seem particularly hard.
(At least, not as hard as Lesson 12-13 were! Phew-boy! Those are definitely some lessons that I will have to go back to and review often!)
Lesson 15 has me learning how to input numbers, the proper order of keystrokes for three-digit numbers, time & dates, days of the week & months of the year, and plurals of numbers.
Seems like a lot, doesn't it?
Well, I'm feeling mighty confident, so I'm guessing that I'll get through it by EOD Saturday.
Current Lesson - Lesson 15
Wednesday, February 20, 2013
Inspirational Quotes (part 1)
Imgur has got to be the best and worst thing I've come across in the past year.
It's both a blackhole for passive (sometimes stupid) entertainment, but also a treasure-trove of inspirations.
As embarrassed as I am to admit it, it's even how I sometimes keep up with the news!
My typical routine starts off at the WTF section for my daily gross-out fix, before drifting into the main page.
There are more /___ sections than you can shake a stick at, and I'm sure that I'll add them to my repertoire eventually. But for now, WTF does the trick.
Some of my favorite posts, however, are the inspirational quotes.
I've decided to share a few with you, starting with this one:
This one is really hitting home with me lately.
Namely, because it's what I've come against with deciding to pursue court reporting.
I'll get more into this in a few weeks...
For now, what kinds of things have you put on hold, insisting that you'll have the time/energy/freedom to do it later?
Current Lesson -- Lesson 14
It's both a blackhole for passive (sometimes stupid) entertainment, but also a treasure-trove of inspirations.
As embarrassed as I am to admit it, it's even how I sometimes keep up with the news!
My typical routine starts off at the WTF section for my daily gross-out fix, before drifting into the main page.
There are more /___ sections than you can shake a stick at, and I'm sure that I'll add them to my repertoire eventually. But for now, WTF does the trick.
Some of my favorite posts, however, are the inspirational quotes.
I've decided to share a few with you, starting with this one:
The most dangerous risk of all - the risk of spending
your life not doing what you want on the bet that you
can buy yourself the freedom to do it later.
This one is really hitting home with me lately.
Namely, because it's what I've come against with deciding to pursue court reporting.
I'll get more into this in a few weeks...
For now, what kinds of things have you put on hold, insisting that you'll have the time/energy/freedom to do it later?
Current Lesson -- Lesson 14
Tuesday, February 19, 2013
Funny Lines
So, for anyone who has gone through StenEd theory, you'll know that there are quite a few times when funny practice lines or phrases come up.
There are only so many words we know at this point (up through Lesson 12-13), so they have to get a bit creative!
So far, here are just a few that made me chuckle out loud:
All of them have the look of doom.
Jill felt the yapping dog nip her leg.
And here are some short words/phrases that always get my mind in the gutter:
hot stuff
shaft
jerk
What other hilarious little gems have you found in your theory books?
There are only so many words we know at this point (up through Lesson 12-13), so they have to get a bit creative!
So far, here are just a few that made me chuckle out loud:
All of them have the look of doom.
Jill felt the yapping dog nip her leg.
And here are some short words/phrases that always get my mind in the gutter:
hot stuff
shaft
jerk
What other hilarious little gems have you found in your theory books?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)