CSRprep - Sample Schedule
Schedule variation keeps you from burning out.
 

Here is a single-day sample of what a CSRprep.com schedule looks like. It's a "skeleton" schedule, meaning just the basics are shown in the sample. It will vary depending on whether you select the 3 or 5-week court reporting program. The schedule switches daily to keep you interested!

CSR Prep Schedule – DAY 1
Time – 2 Hours, 25 Minutes

Hello,

 

Welcome to the program and congratulations on getting this far in your court reporting career!  Do you realize how unique you are?  Do you realize that over 95% of people who start court reporting never reach the point you are at right now?  Very few (if any) other careers can make that claim.  That fact alone should make you very proud of your accomplishments thus far.

 

What makes it even more exciting is the fact that you can see the light at the end of the tunnel – that piece of paper by some governing body that tells the world you are more than prepared to do the job.  But the truth is, if you are writing anywhere near the state exam’s speed, you’re already capable of working in most court reporting arenas.  How often do 4 attorneys speak for 10 minutes at 200?  Or even 180?  Not often.  So chances are that you are more than qualified to do the job right now, even before the state puts that stamp on your forehead.  Feel good about that fact – that’s a victory!

 

So now our goal is to prove to the state that they’re wasting their time by testing you – you are more than prepared for any exam they throw your way.  And we’ll get you prepared over the course of the next 5 weeks.  Nothing too radical.  Nothing that’s going to ruin your outside life.  Nothing that’s going to suck the energy out of you.  Just some solid, dedicated, productive time.  I’m sure you’ve gotten this far by putting in plenty yourself.

 

STEP 1

Before your fingers even go on the keys, we need to train your body and mind to treat the exam just like any other practice dictation.  What stops the largest group from not passing tests?  Anxiety.  The skills are there, but the brain and body get in the way.  It’s understandable.  This is “IT.”  This is the test that ends all those years of schooling, payments and at-home chaos that you may be experiencing.

 

1.   Find a quiet room that will allow you to sit at your machine in BLACKNESS.  No light.  It can be a closet if it’s big enough.  But it has to be somewhere that you can hear yourself breath and not be distracted by outside sources.  BLACK.

 

2. Set up your machine and take a seat just as you normally would.  Here’s the scene - you’re in a classroom setting.  It’s a 200 exam – the last one you’ll ever get a chance to pass!  If you don’t pass this test, you will have wasted all this time you invested.

3.   Now take a mental inventory of your body.  Probably not very loose, right?  Or maybe you think it is.  Start down at your toes.  Are they curled?  Straighten them out.  Your calves and thighs.  Are the muscles contracted at all?  Let them go.  And the stomach – tight?  Let it out – who are you trying to impress?

Is your posture good – your back straight, shoulders back a bit?  Roll your neck a few times.  Is your jaw clenched or at ease?  Relax.  The fact is that when your body is tight, you don’t write any better.  So why waste that energy?  It’s only going to tire you out over time.  Do one more mental scan of your body from toes to hair and make sure everything is in the relaxed position.  That includes all the muscles in your face.


4. Can you hear yourself breathe?  If you can’t, it’s time to turn up the volume for the next minute.  Take in a slow, deep breath.  But visualize the air you’re breathing in.  It’s GREEN.  It’s positive energy, clean and pure.  It goes into your lungs and circulates throughout your body.  Then slowly let it out. And as you breathe out, picture in your mind that the breath coming out of your body is RED.  Visualize it.  This is negative energy.  Everybody has it.  But you need to get rid of it now.  10 breaths in and out – GREEN in – RED out – 10 times.

 

5. Now take a mental note of your body once again.  Relaxed and full of nothing but positive energy.

This routine may take a few times to kick in.  But it NEEDS to become a routine.  You NEED to feel relaxed and ready to go for the exam.  There are some things you can’t control – a lousy test – funky smells – obnoxious test takers sitting next to you – but you CAN control this.  Any anything you can use to your advantage is a plus.  You will succeed because you have done everything in your power to succeed. 

 

You can get out of the darkroom now and find a good place to start your practice routine.  It should be quiet and without many distractions.  A few distractions are fine, but nothing that’s going to take you away from your hard work ahead.

