I did much better this time. I still didn't pass, but I think I improved my score by leaps and bounds. I'm estimating about a 94%, which is a lot better than the 85% I got last time.
Last time, even though I arrived almost an hour early, I was the last one in the room. This time, I got there first, even before the chief examiner. It was nice to be able to set up without anyone else there. I still had to leave my seat about halfway through my warmup to check in. I managed to stay fairly calm while I was warming up, but it was really distracting that the examiner started playing some practice takes to "test the audio system."
She started playing the audio, and then left the room. It seemed to go on forever. I didn't want to listen to it! When she got back, she asked if we wanted to practice to that or our own material. I said I'd prefer our own material, so she didn't play anything else...until a little while later, when she asked again, and unfortunately someone said they wanted to hear it.
I was just about to start my own speedbuilding practice for the first time that session. I think it was about 8:10. I figured the best strategy for me would be to start with the non-audio stuff I do at home before I start speedbuilding practice, and then do a nice easy speedbuilding take that I already had the hang of to calm me down and get me in the groove of "getting" it.
So when the examiner started playing a different audio, I was less than thrilled. I turned up the volume loud enough that I could hear my own audio over what was coming out of the overhead speakers, and then took my earbuds out to make sure I wouldn't be bothering anyone else. It was distracting writing that way, to say the least.
Finally both sets of audio ended, and the examiner said they'd be doing the CRR first, again. I didn't listen to the recorded instructions because I thought they'd be played again before the CBC/CCP. Then I had to sit for 7 minutes and listen to the CRR practice and exam. It seemed way too fast. I didn't want to write it, get all tripped up, and have that be my mindset going into the CBC.
I also didn't want to sit there and do nothing for 7 minutes when I was all warmed up and ready to go. I wound up doing a little of both; not writing for most of the time, but jumping in once or twice to slowly see if I could get anything. Being Q&A, it wasn't geared toward what I'd been practicing at all, so it was hard not to stumble over the material.
Eventually it ended, and the examiner asked if it was okay if she didn't re-play the instructions. Ugh. Hope I didn't miss anything important. I did okay for a while once the CBC started, but I think I lost it a minute or two in. I just wasn't able to relax and write my best. I didn't "drop" any words this time, so much as I just couldn't exactly remember what the speaker said anymore by the time I was ready to write it, so I just kind of made something up that made sense. It's so much easier to write things when they don't have to be verbatim!
Breaking the Habit
I'm going to try to stop avoiding
updating this blog, and to post things when they come to me, rather than
saving them up for so long that I have to divide them into 5 different
posts.
I've been trying to get into the habit of dashing instead of "backspacing" with the asterisk. It's definitely a lot cleaner. I "talk" to myself a lot when I do my steno practice. I write what I'm "saying." If I made a mistake, I would often write "or [correction], rather." Instead of doing that, I've been training myself to dash and re-write the phrase.
That didn't really come in handy when I did my practice for the CBC exam. It doesn't do any good to dash on the exam. In fact, it's actually detrimental. If you do that, you're just giving yourself more of a chance to mess up on the "correction," and you're going to lose points for the incorrect words whether they're followed by a dash or not. It really just gets you farther behind for no reason.
So on the exam, if you have time to delete something, great - if not, you're better off just moving on than dashing and trying to clear it up for a potential reader.
It's kind of bothersome how I was originally training to do verbatim, not looking at the screen, and in order to do CART/captioning, I have to switch out of that mindset - but then to test, I have to switch back into it. Break a habit, intentionally re-form it, break it again..
I've been trying to get into the habit of dashing instead of "backspacing" with the asterisk. It's definitely a lot cleaner. I "talk" to myself a lot when I do my steno practice. I write what I'm "saying." If I made a mistake, I would often write "or [correction], rather." Instead of doing that, I've been training myself to dash and re-write the phrase.
That didn't really come in handy when I did my practice for the CBC exam. It doesn't do any good to dash on the exam. In fact, it's actually detrimental. If you do that, you're just giving yourself more of a chance to mess up on the "correction," and you're going to lose points for the incorrect words whether they're followed by a dash or not. It really just gets you farther behind for no reason.
So on the exam, if you have time to delete something, great - if not, you're better off just moving on than dashing and trying to clear it up for a potential reader.
It's kind of bothersome how I was originally training to do verbatim, not looking at the screen, and in order to do CART/captioning, I have to switch out of that mindset - but then to test, I have to switch back into it. Break a habit, intentionally re-form it, break it again..
