COURT REPORTING SCHOOLS and the QUESTIONS to ASK
The general courses online court reporting school students,as well as traditional school students must learn in court reporting schools are: Theory, speed building to 225 words per minute, academic courses such as English, grammar, court reporting vocabulary, court reporting procedures and technology, spelling, legal terminology, medical terminology, court
reporting transcript production, court reporting ethics, CART and closed captioning terminology, and CAT (Computer Aided Transcription) real-time court reporting software. These are the court reporting and closed captioning academics commonly found on state and national court reporting certification examinations after completing court reporting school online or court reporting school.
An online court reporting school , closed captioning school or homestudy program, should provide the online court reporting or closed captioning student with these basic court reporting academic courses, as well as an externship where they work with professional real-time court reporters, closed captioners, and CART providers to obtain practical work experience.
Many online court reporting schools needlessly extend a student's training by making court reporting and closed captioning a degree program, thereby extending the training for years. Courses such as communications, speech, foundation of law, human relations, culture and society, history and math, are never found on any state or national certification examination and only serve to extend the court reporting students time in school, and increase overall cost.
Obtaining an Associate's Degree from a community college or an Occupational Associate's Degree from a trade school (which will not transfer to a real college or university) does NOT make you more employable or allow you to earn more income. It also does not guarantee a quality court reporting school, as over one half of accredited court reporting schools have closed for various reasons since 1999. Only the credentials you receive from passing your state or the national certification examination will allow you to work as a court reporter in states that require you to pass a licensure exam.
Some students who graduate from a college or university, or trade school are unable to pass a certification examination and are therefore unable to obtain employment. So simply graduating from a trade school or a community college does not allow you to work as a court reporter in your state if your state requires you to be licensed.
For detailed information on the careers of court reporting, broadcast (closed) captioning, and CART providing CLICK HERE.
IMPORTANT QUESTIONS TO ASK YOUR ONLINE COURT REPORTING SCHOOL OR CLOSED CAPTIONING SCHOOL, OR COURT REPORTING HOMESTUDY PROGRAM
1. How many court reporting students graduate in 24 months? Some online court reporting colleges give administrative degrees to their court reporting students who cannot complete court reporting school, and give them teaching jobs. A bad practice for several reasons.
How many of your instructors are RPRs or CMRs? You want to know you are being taught by people who have been successful in the court reporting profession. Many state certifications, or CSRs are voluntary, whereas the national RPR and CMR are accomplished by testing.
Is the court reporting school representative you speak with prior to enrolling more knowledgeable about financial aid than the career of court reporting?
2. What per cent of your court reporting students graduate, and what is the average period of time to graduate? What is the average cost for tuition and supplies your graduates paid during their time in school? Tuition, books, study materials. lab fees, and the stenomachine, may exceed $50,000.
3. If I don't complete my court reporting training in 24 months will I continue to be charged for however long I am in training? Ask about the average time for graduation in court reporting. 33 to 40 months is more realistic in most online degree court reporting programs.
4. What is the annual attrition rate in the court reporting school? Most schools have a 100% placement rate in court reporting, but if they may only graduate 2 or 3 students per year, so placement rate is a mis-leading number. They may also be placing non completers in court reporting teaching positions in their own school as addressed above.
5. Are all of your academics directed toward court reporting, broadcast (closed) captioning, and CART providing certification, or do I have to take academics that lead to an Occupational Associate's Degree and only extend my time in court reporting school ? The academics found on court reporting certification examinations are listed in bold print in the left-hand column.
6. Do you employ credentialed court reporters with professional experience as court reporting instructors? Again, student dropouts usually can only get you to where they dropped out.
7. Are the academics, including theory, taught by credentialed court reporters? Do you employ student dropouts as instructors? If they could not complete court reporting school , why would they be able to help me complete my court reporting school.
8. Do you have a separate court reporting dictation class for each speed level in 20 word per minute increments? (Writing at speed levels lower than your own is a waste of practice time and money.)
9. What court reporting theory do you teach?
10. Is the steno machine included in the cost of the court reporting school tuition?
11. Do I begin learning to write on the steno machine from the first day I begin court reporting school ? This is an absolute must in any quality court reporting school.
12. Have there been any complaints against the court reporting school in the last two years? If so, what were they about and what was the resolution?
For a list of other important FAQs
CLICK HERE
