A NEW DIRECTION

I'm about 99.9% sure that I'll be transferring over to Downey College of Court Reporting in January 2010. Currently I go to Tri-Community in Covina, but I'm ready for the switch... and I'm very excited about it (except for the drive on the 5 Freeway of course!) One of the biggest reasons I'm switching is the amount of tests they give at Downey versus at Tri. At Downy, they give you one test per class hour -- THAT'S FIVE TESTS IN ONE DAY! That's FIVE NEW OPPORTUNITIES to test out! That's FIVE MORE CHANCES for us court reporting students to inch closer and closer to our goal speed of 225 wpm! SOLD!!! Also, the way they score your tests at Downey is by listening to the dictated tape whereas at Tri it's via hard copy, which I hate! Everyone has their personalized styles, yet you get marked for not agreeing with the way a 10-year-old transcript punctuates here and there. FRUSTRATING!!! Downey is open many more hours than Tri. Doors open at 7:00 a.m. and close by 5:00 p.m., Monday-Friday. Steno classes are from 8:00-1:00, Academics are from 1:00-3:00, and Lab is from 3:00-5:00. At Tri they open at 8:00 a.m. and close by 12:30 p.m. with optional Lab till 3:00 p.m., Monday-Thursday. At Tri, Friday is open for Lab only. Lots of other students have switched from Tri to Downey, and it looks like I'll be joining them. I made my decision by checking out Downey's campus myself instead of just word of mouth. Downey allows you to sit-in or audit their campus for one week for FREE and with no obligation whatsoever. This one week sit-in is so much better than just a one or two hour orientation meeting that almost all the other schools offer (they go above and beyond at Downey!). My visit to Downey a few weeks back totally sealed the deal for me. Cindy Grafton, DAS (Downey Adult School) Court Reporting Director, was so professional, kind, and always on top of things... and I really appreciate that! She even has a FANTABULOUS (thanks to Cecy of CSR Nation for that wonderful new word!) site and blog. Click here for Downey Court Reporting School's website and click here for their awesome blog, which is full of so many helpful dictations that you can listen to on the site and/or download onto your own computer! Especially check out the "1400 Most Common Words" Dictation Part 1 and Part 2! LOVE LOVE LOVE! :) Downey has an updated computer lab with so many resources at your disposal. Every updated computer has several court reporting tutorials literally at your fingertips. Their lab has a vast array of CDs for you to practice with, and they sell them for only $5.00 apiece if you want to take them home. Awesome deal! Gonna stock up! I was really excited about Downey because my boyfriend works only 5 minutes away from the campus! I thought we could carpool together every day! But alas, it is not meant to be, the carpooling that is. Because he and I have different schedules, and to get the optimal use of Downey's facilities (opening at 7:00 a.m. and closing by 5:00 p.m.), I really need to take my own car to get to school earlier... as soon as it opens in fact! But it'll be nice to know that he's only 5 minutes away, and occasionally I'm sure we'll grab lunch together. ;) Lastly, I wanted to let you all know that this is not a blog post full of hate for Tri-Community. Tri has been VERY GOOD to me these past years, ESPECIALLY when it comes to the VERY LOW TUITION they offer! But I've found that Downey is my next step in my court reporting journey. It just makes more sense for me to go this way, so I'm gonna take it!

To Tri-Community...

To Downey Court Reporting, I can't wait to join you in January...