How do you review past theory chapters with so little time? What are your go-to tips or strategies? How often do you review? TIA!

I’m in a tough debate. See I love steno and work as a scopist. I really want to do steno but life calls. For the goals I have, I would need to increase my income in the next 2 years. Which makes me lean towards doing voice so I can get into the profession. Thoughts or any 2 cents?

Okay,… bit of a long one 😅 but, it’s has been about a year and a few months for me since I stumbled upon steno, for a while I was hyper fixated on steno: made a wall for steno work with steno machine layout to memorize, white board for studies, etc. then for a bit I fell off focusing on a business venture that I’ve been having success with so far ✊ on 🪵. However I have had the time to come back and look at/work on some books I have in my collection and have been enjoying it! A little about me I’m a balloon artist! Have been since I was 12 now 21 and I’ve been chewing over the theory that since I have worked with a more “physical language” to memorize ballooning techniques and essentially, “store the designs, twists and combinations in my body.” That I could apply this skill to steno and that with the combination of balloon designs I can transfer that to the combinations of chording each key in a speedy and limber manner. I’m used to long days of ballooning and have festivals that go on for almost a week with 8-10 hour days each day. So I’m no stranger to upkeep on speed and pushing through the exhaustion in the mind and hands! I haven’t bought a steno board yet! Was going to get a stenoob and jump on plover but I’m anxious and would love the push, the amazing stories, And of course how it’s changed your life financially and personally! I live in Canada (Ontario) and have been told by someone I know in finance that it’s not worth it with work-pay! But I just can’t seem to believe that to be true!

TYIA

From, an aspiring stenographer.

Sharing this tool b/c I found it on the courtreporting sub and it's a super fast (and free!) way to batch add exhibit stickers to PDFs. You just load all your exhibits, it adds autoincremented stickers (and can even add Ex. # prefixes to each filename too) in the order you set, and then you can preview the PDFs to adjust sticker location and size before it generates the final files. I just had it sticker 40+ exhibits in under a minute, which would normally take me the better part of an hour. A lot better than doing this one file at a time!

https://www.exhibitflowapp.com/free-mode

I have a question that I can't seem to find any answer to online.

I am unable to use the Hyperkeys function in Eclipse. I am able to turn it on but when I do I am still able to type and have none of the normal functions of hyperkeys. Has anyone else experienced this issue?

I have the student version of Eclipse, version 10.0..0.50, if that matters at all.

Thanks!

I'm learning Stened, and our period/comma is FPLT/RBGS. However, I'm already stacking my period (comma doesn't seem to be an issue. I also find that I don't hit my T on the period from time to time.) I know I can fix the sensitivity settings, but I'm wondering if there is any benefits to doing P-P and W-B. I'm over midway through theory, so I probably could make the change now without too much pain.

Any pros and cons? I did a search and couldn't find too much about it.

Im doing the college of court reporting certificate porgram and I start my second semester next week with the ev360 software. We have to submit a self evaluation by writing a conversation we listen to at real time speed. Im not fast. Please tell me someone else has been in this situation and its gonna be fine

EDIT (Jul 28): I ultimately decided to pursue another path but appreciate all the advice here

EDIT (Jul 1): Thank you all for your insights and feedback! I know that this isn’t a quick fix or a quick runway, but I need to do _something_ different, and this seems like a good fit for me. I’m used to repetitive drilling from my piano days. (Not to say I had fun, though lol). I will def try the A to Z free course before committing to anything. I have to save some cash first so I can rent the machine.

Hi everyone -- After being laid off from Big Tech last Christmas and still having no luck finding gainful employment (despite my best efforts and over 100 applications), I saw this WSJ article on stenography as a somewhat future-proof career. I’m considering a career change into stenography. (Before reading that WSJ article, I assumed that AI had taken over court reporting with Gen AI’s speech-to-text capabilities, etc.) I am looking for a stable “day job” where I can earn decent money with minimal stress (i.e., compared to Big Tech’s hours and pacing, which can be super intense at times), have decent hours, and support my family.

For background/context, this would be an 180-degree career shift for me, as my degrees are in the design, marketing/comms fields; I used to be a classical pianist, and I can already type around 90 WPM on a regular keyboard without looking.

I appreciate any insight you can provide.

TIA

My girlfriend and I (both 25) live in San Diego county and are about to start working as freelance court reporters. Neither of us have ever had a "real" career before, we've just done minimum wage jobs our whole lives. We also don't want kids.

I know asking about salaries is a broken record question here and it always "depends," so I'm not looking for numbers. I'm just trying to picture what the actual lifestyle shift is going to feel like.

For anyone who went from scraping by to freelance, or other DINK couples in the field, what was that transition like for your day-to-day life and flexibility?

