CRR Certified Realtime Reporter study guide
CRR Certified Realtime Reporter · Work through your exam, one topic at a time.
The Certified Realtime Reporter (CRR) is a professional certification offered by the National Court Reporters Association (NCRA), one of several credentials the association administers alongside the Registered Professional Reporter, Registered Merit Reporter, Registered Diplomate Reporter, and Certified Realtime Captioner designations. It is intended for working reporters who write on a stenographic machine and translate their notes in real time - delivering an immediate, readable feed of proceedings as they are spoken, rather than a transcript produced after the fact. Because this is a realtime designation, preparation centers on the two things realtime work demands: clean, consistent writing and a translation dictionary that produces correct output the first time, with no opportunity for a later edit. Candidates should expect to be evaluated on how accurately their raw translation reads, not on how polished a final transcript can be made from it. Topics on this exam: Realtime writing and translation accuracy and Realtime speed and production. The CRR Certified Realtime Reporter study guide has 2 sections and about 713 words.
01Realtime Writing and Translation Accuracy
Accuracy here means the text your software produces live , stroke by stroke, not the polished transcript you deliver later. A reporter who writes clean final copy but generates untranslates and homonym errors on the feed fails the realtime standard. Questions test whether you understand where the software gets its answers and how to control it. Know the hierarchy: the software's built-in dictionary, your personal main dictionary, and the job (case) dictionary.
352 words, about 2 min02Realtime Speed and Production
Machines are rated in strokes per minute; assignments are described in words per minute. On average, one English word requires roughly 1.4 strokes, so about 200 words per minute translates to something near 280 strokes per minute. Expect questions that try to make strokes and words interchangeable. They are not, and your practical ceiling is set by accuracy under load, not by how fast the keys move.
361 words, about 2 min