GA Court Reporter study plan

GA Court Reporter · Give each week a clear focus.

8 weeks · About 7 hours per week

Week 1

Machine Shorthand Dictation and Transcription Accuracy

Take a cold 5-minute literary dictation at 140 wpm and score your raw accuracy to establish a baseline percentage.
Drill 40 high-frequency briefs and phrases (court, objection, your Honor, ladies and gentlemen) until each is produced from recall without hesitation.
Transcribe one 3-minute Q&A take and count every mistroke, dropped word, and misstroke to build a personal error log.
Set up a daily 45-minute dictation block and a weekly accuracy spreadsheet you will update every week through week 8.

A baseline accuracy report with raw percentages for literary, jury charge, and Q&A dictation plus a categorized error log of at least 30 entries.

Week 2

Push literary dictation speed to 150 wpm while holding at least 96 percent raw accuracy on two consecutive takes.
Practice speaker-switching and colloquial overlap in Q&A dictation by transcribing three 5-minute two-speaker exchanges.
Master 25 additional legal phrases and proper-noun entries, including common Georgia county and court names, and verify each stroke in your dictionary.
Proofread each practice transcript against audio within 24 hours and log every correction with its cause.

Three fully proofread 5-minute Q&A transcripts at 150 wpm with accuracy scores and a correction-cause tally.

Week 3

Dictate and transcribe a 10-minute jury charge at 140 wpm, handling read-back pacing and paragraph structure.
Increase literary speed to 160 wpm for short 2-minute bursts and note where hesitation clusters appear.
Build a personal brief bank of 60 entries and test recall cold at the end of the week.
Transcribe one 10-minute literary passage and apply punctuation and paragraphing conventions from the style guide you are using.

One complete 10-minute jury charge transcript at 140 wpm with 97 percent or better accuracy and a 60-entry brief bank.

Week 4

Sustain 160 wpm literary dictation for a full 5-minute take at 97 percent accuracy or better.
Handle jury charge dictation that includes statutory citations, numbered paragraphs, and defined terms without dropping structure.
Reduce your top three recurring error categories by half compared with the week 1 baseline log.
Complete a timed 15-minute mixed dictation (literary plus jury charge) and transcribe it under a 3-to-1 production ratio.

A timed 15-minute mixed literary and jury charge transcript at 160 wpm with 97 percent accuracy, plus a before-and-after error comparison.

Week 5

Transcribe three 10-minute Q&A proceedings at 160 wpm, correctly identifying speakers and marking indecipherable passages.
Format a full transcript to the required page layout: caption, appearances, index, line numbering, and certificate page.
Apply certification language and reporter signature block requirements to two sample transcripts and verify each element against the governing rules.
Practice parentheticals and colloquy notation for off-record discussion, interpreter use, and exhibits marked and admitted.

One complete formatted and certified 10-minute Q&A transcript with caption, appearances, index, line numbers, and certificate page.

Week 6

Complete 100 punctuation and usage drill items covering comma splices, restrictive versus nonrestrictive clauses, hyphenation, and number style, then review every miss.
Proofread two of your own earlier transcripts line by line and correct errors without audio, then check against audio.
Memorize and correctly spell 50 legal and judicial terms, including habeas corpus, certiorari, voir dire, allocution, and nunc pro tunc.
Map the stages of a Georgia civil and criminal proceeding and label where the reporter's record is created at each stage.

A scored 100-item usage and punctuation drill with a written list of your 10 weakest rules and the corrected examples.

Week 7

Summarize the core ethical duties covering confidentiality, impartiality, conflicts, transcript integrity, and prohibited fees or gifts in your own written notes.
Analyze five short ethical scenarios and write the correct course of action with the reasoning for each.
Diagram the Georgia court structure from limited jurisdiction courts through the appellate courts and note which courts use court reporters.
Outline record retention, transcript filing, and sealing requirements and identify which rule or authority governs each.

A one-page ethics quick-reference sheet plus a one-page Georgia court structure and recordkeeping diagram, both self-tested from memory.

Week 8

Run three full mock exams simulating test conditions: timed dictation in all three categories followed by transcription and proofreading.
Score each mock against your target accuracy and speed thresholds and identify any domain still below target.
Re-drill your 30 weakest briefs and your 10 weakest usage rules from weeks 1 through 7.
Finalize a one-page exam-day checklist covering equipment, timing, proofreading pass order, and certification steps.

Three scored full mock exams with a final readiness summary showing pass or near-pass performance in every dictation category.

Week 2: Score at least 96 percent raw accuracy on two consecutive 150 wpm literary takes and produce three clean Q&A transcripts.

Week 4: Hold 160 wpm at 97 percent accuracy on a timed 15-minute mixed literary and jury charge take, with top error categories cut in half.

Week 6: Score 90 percent or better on the 100-item usage drill and correctly spell 45 of 50 legal terms.

Week 7: Reproduce the ethics quick-reference and Georgia court structure diagram from memory with no more than two omissions each.

Week 8: Complete three full mock exams with every dictation category at or above 97 percent accuracy at target speed.