New Focus
It seems like I haven't done anything drastic since September. I finished out the Caption Masters Series. I found it to be helpful in two major ways. First, it got me in the habit of striving for a stricter accuracy rate. I had been happy with 95% previously (why?), and the class made me realize 98.5% is a much more beneficial goal. And, as I mentioned before, the idea of "smart writing" was totally new to me. It's definitely the way you have to go with CART or captioning, so I'm glad I'm transitioning over to it now.
I responded to an ad advertising work for students at 185 wpm or better. I'm definitely in that category. It turned out to be a CART opportunity. I got to "shadow" a couple classes and turn in an unedited transcript. The speaker was very slow, and I knocked it out of the park. I barely had any drops, and certainly none that were vital to the content. I got better than 99% accuracy on what I wrote. I never heard back from the company after I sent in my transcripts, which I was pretty disappointed about, but there are plenty of companies out there to apply with when I feel like I've got a product worth selling.
However, that experience was also greatly beneficial in that it gave me an opportunity to feel like I was writing for a viewer, not just for practice. I realized that when I write for a viewer, I've got to look at what I'm writing. I can't just have mistakes going out willy-nilly, even if my accuracy rate is 98% or better. And I've got to practice fingerspelling, not just in general, but specifically while I'm writing. I had never tried to do it before. If I heard a proper name, I'd just stroke it out however I thought best, then during review I'd count it as an error and enter it in my dictionary.
That's not going to fly on air, or with a student. I need to be able to fingerspell things when I hear them, and not just that, but keep paying attention to what's being said as I'm fingerspelling so I can write that, too. One of my main focuses in practice now is to watch the screen, catch mistakes as I make them, dash, and fingerspell. I have a huge hangup with seeing a word that didn't translate (either because I stroked it incorrectly, or because it's just not in my dictionary the way I just decided it should be written), and stopping and completely ignoring what's said after it so I can write it 2-3 more times and see if I can get it to come up right.
So very wrong! The client doesn't want to see 3-4 weird, wrong versions of a word someone said. At best, I need to dash it, fingerspell it, and move on - at worst, I need to just move on. It's tough stuff, though. Just watching the screen alone is a challenge. It slows me down mentally. It's taxing to think about how to write things when I'm also reading what I just wrote and listening to what I need to write next.
The third thing I'm focusing on right now is drops. I have a couple of problem areas. Often when a person's name and title are given, I completely lose it and write only their first name. That's not acceptable. The client needs to know who that person is.
I also have hangups every now and then where I'll get lost, frustrated, and just completely stop writing for about a sentence. I feel like I just need to focus on composure. Aside from that, though, my accuracy's usually pretty good. I've been practicing to a rotation of 30 minutes each of ABC World News, CBS Evening News, PBS NewsHour, and a local news show. I'm only dropping one or two important titles/facts per show, and my accuracy is almost always above 98%. I feel like I am getting close to having a marketable product.
Whew, that took forever! About three hours, if you can believe it. I really shouldn't go such a long time without updating!
I responded to an ad advertising work for students at 185 wpm or better. I'm definitely in that category. It turned out to be a CART opportunity. I got to "shadow" a couple classes and turn in an unedited transcript. The speaker was very slow, and I knocked it out of the park. I barely had any drops, and certainly none that were vital to the content. I got better than 99% accuracy on what I wrote. I never heard back from the company after I sent in my transcripts, which I was pretty disappointed about, but there are plenty of companies out there to apply with when I feel like I've got a product worth selling.
However, that experience was also greatly beneficial in that it gave me an opportunity to feel like I was writing for a viewer, not just for practice. I realized that when I write for a viewer, I've got to look at what I'm writing. I can't just have mistakes going out willy-nilly, even if my accuracy rate is 98% or better. And I've got to practice fingerspelling, not just in general, but specifically while I'm writing. I had never tried to do it before. If I heard a proper name, I'd just stroke it out however I thought best, then during review I'd count it as an error and enter it in my dictionary.
That's not going to fly on air, or with a student. I need to be able to fingerspell things when I hear them, and not just that, but keep paying attention to what's being said as I'm fingerspelling so I can write that, too. One of my main focuses in practice now is to watch the screen, catch mistakes as I make them, dash, and fingerspell. I have a huge hangup with seeing a word that didn't translate (either because I stroked it incorrectly, or because it's just not in my dictionary the way I just decided it should be written), and stopping and completely ignoring what's said after it so I can write it 2-3 more times and see if I can get it to come up right.
