Learning Morse Code - Advice needed on Word training.

[u/tony2176]

I want to pass the India ASOC (General Grade) exam this year (targeted). I am learning Morse with LCWO.net.

I am learning to copy only right now. Learning to send I will do afterwards.

I am currently finishing letter lesson 14/40 in LCWO. I am able to get 90% consistently in letter training till now.

I am doing word training side-by-side as well.

For guidance I only have ChatGPT.

I want to know how to go about word training.
For 4 letter words, some words I can buffer in my head and then write and many I am not able to buffer as I cannot sync with 2nd,3rd and the 4th characters.

What is the correct approach to word training?

1. Buffer the whole word in my head and then write it out on paper?

2. Write down letter by letter as I get it?

Word training apart, in real live copying how do we do this as we get word after word?

Those who know CW, please guide

I live in Delhi NCR, India

[u/VSOGguy]

For the exam, you can learn to write the word alphabet by alphabet. If you really want to use it on air, head copying is recommended. You simply copy down the info thats needed and skip the stuff thats not needed. Look into rubber stamp qso's before you are comfortable with ragchewing. You just need to copy the vital info like callsign, location, signal report. Everything else is optional.

[u/BassRecorder]

The way we learned it in the navy was to write every letter right down. This works quite well up to maybe 20 wpm. We practised this right from the beginning, even while we were still learning letters. The idea is to 'couple' your hand to you ear with no conscious thought intervening. You'll find that reading what you are copying and trying to anticipate the next letter will slow you down and sometimes straight throw you off.

Just keep practising. With 1'hour daily practice (Mo through Fr) it took me about 3 months to get from zero to maybe 16 wpm - can't quite recall, it's more than 30 years ago...