There's light at the end of the tunnel

I only have a few more weeks of class this quarter. Last night we took two speed tests. One was the usual speed test given on Mondays. It was given at 56 words per minute. I think I did fairly well – although you never know if you’ve “spazzed out” for a few words until you get your results to see what you missed.

The other test was our 60 words per minute final exam. This is our final exam speed test that we have to receive a 97% accuracy score or we don’t pass the course. Yikes! No pressure there. The instructor decided that she will give this speed test during every class until the end of the term. So I’ll have four more chances to get a passing grade. I was keeping up quite easily at first, but then it seemed like the instructor was starting to dictate faster. I’m sure that she wasn’t ~ I was just getting farther behind. I don’t think I passed this time, but I think I might be close to passing, so I’m anxious to see my score.

Train your brain - Great advice from our professors

During last night’s class, we received some great advice on speed building. Since there are so many of us are trying to reach our ultimate goal of 225 wpm, I thought I would share her advice here on my blog.

She asked if anyone in the class was in the habit of mouthing the words of her dictation. One gal raised her hand. Then she asked if anyone was in the habit of repeating her dictation silently to themselves in their head. At that point, I raised my hand. She told us that we needed to break that habit right away. And here’s why: “If I’m dictating at 60 words per minute,” she said, “and you’re repeating everything you hear, you’re actually hearing 120 words per minute.” You need to train your brain to transcribe from the initial word you hear, not the word you repeat to yourself. It makes perfect sense. Now if only I could get my brain to comply . . .

Yikes!

I just received the grade from my first “official” speed test. I got an 83% . Crikey!

In my defense, I knew I wasn’t going to do well. I was having “one of those days”. I’m sure you know what I’m talking about. I couldn’t focus, my mind kept getting hung up on certain words, and my fingers felt like they were moving in slow motion.

On the bright side, 83% is a solid B, so I guess I won’t commit hari kari.

My first "unofficial" speed test

We had our first "unofficial" speed test. Our instructor wanted to get an assessment on how fast we were writing. As a warm up, she dictating three takes at 48 words per minute. Then she tested us at 52 words per minute. We were given time to type up our notes and hand them in. I just received an e-mail with my score. 98.35% correct! Here is some of the advice she gave me:

"You should have no trouble passing the 60 wpm take by the end of the quarter. Practice RTC (RealTime Coach) as much as you can, tackling speeds where you are being challenged but where you are not completely out of control. There are finger drill exercises and theory exercises and speed exercises...plenty to keep you busy over the break. If you work hard on speed building through the end of the quarter and over the break, you will hopefully spend very little time in 80s. Don't get too bogged down with briefs and phrases. Only concentrate on the ones that make sense to you and that you believe will come up a lot."

Well, back to speedbuilding. I've only practice about and hour and a half today and I need to get in another hour or so.