So very wrong! The client doesn't want to see 3-4 weird, wrong versions of a word someone said. At best, I need to dash it, fingerspell it, and move on - at worst, I need to just move on. It's tough stuff, though. Just watching the screen alone is a challenge. It slows me down mentally. It's taxing to think about how to write things when I'm also reading what I just wrote and listening to what I need to write next.
The third thing I'm focusing on right now is drops. I have a couple of problem areas. Often when a person's name and title are given, I completely lose it and write only their first name. That's not acceptable. The client needs to know who that person is.
I also have hangups every now and then where I'll get lost, frustrated, and just completely stop writing for about a sentence. I feel like I just need to focus on composure. Aside from that, though, my accuracy's usually pretty good. I've been practicing to a rotation of 30 minutes each of ABC World News, CBS Evening News, PBS NewsHour, and a local news show. I'm only dropping one or two important titles/facts per show, and my accuracy is almost always above 98%. I feel like I am getting close to having a marketable product.
Whew, that took forever! About three hours, if you can believe it. I really shouldn't go such a long time without updating!
CBC Strike One
I had an interesting
time sitting for the CBC skills exam in November. The test site is about
half an hour away, and I got there about an hour before the exam was
scheduled to start. The RTC site was going up and down for some people,
and we weren't sure how we were going to test. I got some practice in,
but I was annoyed that I could hear other people's practice
recordings through their headphones. About 10 minutes before we were
scheduled to test, the chief examiner asked everyone to leave the room
so she could make sure the CD was working.
I think a couple of people stayed, because after a few minutes, one of them let us know we could come back in. I didn't like having to get up right before the test like that. I need some time to get settled into a spot before I'm ready to write. The CRR was played first. I can't remember if they had a pause between the minute of practice and the actual exam or not. The chief examiner gave the CBC testers a choice of having one or not. No one had a preference, and we got the opposite of what the CRR testers had. I remember thinking I would've preferred what they got.
Once the actual test started, my nerves got the best of me, and I felt like I was writing complete slop. I couldn't feel where the keys were, and I couldn't focus on the recording. I think I even dropped a setence or two because I was so zoned out. It was really disappointing, especially since the recording seemed really easy. It felt like something I should've been able to write, which made failing that much harder to take.
I got an 85% on it, which I guess isn't abysmal. I really lucked out, though; since there were problems with giving the test via RTC, it's being offered again for my site (and others) at half price on January 26th. I'll be taking it again, of course, and since I passed both the CBC and CCP written exams in October, I won't ever have to do those again.
My practice strategy, such as it was, was to carry on with my normal 2-hour practice routine every day, and to include the RTC practice take once a day for the week preceeding the exam. The take was a struggle at first, but by the end of the week I had it down pat. This time, for the two weeks preceeding the exam, I'm going to switch out the news portion of my practice for an hour of speedbuilding takes at 180 wpm. Getting back in the groove of metered verbatim is a huge hurdle, but hopefully two weeks will be enough to clear it.
I think a couple of people stayed, because after a few minutes, one of them let us know we could come back in. I didn't like having to get up right before the test like that. I need some time to get settled into a spot before I'm ready to write. The CRR was played first. I can't remember if they had a pause between the minute of practice and the actual exam or not. The chief examiner gave the CBC testers a choice of having one or not. No one had a preference, and we got the opposite of what the CRR testers had. I remember thinking I would've preferred what they got.
Once the actual test started, my nerves got the best of me, and I felt like I was writing complete slop. I couldn't feel where the keys were, and I couldn't focus on the recording. I think I even dropped a setence or two because I was so zoned out. It was really disappointing, especially since the recording seemed really easy. It felt like something I should've been able to write, which made failing that much harder to take.
I got an 85% on it, which I guess isn't abysmal. I really lucked out, though; since there were problems with giving the test via RTC, it's being offered again for my site (and others) at half price on January 26th. I'll be taking it again, of course, and since I passed both the CBC and CCP written exams in October, I won't ever have to do those again.
My practice strategy, such as it was, was to carry on with my normal 2-hour practice routine every day, and to include the RTC practice take once a day for the week preceeding the exam. The take was a struggle at first, but by the end of the week I had it down pat. This time, for the two weeks preceeding the exam, I'm going to switch out the news portion of my practice for an hour of speedbuilding takes at 180 wpm. Getting back in the groove of metered verbatim is a huge hurdle, but hopefully two weeks will be enough to clear it.
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