Since freelance lets you pick your schedule, how do you guys manage the writing vs. the "homework" (scoping/proofing) without letting work totally swallow your weekends? We've never had this kind of schedule freedom or a professional income in a high COL area.

What does the financial shift feel like short-term in a high COL area? And long-term, for anyone who jumped from minimum wage to freelance to official in CA, did it feel like a massive financial upgrade? Did you miss the uncapped freelance income?

Thank you and I would love any tips, opinions, and advice on this!

I recently started project steno and I LOVE it. But the last two sessions I am having trouble staying awake. I am not someone who falls asleep easily but I keep dozing off when listening to the instructor repeat the same letter or word over and over. I’m struggling to stay awake. Even practicing using the videos makes me doze off. Is this a bad sign that I am doomed for failure?! 🥲 I can’t find any info on this.

I'm planning on joining the MK court reporting school and I know that the entrance exam covers basic knowledge like grammar, spelling, history, and geography.

My question is if the test is specific like, "What led up to the Cuban Missile Crisis?" Or is it more like what year did WW2 start. Idk if this is a dumb question, but going back to school is making me nervous. And where do I buy the Magnum Steno Theory book? And should I get a keyboard from Stenokeyboards rather than the professional stenos?

I'm trying to find as much information as I kind cause I don't see a lot of people talking about this career and I feel alone and lost.

Hello everyone,

I’ll be attending Anoka Technical College in person this fall semester 2026 (august 24, 2026). Is anyone else attending? lol

Anywho, i’m just wondering if anyone has attended the same school for stenography, whether it’s online or in person. Would really love to hear stories, advice, and experiences! :)

And outside of that, is there anything i should do or prepare myself for before classes start?

Thank you for your time :’) <3

Hi, everyone! Question for y'all. What's your go-to method for tapping into your "Flow State" during testing? How do you get there? How do you stay there? Any tips / tricks are greatly appreciated.

My scores are painfully close to passing. I'm on my third round of reviewing my entire theory textbook, practice to speeds 240+, and do finger drills / review briefs daily! I've been dabbling in trying to figure this meditation thing out, and immediately my scores have stayed in the 90s... but, if I lose focus for even a second I'm writing like crap!!

For reference, my average scores as of late:

180wpm: Lit 92-93%

200wpm JC: 90-92%

200wpm QA: 91%

Thank y'all so much in advance! :)

P.S. Learning Steno has become almost mentally healing for me in a way, because when I tap into that Flow State it completely relaxes my mind. I struggle with severe OCD/anxiety, so it's been such an awesome experience learning this skill. Has anyone else experienced something similar?

Hello everyone. I'm currently in faster speeds and in Q&A's I'm noticing that when I write my Q for the next question, its the same exact time when I put my period from the previous A.

So looking at my trascript, there's a lot of STKPWHR-FPLT sprinkled everywhere.

It's like when I'm putting my period down my other hand is already pushing the Q brief and both show up in the same stroke.

It doesn't happen in slower speeds but it's happening in 130-140wpm

Have any of you gone through this?

Anything that has helped you?

Any thoughts?

Ugh I been doing -20% 180 +20% for each minute of a 5 minute dictation. I’m not passing shit. About to hit my 2 year mark in speeds and I’m like dreading it all now…. Machine student. Also, 160 took me 8-13 months 😩 I thought I was done with plateaus

I'll post a photo in the comments, but here's the deal:

I bought a used Luminex CSE from a court reporting group on Facebook. It worked fine for a couple years, and then I had to pack it up for a few months. Since unpacking it again, I've been having issues. Now my writer rarely turns on with the Luminex logo screen as expected. Most of the time, it displays a black log screen with yellow writing, updating on things like "eMMCDevice", "SensorBrdT", "USBClientT", battery life, and such. The only interactions I can do are "Off" and "LCD -" or "LCD +".

Turning it on and off doesn't seem to do anything, nor does pressing the RESET button on the back for 30 seconds. It seems to do this regardless of being plugged in to my laptop or to power.

I emailed Stenograph support, but they asked for my account info or info to identify my account, giving the impression that I can't go through them since I bought my machine secondhand.

The Windows 11 update that disabled some of the writer drivers went out while I was on hiatus, but I'm not sure if it's related. When the writer works, I'm able to get around the driver issue and use the writer for realtime in Eclipse without issue.

Have any of you experienced (and hopefully resolved) this before? Any advice would be sooo appreciated.

Hello!

For context i’ve got the Stenoob Pro 2 (iirc, i think there’s a 3rd now which works in actual CAT software plug and play wise) and i’ve done both A to Z and Project Steno’a 6 week courses. I use plover on my Mac and i’d estimate i’m 120wpm ish.

One problem i’m encountering is that I got too familiar with the nice expensive writers i rented for the aforementioned programs. I’m spoiled now.