 

We’re going to start off fast because we don’t have much time – we’ll build up our physical and mental game.  The idea is to peak at just the right time and make the CSR exam sound simple. 

 

Things you need today –

1 – Your Special Trash Can
2 – A Red Pen
3 – A Thick, Black Marker

 

You’ve already done your relaxation exercise.  Still loose?  You’re in a quiet place without many distractions?  Good.  Eaten something?  Good.  Now let’s get your fingers moving a little.  You’re just like an athlete – you’re going to be performing your skill – part physical, part mental.  And you need to warm up for that – a sprinter doesn’t just step up to the starting gate and take off.  He stretches…and stretches…and stretches.

 

So let’s do our stretches.

1 – FINGER DRILL EXERCISE 1A – 5 Minutes
A - Get those fingers moving.  Speed is not the goal, accuracy is.  We need to get your fingers trained to commit specific finger combinations.  So go over this drill 10 times – at a speed of about 2 or 3 strokes per second.  After 10 times, repeat any of the outlines that may have caused you to stumble.  Repeat the drill for 5 minutes – 2 or 3 strokes per second.

 

2 – 180 2-VOICE DICATION 1A – 5 Minutes
A - We always start off and finish our session with something a little more comfortable.  Write to this dictation and make sure you get all your designations.  Later on, when we get to 200 4-voice and 240 2-voice – that’s number one on the list – designations.  That’s 5 points off on your exam if you miss one.  So would you rather miss 4 words or 1 designation?  Close your eyes.  Take 3 GREEN breaths in and 3 RED breaths out.  Start the dictation.  
B – Toss the notes in the trash can.

 

3 – 190 4-VOICE ANIMATION 1A – 10 Minutes
A – Space up for readback.  Make sure you have a RED PEN handy.  Do a mental check of your body.  Relaxed?  Close your eyes.  Take 3 GREEN breaths in and 3 RED breaths out.  You can hear every word clearly.  Start the dictation. 
B – Go back to the beginning of your notes and play the dictation – checking your notes.  You don’t have to stop and start the dictation when you check your notes to it.  Just go though it in 5 minutes and put a red mark anywhere you may have dropped, misstroked or made any other error.  The idea isn’t to analyze your notes…yet.  We’re just establishing patterns at this point.  After you’ve gone over the notes, toss them in the trash can.

 

4 – 200 4-VOICE ANIMATION 1A – 10 Minutes
A - Do a mental check of your body.  Relaxed?  Close your eyes.  Take 3 GREEN breaths in and 3 RED breaths out.  You can hear every word clearly.  The words aren’t going into your ears, through your brain, down your body and into your fingers.  You’ve already trained your fingers to move to the correct keys upon hearing a word.  The words go straight to them – no detours.  Start the dictation.
B – Did you tighten up at all during the dictation?  Be aware of it.  When you’re aware of it, you can stop it.  Toss your notes in the trash can.

 

5 – 190 4-VOICE ANIMATION 1B – 80 Minutes
A – This is a test.  Make sure you’ve set aside enough time to write for 5 minutes, and then type for 75.  You’ve just been writing at 200.  You should be properly warmed up.  If not, that’s okay.  There are going to be times when it’s just not possible.  But if you have 30 seconds before a test, that’s enough time to prepare mentally.  And it’s the mental aspect of the testing procedure that we need to conquer.  My little program is new to you, so your mind might be playing all kinds of games for a bit.  That’s okay.  We’ll get into a routine and it won’t be an issue for long.
B - Space up.  Do a mental check of your body.  Relaxed?  Close your eyes.  Take 3 GREEN breaths in and 3 RED breaths out.  Start the dictation.
C - When the last word was spoken, how was your body?  Relaxed or tight?  If you were tight, make a mental note of that.  You need to occasionally check your body during dictation pauses.
D – Now take your notes and head over to the computer.  Start transcribing.  You have 75 minutes.  Not 76 and definitely not 74.  75.  Do not use less time than you have.  Use every last second.  If you have time left over when you’re done typing, and you’ve already proofed, proof again.  But – and this is VERY IMPORTANT! – don’t second guess yourself.  You have to trust your notes.  During your extra time (if you have any), you’re looking for spelling and punctuation errors.  Do not second guess yourself!  Your first instinct is usually correct.  And you need to accept the fact that people occasionally misspeak.  Start transcribing.
E – Done?  Send your transcribed test to grading@csrprep.com  Please include your name in the email and test number – 190 AN 1B.

