Court Reporting Student Stuck at 225. Any tips???

I am a court reporting student who has passed all 3 jury charges and I just cannot get my lits or Q & As.  I am missing my lits by 2-3% and recently I missed a Q & A by 11.  After reviewing my notes, it looks like I'm dropping only small words.  I have no clue what to do to get over this hump.  Does anyone have any ideas?  

Well, if you're going to get stuck, at least you made it all the way up to the top!  This is the time to really dig deep and knock it out of the park. You are so close.  Think about all the reasons you want to pass those last few tests and be a court reporter.

Believe me, writing all day is a lot more fun when you're getting paid to do it. It's a wonderful career, and you deserve to be successful.  Give it everything you've got.   Practice at speeds that blow you away so your fingers will feel like they're on vacation when you're writing 225. You'll get there!

Wow!  Yeah, just do it.  Congratulations.

Hey,

Get some tapes at 260 wpm, and only write those.  They'll blow you away at first, and then, since you hear them over and over -- no need to spend a lot of $ -- you'll soon be able to write those particular tapes at 260. 

Then when you hear Q & A at 225, it will sound slow.  No joke!

As far as the lit tests, practice writing the news.  It is really fast, but you'll be amazed at your progress.  That is even free.  I wish you the best of luck, and I'm confident you'll be successful.

Carol DeBee Martin

You already did the first half of the investigation - analyzing your notes to see if there is a pattern.  Excellent.  Look a little deeper by writing down the little words.  See if you are interchanging "this" for "that" or even adding words that aren't there.  

Now you have a game plan for dictation.  Pick one of these words or issues that is holding you up and hyperfocus on it for about five minutes of dictation.  Make everything that is read to you or played for you pay dividends by tailoring it to something you specifically need.  It's so easy to try and cover everything or, on the flip side, zone out during daily dictation.  Have your problem areas in mind and really hammer on those in short takes.

Also - Q&A is helped immensely by briefing phrases and catching common first words with either the "Q" stroke or the "A" stroke.  Get that stuff down now if you haven't already.  These tricks will be golden in the field as well.

Literary is about recognizing that, although it sounds comparatively slow, the material dense.  Don't get lulled into a rhythm.  Stay on top of it and brief on the fly.  Inevitably there will be a word that doesn't have a brief, and there's no need to write it in four or five strokes.  It's test time!  Get something recognizable down and move on.  Reading and building vocabulary certainly helps in this department as well.

Keep at it!  You're almost there!