Slop Vs. Drop

Should I slop, or should I drop? That is a question that seems to face many students, including myself. I used to be a slop girl. I figured if I could get a stroke down, any stroke down, then I could probably figure it out or guess what it was supposed to be later, and I have to tell you that seemed to work pretty well until, all of a sudden, it didn't.

I passed through my 80s, my 90s, my 100s and even all the way through my 130s with messy notes. Then, with 140 as my goal, I could no longer read anything. The small mistakes I was making at 90 wpm turned into huge mistakes when I got to 140. Also, I was always running out of time when I was transcribing my tests. I spent so long guessing what I meant to write that I couldn't get through the whole test and I would turn it in without even proofing it. Shame on me, tsk, tsk, tsk.

I have now really been trying to force myself to drop before I slop. It kills me every time I drop, because I never did that before. But, as I am now learning, dropping is better because it does not reinforce bad behavior. Every time I accepted a sloppy outline and messy transcript, I taught myself, that it was okay to do that. It's not. The bad outlines have now become ingrained in my head and I have to work twice as hard to correct them. It's brutal. I've been sitting in trail class, focusing on correcting bad habits that I've had since theory.

Although it's frustrating and exhausting, it's starting to help. My trail speed notes are beautiful. (My goal speed is full of holes where I dropped words, but what can you do?) The time I spend transcribing has reduced and I've even had time to print my work and proof it on paper rather than a computer screen before I turn it in. I'm optimistic about a big breakthrough happening soon. I'll keep you posted.

We Could All Use a Break

Oh wow! I wish every week could be spring break. Boy, did I need some time off. I spent the week doing all the errands I had been putting off since the beginning of the semester. Poor Wally (my car) had been neglected and abused. The long trip to school everyday was taking a toll on him and me as well. I gave him an oil change, a tire rotation, a car wash, and some other little things. I did the laundry that had been piling up, cleaned my apartment, went grocery shopping, and I even managed to have some fun as well. Although, I'm not completely caught up, I'm feeling a lot less overwhelmed.

Class has been back in session for a week now and I don't have any passed tests to report, but I am trying to change my perspective. I hate feeling so discouraged all the time. I am trying to let things go. If it's over, I have to let it go. I can only move forward so I shouldn't dwell on the past. I need to accentuate the positive and stop focusing on the negative. (is that song or something?)

I got 95% on my 150 4-voice test yesterday. Usually, that would frustrate me, since it was so close and still not a pass but my new focus is accuracy. I read the article "The Plateau" and I know the biggest problem with my writing is my accuracy. I have been trying to teach myself to drop if I can not stroke the word properly. The article talks about how sloppy outlines and misstrokes that don't get corrected will reinforce incorrect poor writing and those bad habits will manifest over time and turn into unreadable disasters. I think that was what was happening to me. That 95% test was way more accurate than previous tests and I didn't have to guess at my notes nearly as much as usually do. Hopefully, this new focus will pay off in the long run. I'll let you know.