The part of the exam most students under-practise
Ask a steno student how they practise, and most will describe dictation: speeds, passages, notebooks. Very few practise transcription with the same care. Yet the transcription is what gets marked, and it has a hard time limit.
In an SSC Grade C skill test, you must type about 1,000 words in 40 minutes, reading every word from your own shorthand. That's 25 words a minute of finished, correct text, while also reading, thinking and proofreading. This guide shows you how to get there comfortably.
Know your time budget
Work out how much time you have per word before you start. For common SSC skill tests (English, recent notices):
| Post | Words (approx.) | Time | Finished words per minute needed |
|---|---|---|---|
| Grade D (80 WPM, 10 min) | 800 | 50 min | 16 |
| Grade C (100 WPM, 10 min) | 1,000 | 40 min | 25 |
Then split your time into two parts:
- Typing: about 75–80% of the time
- Proofreading: the last 8–10 minutes
For Grade C, that means typing the whole passage in about 30–32 minutes, or roughly 32 words a minute while reading from notes. If your plain typing speed is under 40 WPM, work on that first. Our guide on increasing typing speed explains how.
Set up before you start typing
In the exam, you'll usually get a moment before the timer begins. Use it:
- Place the notebook to the side of the keyboard (left side if you're right-handed), at an angle you can read without turning your head much.
- Fold back used pages so the notebook lies flat.
- Adjust the chair so your forearms are level with the keyboard.
- Check that Caps Lock is off and the cursor is in the right box.
Read ahead, type behind
The biggest speed trick is to read a few words ahead of what you're typing. Read a phrase from your notes, hold it in your memory, and type it while your eyes move to the next phrase.
At first you'll read one word at a time. With practice, you'll read 4–6 words ahead. This removes the stop-start rhythm that wastes so much time.
Practice drill: take any printed passage and type it while trying to keep your eyes 4–5 words ahead of your fingers. Do this for 10 minutes a day for a week.
Use the sentence to decode difficult outlines
When you hit an outline you can't read immediately, don't stare at it. Read the whole sentence around it. Ask:
- What part of speech fits here: a noun, verb, adjective?
- What would the speaker logically say next?
- Which words match the shape of this outline?
Usually, the answer becomes clear within a few seconds. If it doesn't after about 10 seconds, type your best guess and move on. Never leave a blank, because a blank is always wrong.
Keep your place in the notebook
Losing your place costs more time than any single hard outline. Some ways to stay on track:
- Rest a finger of your left hand (or a pencil) under the line you're reading.
- Write in one column per page during dictation, with clear gaps between paragraphs.
- Mark full stops clearly in your notes so you can find sentence beginnings quickly.
Reduce corrections while typing
Backspacing is slow. Each correction costs 2–3 seconds, and 50 corrections cost two minutes.
- Type at a steady pace you can sustain, not your burst speed.
- Fix a typo only if you notice it immediately.
- Leave other errors for the proofreading pass.
Proofread with a plan
In the last 8–10 minutes, read your whole transcription once, at normal reading speed. Look specifically for:
- Missing small words (the, a, of, to, has)
- Wrong endings (-ed, -s, -ing)
- Spelling errors in long words
- Sentences without a capital letter or full stop
- Repeated words (the the)
Don't re-check every word against your notes. You don't have time. Trust your reading of the sentence.
Practise transcription separately
Transcription is a skill you can train on its own:
- Old notes: keep notebooks from earlier dictations. Once a week, transcribe an old passage against the clock. This trains reading speed independent of dictation.
- Timed full tests: at least twice a week, do a full test: 10-minute dictation followed by transcription in the exam time limit.
- Track your numbers: note how long the typing took and how many mistakes you made. Both should fall week by week.
Practise in exam conditions
The Steno Daily mock tests run exactly like the skill test: the audio plays once, you can't pause, and the transcription timer starts as soon as the audio ends. Paste is blocked, and your mistakes are counted automatically when you submit. Taking one mock a week is the best way to find out whether your transcription speed is exam-ready.