About Court Reporting Classes at Cerritos College

Cerritos College is a public community college that has had a successful court reporting program for over 35 years. We have a day program, an online program, and evening classes.
The on-campus day program is approved by the Court Reporters Board of California and is a participating school with NCRA, the National Court Reporters Association, (previously a level higher as an approved program, but recent lack of funding required us to change to a participating program for our ongoing relationship with NCRA, though the program had been reviewed and approved. We did not have funds to maintain the on-going site visits and approval process at this time.)
The night program is a partial program (with some speeds at night and all academics online) and therefore not subject to approvals, but classes taken at the night program count in qualifying students for the California CSR (Certified Shorthand Reporter) examination.
The online program is a full program but is not separately approved. Students transferring into the day program will "transfer in" all of their courses to complete "qualifiers," the examinations given by all approved schools to entitle students to "sit" for the CSR examination. Online qualifiers are not given. Therefore, the online program is considered as an RPR (Registered Professional Reporter) program as online students can qualify to take the state CSR examination by passing the National Court Reporters Association RPR examination. Students can get to the state CSR examination by 1) passing the qualifier examination at an approved school, 2) passing the NCRA RPR examination (open to all applicants), 3) working for one year or more as a non-certified court reporter, or 4) passing a Court Reporters Board approved out-of-state examination.
The Court Reporting Program at Cerritos College meets all Court Reporters Board requirements for court reporting study.

The Court Reporters Board requires:
240 hours English
120 hours Medical Terminology
150 hours Legal Studies
25 hours Transcript Procedures
5 hours Research
25 hours Technology
60 hours Apprenticeship
2300 Machine Shorthand Hours

There are other career paths in court reporting, but ALL OF THEM start with the basics and follow the pattern for getting to the state exam for license. For example, to become a CART captioner, a student would follow the basic pattern but NOT have to take classes like Courtroom Procedures, Deposition Procedures, Legal Terminology, or Transcript Procedures, because those classes are not involved in the skills for or testing of CART captioners.

On-Site Court Reporting Program and Classes

All students start with Theory and Theory Review to learn the stenotype machine. Then all students begin on the academics in the basic pattern while taking speed classes to get through the speeds from 60 to 200 plus words per minute at 10-word increments. The day program offers on-site Theory, Theory Review, Speed Classes, and the Court Reporting Lab. All academics are online (to better serve our day, evening, and online students.)
The day program high speed class offers "Qualifiers" so students can work on passing the qualifying examination that will send them to the CSR examination.
Students may begin with a manual stenotype machine that writes to paper. Our lab has computerized stenotype machines and software so that CAT classes (computer-aided transcription) can be completed in the lab without expending the funds for equipment or software.

Because we participate with Stenograph University online, one value-added feature of our program is that on-campus students can purchase access to the Stenograph University practice library for approximately $125 per term. The practice library has literally thousands of practice takes from 40-240 wpm in QA, literary and jury charge material. Each 5-minute dictation is broken down into 1 minute and 2 and 1/2 minute sections for more intense practice.
(Students cannot purchase access on their own without being registered at Cerritos or another participating school.)

Online Court Reporting Program and Classes

All students start with Theory and Theory Review to learn the stenotype machine. Then all students begin on the academics in the basic pattern while taking speed classes to get through the speeds from 60 to 200 plus words per minute at 10-word increments. The online program offers Theory, Theory Review, Speed Classes, and all required academics. Students may begin with a manual stenotype machine that writes to paper. All online students should plan to purchase student computerized stenotype machine and software for the CAT classes (computer-aided transcription) after completing Theory.
We participate with Stenograph University for our online speed classes. Students will need to purchase access (approximately $125 per term payable to Stenograph.)

Evening Court Reporting Program and Classes

The evening program consists of speed class offered in the evening, usually Tuesday/Thursday, from 6-9 p.m. with lab from 9-10 p.m. Theory and Theory Review are offered during the evening on occasion. Check the upcoming schedule! Contact us for more specific information. Several speeds are covered in the class offered. See information under day classes about Stenograph University online practice library.

About Court Reporting and Captioning

For those students interested in becoming realtime captioners or CART providers (or most any other court reporting profession), the basics for the court reporting program are exactly the same. The captioner student would choose from the academic courses (not taking the legal profession classes) and concentrate on the CAT (computer-aided transcription) classes for realtime lessons and learning. The classes recently created specifically for captioning are not available at this time, but they were frosting-on-the-frosting-on-the-cake classes. Most captioners have a basic court reporting education, and your instructors can aid in guiding you toward the captioning path.

Important Registration Information:

Cerritos College goes by semesters. Students may start in the Fall or Spring terms. Summer classes are offered on campus for speed students only. Online students may purchase practice access during the summer and keep quite busy.

New Students: Here's What You Need to Know!

You must have a stenotype machine and your books to get started. On campus students can borrow a stenotype machine in class and use copies of the book lessons the first week of class. Online students must have the equipment and books to be ready to go.

How Long Does It Take? How Many Units Is It?

The Court Reporting Program is designed to be a 3 to 4 year program. The Court Reporters Board pamphlet "Things you Should Know and Consider" says that the average student can plan to spend 3 to 4 years full time. (This includes getting to 200 plus words per minute on the stenotype machine.) They describe that full time means approximately 5 hours a day on the stenotype machine for the skill building portion of study. This is an approximation based on an indepth study of court reporting students throughout the state in 2000. This seems to be a good average for all court reporting students nationwide. Some (a few) do it in as little as two years. Some take longer. It depends on your abilities and focus. One reporter said he finished in 18 months, but he spent 10 hours a day on his machine most days. That's how he went about it. Your academics will get done. The variable is how fast will you go from 60 to 200 plus words per minute. Students acquire the skill and move forward at an individual pace after Theory classes.

As far as how many units is it, well, it is 60 units to an AA degree with approximately 30 units of court reporting and 30 units of general education - but you do NOT need an AA degree to become a court reporter or a captioner. You do need a) the skill b) the knowledge and c) to pass the state exam if you want to be a judicial reporter (court or deposition reporter). You do need the skill and to be good at what you do to become a CART reporter or broadcast captioner or Rapid Text Entry operator. You need super good English, grammar, punctuation and vocabulary skills, along with CAT training to become a scopist for court reporters, and the same list (minus the CAT training) to become a proofreader for court reporters.

Following the CSR examination pattern, students will complete approximately 35 hours of academic classes and approximately 25 plus units in machine shorthand theory and speed classes.

What About Equipment and Software

Students can begin with a manual steno machine. We want all of our students to begin writing to paper tape. We think it is best to learn to read the paper notes. We do not endorse paperless writers. You can usually find a used manual stenotype machine for anywhere between $75-250.
When students are ready to go "on the computer," they need to purchase or rent a student model computerized writer so they can build a personal dictionary in their first CAT class (CRCC 119aef). There are many. DO NOT overspend. Whatever you buy for school will be outdated by the time you go to work and there are several older, used models of computerized writers that will work fine. Stenograph also has the student Stentura, brand new, with trade-in value for approximately $1800. See our link on "getting a machine" for a discount if you are buying one! Older models range $450-1200-ish.
All the major CAT companies offer student versions of the software, which is all you need for school. Software ranges from $100-$500.