1. Sleep well the night before - go to bed early and avoid doing any shorthand the evening before. 2. Remember to check AND DOUBLE CHECK your transcriptions before you submit your script. Oh, and write your transcriptions out clearly - many students fail not on their shorthand but on their transcriptions, so make sure the transcription can be read by an examiner! 3. Half an hour before the exam, loosen and relax your hands, fingers and neck with light stretches and joint rotations. During the exam sit with a straight, but forward-slanted back. Despite the urge, don't hunch over with bunched up shoulders - it constricts your breathing and blood flow. 4. Breathe well and try to keep your mind clear of distractions. 5. Once the passage has been read out, read back your shorthand notes before transcribing them. Mark any outlines you are uncertain of. 6. When transcribing, leave those marked shorthand outlines out of your longhand transcription - only try filling in the blanks afterwards, when you can confidently compare your notes with what you think the word might be. Remember, the context of the piece itself might just solve the riddle. 7. Triple check your transcription for any errors which may have ...

Shorthand World readers frequently ask us which are the best books for learning shorthand. There are hundreds of excellent books out there which will help you learn or improve, so choosing from them is no mean feat. But we’ll have a stab at naming our top ten books for Pitman and Teeline. To find out more about any of the books below just hover your cursor over them! Teeline Fast (Teeline) Teeline Revised Edition (Teeline) Teeline Gold: Speed Ladder (Teeline Gold) Teeline Gold: Word List (Teeline Gold) Teeline Gold: Student Pack (Teeline) Shorthand Pitman 2000 (Teach Yourself) Pitman 2000: Shorthand Short Course Pitman New Era Shorthand: Anniversary Edition Pitman 2000: Shorthand First Course (Pitman 2000 Shorthand) Shorthand, Pitman’s: New Era: Facility Drills (Anniversary Edition) But what do you think? What are your top ten books? Why not drop us a line to let us know!

I imagine most of us have been writing since we were children. Most of us don’t remember the day we learned to hold a pen – at least I don’t Holding a pen seems a little like riding a bike, or speaking, or breathing. We just do it. Although we might occasionally ask why we write, I doubt many of us think about how we write But for those of us learning and/or using shorthand, how hold a pen might have a major bearing on what we write and, more importantly, how quickly we write shorthand. Ben Pitman, the brother of Sir Isaac Pitman, knew the how of penmanship was controversial. Nevertheless, he was undeterred from making a suggestion. He said, in his Manual of Phonography: “The learner is advised to hold his (or her-Ed) pen or pencil in the manner usual in writing longhand – between the first and second fingers – unless he (or she-Ed) finds that in so doing, he (or she!) is unable to easily and accurately to write the stroke “t” in an exactly vertical vertical direction. If after a few days’ practice any difficulty may be found in doing this does not disappear, he may find it ...