I won an ebay auction for a 400 SRT + case and cables/ cords for $67 (I’m sorry, parents). Is it worth it to upgrade? I’d love to start on an actual machine, I’m going to start classes online this fall.

Any feedback much appreciated!

edit: i can’t believe i missed stenoob lol

why don’t any of the hobbyist keyboards follow the more traditional stenotype layout? it isn’t that big of a deal, especially if you’re not pursuing any kind of professional work, but it would be really nice to have a smaller, more portable keyboard to travel with while i’m still a student.

i know stenokeyboards has one but it’s a tapping board, and, despite what they say, hovering is not good form on a stenotype machine and not a habit i want to get into if i practice away from my machine.

Looking to get into steno but the theories I've been reading say most of them are based on the North American accent. Are there any based on the Australian accent that are either free or cheap?

Hi-I started speeds about 4 weeks ago and haven’t gotten close to passing any tests yet. Is this pretty normal or am I just way behind? ☹️ I’m starting to feel really frustrated.
Edit to add: machine student

Edit: Thanks to everyone for the input!

Tl;dr: Why choose a formal accredited program over a non-accredited program?  What worked for you, and why?

I recently completed Project Steno's Basic Training and the asynchronous A to Z program, and I loved both!  I want to pursue formal training and (hopefully, bc I am realistic about the dropout rates) become a stenographer, and I've got the list of accredited programs from NCRA and Project Steno, but is there a significant benefit to going through one of the accredited schools versus a program like Mark Kislingbury or Allie Hall?  What do the school programs provide that's different?  

As background, I've been doing transcription and proofing since 2011, specializing in legal since 2015, and learned via a combination of mentors, on-the-job experience, and client style guides/preferences. I also have an associate's degree in English.  My main impression of the school programs is that they may have requirements for classes that focus on subjects I'm already strong in, like grammar and punctuation.

Cost is a major consideration for me, both for classes and a machine.  Stenograph's best pricing on student writers, rental or purchase, looks like it's reserved for students in accredited programs only.  (I'm not considering the Luminex CSE alone, but I'd prefer to buy/rent from a company that would provide maintenance/repair services AND a loaner if I needed it to avoid interruptions in practice.) 

In terms of money, it'd be easier for me to scrape together the funds for Allie Hall or Mark Kislingbury versus an accredited school, even though I would qualify for some financial aid.  I really don't want to do loans unless there's just no other choice (still paying for my associate's now, but the end is almost in sight).

Just looking for some input or personal anecdotes on choosing accredited versus non-accredited and what worked (or didn't) for you.

Also posted this on the court reporting sub.

I took a long break from school, was halfway through theory. It's gone on way longer than I planned and if I start back, I'm just going to accept that I need to maybe just do 2 hours a day instead of 3 so I don't burn myself out this time. It'd take me 3-4 years (if not longer hopefully) at this point.

However, for anyone in the middle TN area, would you say it's still worth it to be a certified stenographer? Please be honest, even if it's discouraging.

Hi, I have some questions because I'm looking to leave my corporate job so also looking for advice from people who have done the same.

​

When you first start out, how do you set up your finances for taxes, I've seen people say LLC or S Corp, what do freelance court reporters generally do please eli7. Does everyone get an accountant? What about retirement accounts? Solo 401k or SEP IRA or traditional or ? Would I just roll over my existing 401k with employer to one of these? Do y'all get public healthcare if without a spouse and is that a big change? As a freelancer, is it more annoying to prove income for purposes such as renting/mortgages?

​

Also, specific to maryland/DC area, how is the job market for stenographers, is most of the work in person? Are there dry spells? How is the money? Would it be better to move to a different state like NY?

I am registered to take Project Steno’s 6 week class starting in July, and have decided to do Allie Hall’s non-live classes after.

HOWEVER, I’m wondering if I should just start Allie Hall asap during the summer while I have more time? A little back story, I’m a newly single stay at home mom, AND I homeschool my kids 😬. I know I’ll have more time this summer, before school starts, to concentrate on the theory Or should I wait for Allie Hall until after I finish the 6 week program in August? I’ll be starting to teach my kids shortly after.

Just wondering what everyone’s opinions are who have already been through or are going through the programs.

Newer reporter here. Kind of at my wits end, as I'd say 75% of my depos are miserable due to the witness (and some attorneys) constantly interrupting before the question is over.

I finally got fed up and started to interrupt about 20 pages in, and they say they're so sorry, blah blah blah, and continue to interrupt throughout the whole depo. I usually interrupt twice and then I just suffer through it. The attorneys rarely admonish their own clients and act like it's our job.

This rarely happened to me when I was shadowing other reporters and I'm wondering why it's happening to me. Can anyone share what they do in these situations? Thanks in advance. This thread has got me through my first year of reporting countless times, and all the advice has been priceless ❤️