Inching toward my goal

As many of you know, my goal is to achieve at least 70 words per minute by the end of October and 80 words per minute by the end of November. To be honest, I don't know if these are lofty goals or not. I guess I'll know by the end of November.

To gauge my speed, I took a home test the other day. What I mean by "home test" is that I selected a 5-minute audio take in RealTime Coach at 75 wpm and then transcribed my notes the same as if I were in speed class. I try to make it as realistic as possible. At 75 wpm, I graded myself at 72% accuracy. I guess that's not too bad for 75 wpm. This weekend, I'll be giving myself several 70 wpm home tests to see if I've hit my goal. Cross your fingers and pray for 97% accuracy!

As a side note: I took another 80 wpm test in speed class tonight. I waited for the instructor to grade the test before I went home. She didn't give me an accuracy percentage, just the number of words that I missed. It wasn't very good; but, then again, I didn't expect it to be. What I did learn, however, was that I have a tendency to skip the word "that". I missed it completely seven or eight times throughout the dictation. I also typed the word "the" instead of "that". And I typed the contraction "that's" instead of "that is". It must be one of those words that my ear just doesn't hear. Well, I learned something new tonight.