 

6 - BREAK TIME – 10 Minutes – Do you need a snack – a potty break – smoke break? 

Welcome back!  How many times have you said – or heard others say –“I’m writing like s*it today.”  Well, starting today, you’re cutting sentences like that out of your vocabulary.  Because whether you’re writing well or not – you NEED to write well when it counts.  Telling yourself you’re writing poorly is an excuse to not perform.  You may as well quit for the day.  You’ve set yourself up for failure, and I would bet my house you will succeed in doing exactly that – failing. 

When that thought creeps into your brain, replace it with “I need to relax.  I need to focus.  I can write better than this.  I have all the tools.”  Because that’s a fact!  You’ve come this far, so you do have the tools.  What’s stopping you from using those tools?  Lack of focus.  And people always mistake focusing with something that takes a lot of effort – eyes squinted, hunched forward – that’s not what you need.  You need to relax and let the words come to you.

 

7 - 190 NAMES & NUMBERS DICTATION 1A – 5 Minutes
A – We’re going to start winding down.  As you get through the first week, you’ll see patterns and it will become easier to follow (I think it’s pretty easy now).  Do a mental check of your body.  Relaxed?  Close your eyes.  Take 3 GREEN breaths in and 3 RED breaths out.  Start the dictation.
B – Aren’t Names and Numbers fun!!!!  Not so much.  But they’re great for finger-memory repetition.  Toss your notes in the trash can.

 

8 – 180 LITERARY DICTATION 1A – 5 Minutes
A - Do a mental check of your body.  Relaxed?  Close your eyes.  Take 3 GREEN breaths in and 3 RED breaths out.  You can hear every word clearly.  The words aren’t going into your ears, through your brain, down your body and into your fingers.  You’ve already trained your fingers to move to the correct keys upon hearing a word.  The words go straight to them – no detours.  Start the dictation.
B – Did you tighten up at all during the dictation?  Be aware of it.  When you’re aware of it, you can stop it.  Toss your notes in the trash can.
C – If you’re dropping, are you dropping in chunks, or scattered?  Remember, the goal isn’t to get something for every word.  The goal is to get as many words correctly written as possible.  Hang on as long as you can, then drop and pick up with the next word you hear.  As your writing improves, the drops will become smaller and eventually disappear completely.  How cool will that be?!  Toss your notes in the trash can.

 

POST PRACTICE

Today was a pretty basic start to what we hope to accomplish – kind of like laying down a primer before painting something.  It’s the foundation that makes the real work…work!

 

If you stuck to today’s schedule, good for you.  That’s the way to start things off, with a positive, dedicated approach.  If you didn’t stick to the schedule, tomorrow’s another chance to get on track.

You should feel good about yourself.  Putting aside time and committing to do something constructive can be tough.  I’ve done professional screenwriting in the past.  I love to write!  That satisfaction I get when I type “The End” on something I’ve written is worth everything.  But long before that, when I’m still trying to figure out a scene, or a character name, or a story twist, I’ll do anything to stall.  I’ve even been known to clean dishes (to my wife’s amazement!).  The process can be boring, but the payoff is the key. 

 

In your case, the payoff is a career in a great field.  I always use my sister as an example.  She worked as a reporter for 6 years – loved every minute of it.  Then she injured her hand playing volleyball.  Back when she was a reporter, they had insurance programs that covered you for the rest of you life in case of injury.  So essentially, she will continue to be paid the same from the insurance company, even though she can no longer work.  Even if she makes a million dollars a year in some other job, she still receives the insurance money.  Sweet deal, right?

 

No.  Ask her about it.  She’d give back every penny if it meant she could report again.  That’s how much she loved the job.  And if you know reporters, you know that many of them feel the same way.  It’s a great career, especially if you’re willing to work hard for it.   

Where you are today – this is as hard as it will ever get.  The end of school is like reaching 50 yards from the top of Mount Everest.  It seems like you’ve traveled forever, an almost impossible journey for some, but you can see the top.  And you know once you get there, another world opens up for you to see.

 

In 6 weeks you’re going to be sitting on the top of that mountain!