Steno school costs thousands of dollars and years of your life, and most students never finish. NCRA reported an average graduation rate of 14.4% across 22 programs for the class of 2015.

You can't know ahead of time whether you'll finish. You can check whether the method you're paying for is built to help you get there. Here's what to ask. Ask it of any theory, including mine.

1. How many students finish, and how long does it take?

Any school or program can tell you how many students started and how many finished. Ask for the numbers in writing. If they won't give them to you, that's an answer too. The public records I found are on the completion rates page.

2. When a stroke comes out wrong, who tells you why?

Students say it again and again: "I don't know what I'm doing wrong." Being told a stroke is wrong doesn't tell you what to change. Ask to see a real lesson page. Does it explain what causes common mistakes, or does it only mark them wrong?

3. Is there more than one way to write the same word?

If a theory gives you 2 or 3 ways to write a word, you have to choose one while the speaker keeps talking. That choice costs you time, every time the word comes up. Ask whether each word has one form you're expected to practice.

4. How many briefs will you have to memorize?

A brief only helps if you can write it without stopping to think. Many students describe knowing a brief exists and still freezing before they write it. Ask how many briefs the program expects you to learn, and what you're taught to do when one doesn't come.

5. How will you write a word you've never heard?

Witnesses don't stick to your vocabulary list. Ask how the theory teaches you to build an unfamiliar word from its sound, at speed.

6. How many keys, not just how many strokes?

"One stroke" sounds light. A single stroke can take 7 keys pressed together. Ask to see the key count for common words, not only the stroke count.

7. What happens when you get stuck at one speed?

If you've been stuck at one speed for months, more hours of the same practice rarely fixes it. Ask what the program tells a student to change when they stall.

See it in your own writing

Already writing? Put one of your transcripts into the BREVITY Analyzer. It's free, it runs in your browser, and it shows how many keys you could save.

Questions about any of this? Email me at Tom@brevitysteno.com.

Tom Fernicola