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CERTIFICATION TESTING

AAERT's ongoing certification program for electronic court reporters and transcribers is a test of our members' professional skills by written and direct practical examination, with either an analog or digital focus.

Numbered certificates are granted under three headings:

• CER (certified electronic court reporter)

• CET (certified electronic court transcriber)

• CERT (certified electronic court reporter and transcriber)

Click here for an overview of the origins and development of AAERT's certification program.

Current Examination Schedule:

Click here to view the standard TEST DAY SCHEDULE.

Date / City	Address	Proctor[s]
Saturday, October 21, 2009 Registration begins September 15	Cities to be announced by September 1

Mail application / check to:

AAERT
2900 Fairhope Road
Wilmington, DE 19810-1624

Contact AAERT's Treasurer,
609.586.2311 (Eastern Time),
if you would like to fax your application
and remit via credit card.

For questions concerning the certification process, contact
Certification Committee Chair Steve Simon, CERT, at ctadss1@ocnjcc.org.

NOTE: Submitting a registration form and / or fees does NOT complete the process!

Applicants must receive advance notice from the Certification Committee
before they can sit for any examination.

Previously registered applicants currently in prepaid status must give the Committee advance notice of their desire to participate in a scheduled test, AND must receive acknowledgement — in advance of the test date — that they can, in fact, be accommodated at that site.

The Committee provides pre-test instructions to accepted applicants.

AAERT does not supply equipment or computer hardware / software
for either reporters or transcribers who are taking the tests.

If this poses a problem, place your cursor here for suggestions.

ELIGIBILITY: who may take the exams?

AAERT members in good standing, who
(a) are eligible for notary public commissions in their states,
(b) have obtained a high school diploma or its equivalent, and
(c) have one year of experience in reporting or transcribing.

Note: A member with less than one year of experience may sit for examinations if referred by an AAERT-certified member or a current employer.* A referral must be signed and submitted in writing to the Certification Committee along with the test application form and corresponding fee. *Read more . . .

To become an AAERT member, click here.

OTHER FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS:

• What are the testing fees?

The examination fee is $100, reporter or transcriber.
The re-testing fee for only the written or practical portion of an examination is $50.

• What are the tests like?

There are two parts, written and practical.
To become AAERT-certified, you must pass each of the three written test sections with a score of at least 70%, as well as pass the practical test.

WRITTEN: The timed written portion covers three areas:

(1) technical aspects of electronic practice — including, for reporters, microphone protocols;
(2) legal procedures and principles; and
(3) vocabulary.

The reporter and transcriber written exams are not identical, although there may be some areas of overlap where practices / principles converge.

PRACTICALS:

REPORTER PRACTICAL:

Reporters view a twenty-minute, five-voice courtroom scene on video, one prepared specifically by AAERT for this purpose, and are scored on their actual note-taking skills. Digital reporters arrange for their own laptops, log-noting software, and properly formatted CDs or diskettes.

TRANSCRIBER PRACTICAL:

Transcriptionists listen to an AAERT-prepared audio recording of a court proceeding, whether analog or digital, to produce ten (10) text pages of verbatim transcript during a 120-minute test session. Transcript accuracy must exceed 98.0 percent.

Technical requirements are specified in advance, so appropriate templates or macros can be prepared. The final transcript file may be submitted in WordPerfect, Word, WordStar, or as a generic ASCII ("plain text") export to CD or diskette. Transcripts are not hard-copy printed at the test site, but are printed by the Committee for subsequent scoring.

AAERT uses the federal district court transcript format
as our national transcription test standard.

• When are test results sent out?

Tests are scored by Certification Committee members who are themselves AAERT-certified, and results are sent to a test-taker's membership address of record, usually within four to five weeks after the examinations.

• How will I maintain my certified status over time?
Will continuing education (CE) credits be required?

The Association maintains certified reporters and transcribers on its public-access rolls while they remain members in good standing.

CE credits are available, and can be earned by attending Conference seminars, lectures, and other presentations. AAERT provides an attendance / participation record upon request. Not all jurisdictions or employers have established CE standards, and AAERT itself has not yet reached a consensus position.

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Introduction to AAERT's
CERTIFICATION TEST STUDY GUIDE

Study Guide Cover

This copyrighted (1996, 2003) 246-page manual is available in PDF format as an Internet download; $45.

Click here for an overview of the Guide's table of contents.

Electronic reporting / transcribing is an industry with a varied clientele; therefore, no single manual can address all situations or cover all bases. This selection covers at least a wide range of professional skills required for proficient electronic court reporters / transcribers. Transcript formats center on federal district court transcript requirements and practice.

Whether reporters, transcribers, or both, we share a professional goal: turning ephemeral human communications (messy, "non-literary," and disorganized, as they almost always are!) into a permanently accessible record — on paper or disk, via tape or video — and on what is yet to come!

Sometimes there are no "right" or "wrong" solutions to particularly sticky problems, and we are left with questions of professional good judgment — always keeping in mind that our product must present an undistorted, reliable reflection of proceedings, at the same time useful and helpful to our clients.

Those who master a field not only know what they are doing, but also why. Thus, certain sections contain remarks on developments over time. These may even spark your curiosity to delve further into some of the esoterica people lump together as "the law."

The Guide is available for purchase as a PDF Internet download; $US 45.00.
Click here to place an order.

IMPORTANT NOTE: When downloading the Guide, we strongly recommend that you use the current version (9-series) of Adobe Acrobat Reader. Older versions may no longer download and / or display properly, if at all.
If you receive a "File corrupted" message, upgrade your Adobe Reader before attempting another download.

Click this icon to get the latest FREE Adobe PDF Reader:

Transferring a copy of the Guide to an unregistered user violates the copyright laws of the United States,
and can result in legal consequences.

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