AL Court Reporter study plan

Write 10 minutes of cold dictation at 140 WPM and mark every hesitation point

Drill 40 briefs and phrases for the 100 most frequent legal terms until each is produced without pause

Transcribe one 5-minute practice take using only your shorthand notes and no audio replay

Proofread that transcript against the audio and log every error by type (theory, spelling, punctuation, word boundary)

Increase sustained dictation to 10 minutes at 160 WPM with 95% capture

Add 40 new briefs and phrases covering procedure and courtroom phrasing

Transcribe two 5-minute takes and apply a three-pass proofreading routine (audio compare, silent read, format check)

Cut your week-1 error rate by at least one-third on a comparable passage

Outline the reporter's duties from oath through certification of the record, in your own words

List the standard components of a transcript title page, certificate, and index

Define 50 core judicial terms and use each in an original sentence

Identify the ethical rules on conflicts of interest, confidentiality, and ex parte contact and state each in one sentence

Draft a complete practice transcript with title page, body, and reporter certificate

Annotate a sample proceeding to mark every off-record exchange and decide how to handle it

Define 40 additional terms covering pleadings, motions, and appellate practice

Write out how you would respond to three ethical scenarios (a request to alter the record, an undisclosed conflict, an improper aside)

Complete 100 punctuation items on commas, semicolons, colons, and quotation placement and correct every miss

Proofread 10 passages seeded with spelling and homophone errors and catch at least 95%

Build a 75-term medical glossary spanning anatomy, pharmacology, and procedures with pronunciations

Transcribe a 5-minute medical or technical dictation and verify every specialty term against a dictionary

Transcribe three 10-minute takes at target speed and apply the full proofreading routine to each

Reduce residual errors to under 1 per 100 words on a timed proofreading exercise

Apply grammar rules for subject-verb agreement, pronoun case, and modifier placement to 50 tricky sentences

Format speaker designations, parentheticals, and colloquy consistently across all three transcripts

Sustain 15-minute dictation at 180 WPM with 96% capture

Run two full mock sessions end to end, from swearing in to certifying the record

Handle interruptions, read-backs, and requests to go off the record without losing the thread

Review your ethical scenario answers against week 4 and revise any weak spots

Take one full-length timed practice exam across all six domains and score each section

Re-drill every missed item until you can explain why the correct answer is correct

Complete a final 15-minute dictation and transcript with error rate at or below your week-6 benchmark

Assemble a one-page personal error-pattern summary with your top five recurring mistakes and fixes