Services

Reasons why you should come to
Kussad Institute of Court Reporting:

- Live dictation! (Real life in Court Reporting is live dictation).

- Structured classrooms with a positive learning environment.

- Honesty about the length of time required to complete the court reporting program in a state with
a CSR Exam.

- 100% employment rate for all our CSR graduates!

- Read back of your notes in a group setting. (You must develop the ability to read back your notes
under pressure as you will be required to do in a deposition or courtroom).

- Camaraderie among your peers. (Court Reporting is a skill-based program, which usually
requires a group effort of encouragement, motivation, and support from a group of court reporting
students and instructors).

- Proficiency statement exam once a week and then twice a week one month prior to the deadline
for the Texas CSR Exam. (It takes an average student 4-8 months to pass mocks -- a mock is 180
Lit., 200 Jury Charge, and 225 Q&A that must be transcribed in one sitting and passed at 95%
accuracy.

You might want to ask an Internet school how you are going to acquire a proficiency statement. If
they tell you you will need to contact a court reporter and a tape will be sent to that court reporter for
you to take the exam, then you might want to consider finding that person first and working out an
arrangement with them.

In residential schools, mock exams are usually geared toward that particular state's certification
requirements. It is unlikely that a student will pass a proficiency exam the first time it is given,
unless it is very easy. The Texas CSR Exam and the California CSR Exam are very challenging.
The Texas CSR Exam has a pass rate of 10% to 40%. If you are in Texas and plan to work in
Texas, you will need to be prepared to pass the Texas CSR Exam.

- FYI -- Exams can be marked in both word count and syllabic count, word count only, or syllabic
count only. If you are taking exams that are in syllabic density only (also standard word count), then
your literary and jury charge exams will usually not have the proper number of words in them
compared to the Texas CSR/RPR Exam. However, usually a syllabic only exam for a testimony will
have many more words than the Texas CSR/RPR Exam.

- Live multi-voice experiences.

- Students work with the Law students of the University of Texas to prepare mock depositions.
This enables our students to practice being a court reporter before going out to work in the real
world.

- Director has 24 years' experience training Texas Court Reporters. Instructors are currently
working court reporters, retired court reporters or teachers with degrees or certified court reporting
instructors by the National Court Reporters Association.

- Our pass rate for the Texas CSR Exam for our graduates for the past 10 years for first time test
takers has been way above the 10% to 40% average for the state. From 2002 to 2004, our
graduates had a 100% first-time pass rate. In 2010, we had 100 percent pass rate for our three
graduates.

A Note From the Director
I know it is tempting to sit at home and take an Internet course, but please consider the following:
- No individual will push himself/herself as hard as he will if he/she has an instructor or coach.
- It is hard for a student to push himself/herself to the limit (like we do in a live classroom) with no
one around to watch or offer encouragement.
-If the coach of the Cowboys told his players to just go outside and practice on their own, do you
think those guys would push themselves as hard as a coach would push them so they could
become champions?
- Court Reporting is comparable to training in a sport because of the development of skill on the
stenomachine to 225-250 words per minute.
- This requires many hours of directed practice and live readback of notes.
- Most court reporting students need a coach to push them forward and to help them succeed.
-The entire nation needs more court reporters. Bureau of Labor Statistics
predicts court reporting will grow 25 percent above the national average for jobs.

Kussad Institute of Court Reporting