Week 24: Not much to report

If you're wondering what The Impossible Goal is, you can read about it here. 

Still on a bit of a plateau. 315 -- kind of. 330 -- well, a mere bit but not enough.

Maybe next week.

Week 23: Achivement Unlocked

If you're wondering what The Impossible Goal is, you can read about it here. 

I have bumped up the speed practice to 450 wpm, even though I'm nowhere close to getting 425.  And, yes, got used to moving my fingers quicker.  Tested myself on Sunday on 330 wpm, and only had one substantial drop, which is an improvement.  My notes were pretty sloppy, but they ARE starting to match the dictation a little better.

Hmm.  Upgrades.

In other news, I passed the RDR on Saturday. NBD.

*squeeeeee!*

It's very encouraging to see people posting on Facebook and elsewhere when they've passed a new test and/or received new letters behind their name.  With each and every certification I attain, I gain that much more confidence that I have a bit more of a clue what I'm doing.  Once I passed the RMR, I wrote faster than ever.  I had never written so cleanly as when I thought I passed the CRR in 2010. (I missed it by one, but eventually did pass it later.)  And once I passed the realtime literary contest, again my writing improved.

Of course I'm only speaking from my own experience, but you see how I wrote better -- AFTER passing?  I proved something to MYSELF.  When I KNOW by objective measurement--not a subjective "I feel faster" or a wpm counter that may or may not be accurate--that I write faster and more accurate than I used to, my rough transcripts are cleaner, which makes for quicker scoping and proofreading, and my CART output is cleaner and more verbatim.

Some people may think they don't need the letters for their confidence, but I've seen great benefit.  And as I've said before and will say again, if I can do it, others can as well.  It took me seven attempts before I passed the RPR (the final pass being the FIRST one where we could take speed tests in individual legs rather than pass all at once), three times for the RMR, and NINE times for the CRR.  I'm no steno prodigy.  Got 'em done by looking at my failures, making corrections, and then practicing my tail off.  If I did it, you can too.

Week 22: Plateau

If you're wondering what The Impossible Goal is, you can read about it here. 

I've been testing myself at 330 wpm on Sundays, and while there's stretches where I'm getting it, there's longer stretches where I'm not.  Ugh.

I've been at 425 wpm for speed practice for a while now, and it feels like I'm not making any progress either.

Time to up the speed!

Week 21: One of THOSE Weeks

If you're wondering what The Impossible Goal is, you can read about it here.   

Darn near everything this week took two hours or so longer than expected, so not much progress made this week. Pity too, because I felt like I was on the verge of another speed increase. But we keep a-going, regardless of cars breaking down, cars being bought, traffic going to poop. I did miss several practice sessions this week, but it seems life has settled down a bit.

Week 20: Break

Blog break, because I had parents and a niece this weekend.  Enjoy every moment with your loved ones, and do not apologize for taking the time to do so.