What is the best way to pass the RPR literary?

Does anyone have ANY suggestions as to literary material to pass the RPR? I have taken the RPR lit. several times and have had a hard time passing it.  It's the last leg that I need to become certified.  Any help would be appreciated. 

I hope you get an answer because I need to find some way to pass literaries too.  Q&A's and jury charges are reachable, but why is it I always struggle with the lits?  I know there are fewer brief phrases and more multi-stroked words than with the standard Q/A & JC's.  Maybe that's why it has always been a challenge, but how does one prepare for that darn lit?  Hope we both get some help here. 

I think the lack of briefs definitely makes this leg difficult.  I used a brief-on-the-fly, get-something-down approach.  Maybe keep the little words clean and get the bigger or unusual outlines just decent enough to recognize.  Don't let the longer phrases and vocab bog you down because that will hold you up just in time for a flurry of small words and sentences to fly by.  You will notice that there is usually a theme, too, so get those repeated words down to one stroke in the midst of the take if you can.    

I also tried desperately not to listen to the topic, which was hard for me for some stupid reason.  I messed up the first two times because the topic was always so corny or annoying that I would start to get ticked off and unfocused in the middle of the test.  Maybe it's just me, but I don't care if you remember your own college graduation, you like life's little green apples, or more people are becoming nurses today than in 1985 - blah, blah, blah - and I don't want to hear about it or write it down...but I have to write it down to get this license.  Aaack!

One last weird practice note - I bought some CD's of famous British literature to see if it would help me "plow through the weird."  Shakespearean Sonnets read by Richard Burton was actually kind of helpful for that.

I think constantly practicing on new material helped a lot with the writing out and not hesitating when hearing the new material on test day.  I downloaded a lot of the old RPR tests from the NCRA website.

If you feel like your notes are slop, don't worry about it.  Just keep writing, just keep writing.  Get something down.  You'd be amazed at what you can piece together.  I thought my Q&A was trash and wasn't even going to transcribe it, but I passed.

Like dunbarcsr mentioned, if you drop a big word that is making you hesitate, it's better than dropping a bunch of little words.  I think my instructor told me you could drop a whole paragraph and still pass, so that helped my psychologically.  Good luck!

I *think* Stephen Shastay (of Court Reporting Help.com fame) suggested this one:

Grab your local newspaper.  Sit at your writer.  Write the front page, every day.

Doing that will expose you to non-familiar words.  Since you're not writing for speed, you will have time to look up words that are giving you trouble, or (if necessary) work on your finger-spelling skills, of your theory's "increments of spelling" strokes.

Should your local newspaper not be a challenge, head over to your local library or a large newsstand  and get a copy of the New York Times.  If you had to travel quite a ways to get it, feel free to write the whole thing:  One page at a time, one day at a time.

Hope that gives you some ideas!

--gdw
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"For a Good (steno) Time ...."
http://www.cheapandsleazy.net

Steven Shastay, or Mr. Shastay!  I have to say it's so weird to see him mentioned so much throughout all of these forums.  I attended the school he teaches at.  I had him for many, mant courses.  Great man! 

I need lit answers as well.  I practice high speeds.  It makes that 180 sounds slow. 

Many moons ago, before I even tried to get my RPR, I was told at school to TRY to write the news, or write things like City Council meetings.  You probably could Google and find Obama's speeches.  They will be fast, but the more of those you practice with it will make the 180 lit sound slow.

I also prayed before I got there that God would keep me calm, that I knew I could pass it, but I needed help in that department.  It worked.

To everyone who reads this, if God is not who you pray to, then pray to whoever you pray to.  It will work I'm sure.

I wish everyone luck, Carol DeBee Martin