Retention and memory

Last night’s class was rather interesting. Marci, our instructor, drilled us on our retention and memory skills. She started with memory drills by reading one complete sentence. During this time, we were not allowed to write. After she said, “OK type”, we could start to transcribe the sentence she just read. That doesn’t sound so tough, does it? Guess again! These sentences were laden with dates, numbers, dollar amounts and statistics. Yuck. In the beginning, most of the students totally bombed out on their accuracy. But, by the end of these drills, we were getting the hang of it. Oh sure, some of the statistics may have been off a bit, but we were close!

The second set of drills were much more difficult. Marci started dictating a jury charge, but we were not allowed to start writing until she waved her hand. The voice in my head said, OK, she’ll wave her hand after she has said five or six words, right? Nope. She waved her hand after she had read two sentences. OMG, we’re behind by two sentences?! Panic! I couldn’t keep up. My retention skills are horrible. I’m used to writing nearly on top of the speaker. In fact, as soon as I was lost, I jumped ahead to write directly on top of Marci's dictation again. Trailing behind the speaker is a skill that I MUST develop, and I must develop it SOON!