CRI CRI Speed Building & Accuracy Training 1 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: What is the primary goal of a speed building drill in court reporting instruction?
- To increase syllabic rate while maintaining acceptable accuracy (Correct answer)
- To reduce the number of briefs a student uses
- To eliminate all hesitations from dictation practice
- To teach students to read their notes faster
Correct answer: To increase syllabic rate while maintaining acceptable accuracy
Speed building drills are designed to push students to write faster syllabic rates while keeping accuracy at or above the threshold required for certification.
Question 2: Which dictation speed is typically required to pass the CRI written knowledge portion related to student speed goals?
- 100 wpm
- 150 wpm
- 180 wpm
- 225 wpm (Correct answer)
Correct answer: 225 wpm
NCRA's CRI standards align with the RPR/RDR skill level, and instructors must understand that 225 wpm is the professional benchmark for literary material.
Question 3: A student consistently drops the same phrase during high-speed takes. What is the most effective instructional response?
- Increase overall dictation speed to force adaptation
- Isolate the phrase and drill it at slower speeds before reintegrating (Correct answer)
- Have the student switch to a different theory
- Reduce dictation speed permanently to avoid the phrase
Correct answer: Isolate the phrase and drill it at slower speeds before reintegrating
Targeted remediation by isolating and drilling the problematic phrase at reduced speed allows the student to build muscle memory before returning to full-speed takes.
Question 4: What does the term 'syllabic intensity' refer to in court reporting speed building?
- The volume at which dictation is delivered
- The average number of syllables per word in a dictation passage (Correct answer)
- The number of strokes per minute a reporter produces
- The difficulty of punctuation within a passage
Correct answer: The average number of syllables per word in a dictation passage
Syllabic intensity measures how syllable-dense a passage is, which directly affects how challenging the material is at a given word-per-minute rate.
Question 5: Which practice method has research shown to be most effective for building sustainable speed in steno students?
- Massed practice (long uninterrupted sessions daily)
- Distributed practice (shorter, frequent sessions spread over time) (Correct answer)
- One intensive weekend session per week
- Exclusively self-directed practice without instructor feedback
Correct answer: Distributed practice (shorter, frequent sessions spread over time)
Distributed practice leverages spaced repetition and prevents cognitive overload, producing stronger long-term retention and speed gains than massed practice.
Question 6: When designing a speed-building curriculum, what percentage accuracy is generally considered the minimum passing threshold for a speed test take?
- 90%
- 95%
- 97.5% (Correct answer)
- 99%
Correct answer: 97.5%
NCRA sets 97.5% accuracy as the minimum passing threshold for official speed tests, and CRI instructors must calibrate practice standards accordingly.
CRI CRI Speed Building & Accuracy Training 1
What is the primary goal of a speed building drill in court reporting instruction?