Really need some advice - 80wpm shorthand and job chances

[GreenFish]

Hello all:

I am on a NCTJ course and have reached, ish, 80wpm.

The exam is at the end of Feb.

I really don't think I can get to 100wpm - I have a feeling my tutor feels the same.

My question is:  will editors employ someone with 80/90 wpm?

I hope to do well in all the other exams and I am getting myself involved with all the new online media forms.

Just worried about the shorthand...

Many thanks in advance for answering.

[Freelancer]

End of Feb? That is ages! Of course you can get up to 100 by then. You could probably get higher than that.

I'm just about to take my final shorthand exam at 100WPM and it's not as bad as you think it's going to be (granted, I didn't pass the first and I don't think I got the second either mainly because I was so bloody nervous I couldn't actually write).

The key is practice. 2 hours a day - are you doing that? Also have you got a special forms practice sheet? If not get one. I expect you have a special forms notebook no? What I have done is to create an Excel doc with every special form and word I'm not sure about and then print blank pages so I practice writing them out. It's the only way to learn them.

Also try writing on narrow ruled paper. It can make your shorthand smaller and therefore you are quicker. A word of warning about that though - once you've got up to a hundred you  might want to go back to wide ruled as I found it difficult to read back my nervous scrawl in the exam.

Dictations. You have these right? There is a great website called 'weloveshorthand' (oh don't we) that has free dictations going up to 120WPM. The trick is to do the faster speeds as practice. You won't be able to get it all down but eventually you'll be able to get blocks down and then the 100 will seem really easy.
http://www.freewebs.com/weloveshorthand/100wpm.htm - if you're on a Mac it doesn't seem to work in Firefox, only Safari. There is also a rather hilarious music section at the end. One can only assume it's to bring you back from the brink after doing 120WPM.

Good luck. You can do it. If you do the 2 hours per day you can get your speed up in a week. Oh and get the right pen. I'm using a Pilot V ball 0.5 - I think there is a thread on Facebook between my group just about which pen's are good. We lead fun lives.

A

[GreenFish]

Thank you, thank you, thank you.

I have been looking for free dictation samples for months!

All advice duly noted.

Thanks again - fourth time.

Where there is a will...

[journo_girl]

Hiya,

You need to get to 100wmp to go on and do your NCE - which is vital if you ever want to get a decent payrise!

The previous response and all the advice was spot on. I'd also like to point out that although you say 'the exam', as if there is only one, you should have plenty of opportunities to sit the exam. Our tutor used to say it was unlike any other exam you'll take because it's more of a skill to learn, rather like learning to drive.

During my course there were about 25 students and only one or two passed shorthand at the first exam. Most had passed by about 5 or 10 attempts, but a few poor souls were still slugging it out after the course had finished. They still got jobs, but had to carry on the shorthand in thier own time to try and pass.

Just put in as much practice and possible and you'll get it!

Cheers,

Nikki

[Freelancer]

Yes absolutely right about the exams. We get three goes at it but retakes are, I believe, £11 something a go so not the end of the world. My last chance at college is Friday. I developed a muscle spasm in my neck at the weekend and couldn't turn my head let alone write shorthand! It's a shorthand RSI I tell ya.

Also probably obvious but see if you can download those dictations to your iPod, then you can do it on the go. Check out the NCTJ ones - they're not that expensive.

Also you inspired me to write a post about shorthand. Here it is: http://blogs.journalism.co.uk/editors/2009/01/19/too-old-to-become-a-journalist-shorthand-a-new-hope/

How are you getting on with the other stuff: law, PA etc? I just don't know how I can do it all.

A

[GreenFish]

Well, I've just put my pen down from an hour and a half of Local Government revision.  God knows if I am taking it all in.  Our tutor has put all we need to know in a sort of 60-page booklet (and, of course, people have asked why we needed lessons with it all there in a handy hand-out - though I do think the lessons have been helpful and would rather of had them and the booklet rather than just the booklet).

Our LG exam is on Feb 28 - not far.

I am just re-writing all that is in the booklet into my own style.  My notes will then, I hope, be a lot easier and quicker to read and I can just go over them and over them.  That's what I hope will work.

This NCTJ malarkey ain't easy.  I was expecting it much to be like my three years at the OU.  Do a leisurely hour's studying a day, turn up to a tutorial now and then, and then hay-presto a good mark.  NCTJ is the opposite - it's been manic.  Find stories, attend classes, learn an archaic writing system, learn about how local government works, etc etc and that's only the first half of the course!  It really is a get out what you put in sort of thing.  Though I do think that some will fall away…we’ve had a few who have dropped out…but I expect through no fault of their own.  As I am on a part-time course many fellow students have busy and hectic and skint lives as it is and the slog and gruel of the NCTJ could have been just be too much.. 

The real terror for me, being 27 and working in a rubbish job, and only having half a degree, is that the job market for journos will be non-existance by the time I graduate…but that’s a whole other story.

[GreenFish]

v useful shorthand postings freelancer!  I love that site with the free dictation.  old bloke is funny.

[Freelancer]

Yeah, they are quite hilarious aren't they? Especially the one about having too large a committee. Also the 110's feature a girl who sounds like she's on the phone with a really thick New Zealand accent! WTF.

Our exams are next week. I don't know how much more law I can cram into my cerebral cortex. Can't wait for it to be over.
Has your PA teacher given you key topic areas?

Also have recruited a girl who is doing a magazine course to write a few paragraphs for my post on NCTJ's etc. Can you write something? The bit about the NCTJ being surprisingly difficult would be perfect teamed with what it's like at your college.

Amy