One more chapter to go ~ speed building here I come!

I have one chapter left to learn in my theory book and then it's on to speed building. I have been attending my theory class several days a week since January and I'm soooo excited to apply this theory to speed building. It's fascinating to think that in one week, I should be able to apply the theory I've learned to any word in the English language and write it in steno.

Our class routine is going to change considerably. We're going to use a web-based program called Realtime Coach. We will be given a login/password and will log our speed building time in Realtime Coach. Our instructors will be able to log in and take note of our progress and see how much time we've spent working on our skills. No pressure, right?

I'll admit that learning theory has been mentally draining, so I'm looking forward to the change.

Validation

The other day I saw a television commercial that’s airing in Sioux Falls for AIB School of Business in Des Moines, Iowa, touting the need for court reporters. It’s similar to the commercial that was aired by Colorado Technical University last year that prompted me to enroll in college and get my degree in court reporting. CTU’s court reporting commercial has stopped airing, but seeing another college try to drum up court reporting students stating the demand for court reporters is going to increase in the next four to five years is something I LOVE hearing! Many court reporters are close to retirement age and there simply aren’t enough court reporters entering the field to replace them.

I live in South Dakota and our instructor told us that there are approximately 80 court reporters in the entire state and many plan to retire within the next three to four years. That puts me in a pretty good position when I graduate.

Chapter 38 is a cake wreck

Last night’s class continued with Chapter 38 which is all about prefixes. Chapter 38 is a little different from the rest of the textbook. Let’s see . . . how do I explain this?

This chapter is like decorating a birthday cake. Have you ever started writing the person’s name in frosting and then realized that you started writing too large and now you have to squish everything into a small little corner of cake? That’s what happened to this chapter! I think every prefix in the English language is squished into this Chapter.

Photo courtesy of Cake Wrecks

http://cakewrecks.blogspot.com/

The textbook gives you the outline for a prefix and two examples of the word and then moves on to the next prefix. Hardly enough time spent on a single prefix to feel it under your fingers. Oh, the instructors know that they can simply give us the new brief and we’ll eventually incorporate it into our steno, but the quiz for this chapter is Monday! That’s an incredible amount of prefixes to memorize in such a short period. I’ll have to study harder than usual for this quiz . . . It’s going to be one of those weekends.

Prefixes, prefixes, and more prefixes

Only three more weeks of studying real-time theory and then we start speed building.

Tonight's lesson was all about prefixes. Tons of prefixes! They're pretty easy - provided you can get your fingers to contort to some of the briefs. Having an asterisk in the outline can make it difficult to write. That's were practice makes all the difference. When I think back to some of the words that I found difficult six months ago, they now fall easily under my fingers. So you know what I'll be doing this weekend? That's right. Practicing. Good answer!

At the end of the class, the instructor dictated real testimony from court records. She guessed that she was reading about 60 words per minute, which is the goal that we hope to achieve by the end of this term. Actually, it was pretty easy to keep up, so that made my day!

Summer session classes

I'm at the end of my two week break and have loved every minute of it! The summer session starts Monday, and I feel well rested and ready to start classes again. The summer session is going to be tough. I am taking Realtime Theory III (which encompasses speed building), along with Criminal Law and Anatomy and Physiology.

I'm looking forward to Criminal Law. I worked as a legal secretary at a law firm for four years and was married to a lawyer for ten. Not that this means anything, but I enjoyed playing devil's advocate with my ex-husband. Another benefit is that I already know the legal lingo. Yay!

I'm a little worried about Anatomy and Physiology. I've never been very good at science. Thankfully, my husband is. I have a feeling he may become my study partner! The books I bought for this class came with a video on anatomy that's based on the Visible Human Project. It looks really cool; and, with any luck, the visual aid will help me understand this particular science. It probably won't be as bad as I think it will be. Truth is, I'm a much better student now that I'm an adult . . .