WA CSR

I decided to sit for the Washington State Court Reporter Exam. I practiced takes at 200 wpm, one a day for two weeks. I had a really hard time finding any material at 200 wpm. I had some at 225, so I slowed it down to what should've been about 200. I did okay on the first few takes, but my accuracy got worse the more I did. When I ran out of those I started slowing down some at higher speeds, and I did even worse on those.

I wasn't really sure what my chances of passing were by the time the test rolled around. The information they sent said to go to the Technology Center, which was different from the building I go to for the NCRA exam. The TC was locked, but luckily the usual building wasn't very far, and that's where the exam was being held.

The staff was very friendly, and got me set up in a nice corner in the room. I had the option of writing the test on my laptop and then printing it on their printer, which was awesome. You have to bring your own printer for the NCRA exam, which I think is just silly. Luckily for the CBC/CCP you don't need a printer, anyway.

There was practice material playing, which was a little confusing because about 10 minutes before the test was supposed to start, the material said something along the lines of, "the practice is now over and we will begin the test." I didn't really want to practice much before the test. I figured with my arm problem it would just wear me out unnecessarily. I don't practice at all before I CART, and I do fine out of the gate, so I figured I don't need to practice for 20 minutes before an exam, either.

The proctor wasn't in the room at that time, though, so I thought surely that wasn't the test, and I took a chance and didn't write it. Luckily it wasn't the test. The gave me an envelope when I came in, to put my test in when I was done, and I looked inside it and there were instructions and grading rules. I was particularly interested in those since I hadn't been able to find them online before the test. I figured they were about the same as NCRA's anyway, though.

I was surprised to find out that you can turn in both transcripts if you want to, and they'll grade them both. The proctor read some instructions, and asked if there were any questions, and people actually asked questions, so I felt comfortable asking mine to verify about sending in both transcripts. The volume wasn't too loud, which was nice. It's always too loud at the NCRA exam, and it throws me off a little.

Part of the instructions for transcribing told you where each exam would stop/start being graded, since only 5 minutes out of a 7-minute take are graded. I didn't want to look at that before the exam, though, because I figured I would get nervous thinking "this is when the grading starts" or be anxiously waiting for when the grading would end.

When the proctor started the exam for real, there were two minutes of practic,e and then the exam. I did pretty well on it; not perfect, but I kept it together most of the time. I was expecting another two minutes of practice before the second take, so I was resituating and getting comfortable, and all of a sudden the second take started! I wasn't ready at all and I never regained my composure. It was a mess.

After the takes were over, we had 90 minutes to transcribe. It took me about an hour to transcribe the first take, and I felt like I had a maximum of about 11 errors. You're allowed something like 50, so I was feeling pretty good about it. One of the very first sentences said something about a man working somewhere for "# years," so that wasn't helpful at all. I had no idea what number I was trying to write. But it didn't really matter with that amount of errors.


Before the test, I thought I might turn in both transcripts. But since it took an hour to do the first one and I had mucked up the second one so badly, I didn't even look at it. I turned in my one transcript and left, and then I had the anxiety of worrying about "what if I didn't send in the right section" or "what if I didn't copy everything out of Eclipse properly," etc. Always something you can wish you had double checked.

The instructions said the results would be in after two weeks, but I thought that was a little too optimistic and tried not to think about them coming in at all. They really did come in about two and a half weeks later, though, so that's not bad at all. I was correct in thinking I had passed, so I'm now officially a WA CSR.

It's not really very exciting. It was definitely worth it to get some kind of certification, but it's not related to CART or captioning at all. It's a relief to know I can pass something at least.

I've got some new 180 takes I've been practicing this week for the NCRA exam next weekend, and I've been having mixed results. After seeing how many mistakes I made on the court reporter exam (that I was able to fix in the transcript), I felt like there was pretty much no chance of being able to pass the CCP this time. The CR exam was at 200 wpm, though, and the CCP is only 180, so maybe that will help. I think my nerves might get the better of me as usual, so I'm trying not to hold out much hope. I just have to keep trying, and sooner or later there will be an exam that's easy for me to write, and I'll pass it.

It's just so much pressure knowing I've only got one shot, and it has to be right the first time. I think knowing I got to fix it later and all I was trying to do was really get down notes for myself to be able to go off of helped a lot when I took the CR exam. I don't write well under pressure at all. Luckily when I CART I'm able to not think about the fact that someone's reading it and just do the best I can. I regularly get up to 260 wpm and I'm my accuracy is above 99%, so that works fine.