True, you can test without a pedal but it sucks and if you are newbie

trying to test for your first jobs, doing it without a pedal is going to really be difficult!  Plus, you have to consider the first job she gets probably won't be the last and she'll probably be testing again in the future and that USB pedal will pay for itself in the long run.

Personally, I think a USB foot pedal is a very good investment and I've always had need for one.  Down the road, you can buy one of the 9-pin or 15-pin pedals if you find a job that requires one, but the future is USB.  You'd be hard pressed to go out and buy a brand new computer that would even have a 9-pin or 15-pin port.  I'm just saying... 

P.S. You can get on ebay and find pedals and headsets for pretty good prices.  I got my USB Infinity off of ebay and paid $30 for it and my Koss DC-10 headset for $20. 

• HELP! What type of MT Equipment should I buy? - STEPHANIE STARLING
  • Go along with the person who said get a job - Experienced
  • Thanks! - STEPHANIE STARLING
  • I would buy a foot pedal and a good set of headphones. - SM
    • You have to remember, not all foot pedals - work with all programs. (NM)
      • Most software works with a USB pedal with the exception of a very few. - SM
        • True, most do, but why spend money buying - not op
          • True, you can test without a pedal but it sucks and if you are newbie - SM
  • It depends on who you work for. Every - SM
  • wait for your first job - jc

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"D-dimer"

"Parenchyma"

"Acidosis"

Any first year terminology student wouldn't have to ask about these elementary MT words.  It's a cheater trying to pass a test she is in no way qualified to be taking.

Sorry to digress, but I have tested for several companies and my foot pedal did not work with their wave files. I had to resort to hand controls for the test files.

Am I missing something?  I sure would like to know because I hate testing with hand controls.

Thank you

It's called www.typingtest.com

Atleast it will give you an idea.. Sadly, I had to take it twice before I passed it LOL

Don't think that has to do with the knee.  How about "bucket handle tear" of the knee?  Never heard of Neer having anything to do with the knee. 

Perhaps the OP is someone new to this rotten bunch called MedQuist and maybe new to this racket in general. Innocence is so cute in a newbie!

Take it from some one who worked on the inside. you think you MT's are treated like xxxx? you have no Idea what an actual employee has to go through. specially in a certain office. Now I can't talk to badly about MQ as a coporation unless you count INTENTIONAL FRAUD bad but hey it is always the "right thing" to do when you come clean after you have been caught right? Considering they went through great lengths to hide their inside coruption....

Now the people that work in the office, lets just say if this is how women would run the world boy am i happy that men are in charge. These ladies are vindictive, mean, ugly, and unholy. They take advantage people over left and right with no regards to ethics and morals. trust me i would know. and all of you who are treated kindly by this office must do either a lot of xxx kissing or be on their good side. I have seen some xxxx in my day that would disgust most of you. So those who are defenders of Medquist are completely in the dark about what they are talking about. Maybe the coporation as a whole has matured some but the office in SO. Cal. and you know where i am talking about sucks. beyound sucks makes me want to throw up! 

can i get an AMEN? (sorry if my spelling sucks)

In my opinion, its always what they want to hire you to do and its always the hardest temp job to take - receptionists are magically expected to know "everything" about a company and every employee that works there.  If companies had any sense they'd make a more seasoned employee (that actually KNOWS some answers) take the receptionist job and let the temp file or make copies.  But the seasoned employees refuse to do reception work - because everyone knows it sucks!  Then they act like they're doing you the ultimate favor if they drag themselves to the reception desk long enough to let you pee twice a day - and sneer at you because you don't KNOW Mr. Jones always plays golf on Thursdays at 2, and Mr. Smith always covers for him...how the heck WOULD you know that unless you'd worked there more than 5 minutes!  Oh, and by the time you've learnt enough mini-facts like these to actually make you good at that job, the assignment is over - and none of these vitally important tidbits will mean a thing at the next temp job.

I finally had to tell every temp agency I applied at that I refuse reception work - it was all I was ever offered, and I got really sick of being treated like I was stupid because I didn't know every idiosyncrasy of a company the second I strolled in the door.  Temps already get treated like second-class citizens at most companies, which is bad enough on your self esteem, but to be chided all day because you "should have" known the unknowable and having to beg to be let to have a pee break is just too demeaning!

tia

computer so you can transcribe wav files.  There are many other formats such as DSS, but they are all digital voice files. 

I don't think brand of foot pedal is important, but need to know if it is game port, serial port, or USB and how many pins it has.   The majority of them are made by Infinity in some foreign country, but sold by many companies. 

PLEASE HELP! Are wav pedals and USB port foot pedals one in the same?  I've only transcribed from audio tapes, and all this is new to me.  Thank you for your help.

play voice files  you have on your computer.   You can get them on the equipment board here, e-bay, or you can Google and get lots of other places.  Some pedals are fairly generic and can play multiple "wav" types, but some only work with certain software.  You can have a serial port connection, a game port connection, or a USB connection.

If you do not already have a job that you need a pedal for I'd suggest waiting because you don't know which kind you will use.  If you need it for testing you can download ExpressScribe for free and use the function keys to test. 

will I need a 9-pin or a 15-pin.  Also, which transcription software for playing back audio files is the best?  I've used one that was a fee download, I think it was called Bytescribe or somethingl ike that.  Does that work for most all files or should I look into purchasing something like Start/Stop or GearPlayer?

Oh and does anyone know where I can get Microsoft Word or Office Suite for a reasonable (I'd say cheap, but cheap usually means bootleg) price? 

Sorry to ask so many questions, but it's been a while since I've worked for a national.  Before the hopsital job I'm being laid off from, I worked in the office at a hospital.  So I've been out of the loop so to speak.

Thanks guys.