you're quite welcome! hope it helps.

• Question about expanders - NewMT
  • You can get lists of shortcuts off of websites, from other MTs, etc. sm - searching
  • I learned tips from my workmates and - Misha
    • Expanders - Kathy
      • i use my own formula, create as i need, - sm
        • Thank you very much n/m - NewMT
          • you're quite welcome! hope it helps. - nm

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I got this by typing "set font" into the help area:

as music.  Some are classical, some are rap, some are rock.  You just have to find the rhythm and cadence of their speech and then it's so much easier.

It takes time but once you get into that zone of realizing they each have an individual "music" to their dictating, it becomes easier.  I have 3 ESLs, each from a different country.  I honestly wouldn't trade them for the world ... at times, they're easier than my American-born doctors. 

A lot of people panic but seriously, once you learn that rhythm, it all falls into place.  Good luck!

Even transcriptionists with a lot of experience have to leave blanks, which is an important part of this job because you should NEVER EVER guess.  There is such a thing as an "educated guess" and context clue guessing, which I have done, but I have a lot of experience and still there are times when I just cannot fathom what they are saying or have never heard of that term.  That is why this board is a very good tool.  I wish I had known about it earlier in my career.  I have learned so much from simply reading.  As a matter of fact, I learn something new everyday.  By the way, welcome to the world of medical transcription.  Enjoy the ride because it goes so fast!    

I really hope someone chimes in with the answer to your question but I wanted to comment that I have heard nothing but positive reviews for MTEC and the reviews have been mixed, but leaning towards the positive for Career Step.   There are some CS students and alumni that will defend their school tooth and nail that it is not a second class stepchild to MTEC, and some that feel that MTEC (or Andrews) would have been a better choice. 

I had a friend who could not afford the down payment for Andrews, and either could not or did not want to try to get the Sallie Mae loan for MTEC, and I steered her towards the CS program at Everett CC because she had pell grant and student loan eligibility. 

You might want to ask some national companies whose grads they hire.  I asked a few (you could certainly ask more than I did, and I recommend that), and one listed a few schools I had not even heard about up to that point. 

It seems that the companies have some thing going on with CS because many of them have a link to request training info from CS.  Not a guarantee of employment by any stretch but worth asking what that is all about.  (hopefully not just about getting money from CS for advertising and referrals).

If it were me I would choose MTEC over CS.  But my decision is made - I chose Andrews over both of them and as soon as I can bring myself to send in the $1500  down payment(its just a scary amount of money to plop down), I am doing it!

I just finished a dictation that the dr. cancelled 20 seconds into it because he "already did it on EMR".

Acct still has a large volume of work, but I wonder if they are easing into EMR.

Has anyone else started to run into this?

I work for a service so at least this one account is not my only source of income, but it does provide a lot of work.

Keeping fingers crossed.....

Hi All!

I am a newbie. I haven't even officially graduated yet. I attend a school that has been called a 'matchstick school'. I have figured out why there was so much negativity about my school. The students are only required to do 20 (GASP!) transcription assignments throughout the course. However, the CD we are given to work off of has over 100 dictations. I would not be defeated by this school! I not only did the required assignments, I worked my way thru the other 100 in my own time.

Well, this weekend I found a website that lists 137 transcription companies located in the USA. I wrote my resume, omitting the name of the school I attended. I also listed all the transcriptions and specialties I worked on. I listed the amount of time I spent working on these as experience. Then I wrote up a cover letter expressing my desire and drive to work for a great, solid company. I sat at my computer over the weekend and went down the list of the companies. I emailed EVERY company on there with my cover letter and resume. By Sunday night I had a request to test with a company. I tested with them Monday afternoon and by Monday evening I had a job offer. They have asked me to start tomorrow. I also have 4 other requests to test with different companies sitting in my inbox. This amazes me because I have not even officially graduated yet!

Please do not mistake this for bragging. I have worked very hard and have been extremely discouraged over the past several months. I have sent out over 100 resumes and have had my fair share returned stating I do not have enough experience. During my downtime I worked thru all the dictations my school offered. I also found a website that helps improve typing speed. So for all you newbies, do not give up. When you are not job searching, practice your transcribing, even if it is one you did a hundred times before.

I hope this gives some fellow newbies some hope.

Hey ya'll!

I just want to give a little hope to fellow newbies out there! I have finally found my first job!

I started searching at the beginning of the semester, and now, a week before graduation, I have finally gotten my first position!

It takes a lot of hard work, determination, begging, crying, giving up, starting again, crying some more, and networking, but it pays off in the end!

So please, don't give up! Test, network, practice, make phone calls, apply for positions, knock on doors, pretend your sick so you can get some one on one time with your doctor, and most importantly, pray! You will get there!

Good luck everyone! I hope this gives ya'll a little boost! I know how frustrating it was, but you'll forget all about that when you finally get a "yes" from someone!

I'll be praying for all of you!

that I had to remove were made by experienced MTs and were very ugly in nature.  Nichole came here and asked for help and when she was ridiculed only then did she retaliate.  I posted a Sticky above about helping incoming new MTs and not treating them like they are trash.  I would ask all experienced MTs to please follow that advice or don't post at all.

Thank you,

Administrator

Oh, just relax...Of course I want MT's with experience - and as long as there continues to be MT's with experience that want work at a certain rate, they will be hired in front of a newbie. In the work place it is all about what the market will bear. Nursing shortage? Nurse pay goes up. Until Filipino nurses flood the market. Then nurse pay goes down (just as an example). All I'm saying is as long as there are experienced MT's who are willing to work for 6-7 cpl (and I get plenty of them asking for work all the time at that rate), then a newbie can't be worth the same. It's all about what the market will bear. Therefore, you have to give the employer something to make hiring you more attractive than the next person....which is what? I'm always surprised that a newbie doesn't take an internship or something- whatever it takes- to get that experience. Without the experience, your chances of being hired go waaaaaay down.

My own suspicion is that it's the MT schools who keep telling newbies to go out and try to get jobs at 6 cpl - sometimes I even get resumes asking for 8 or 10! If the MT schools were honest about how difficult it was to break into the field - would people sign up and pay the money? No. But they take the money, train 'em and don't tell them that training isn't enough. Then the boards are full of postings from newbies complaining about how hard it is to break into the field. Well, for crying out loud - I would rather work for free for six months and then be marketable than to get 0 work at 6 cpl for years and years, holding out for that one chance in a thousand that someone would be willing to take me on

And I recognize that.  However, when my employer reviewed my first few batches of reports, he was quite impressed and surprised at the quality given that I was just getting started. 

So, I ask again- what is it that makes AHP an inferior education to other schools like Andrews and M-Tec?  Do they not provide enough anatomy/medical terminology instruction? Are they deficient in practice report experience? 

The only thing I felt under-prepared for was how quickly the doctor's dictate in real life versus what I was used to in practicing.  Other than that, doing real transcribing was actually easier than the practice tapes I was doing because AHP uses a good deal of difficult foreign accents on their practice tapes.  The account that I work on now has no foreign doctors (which is probably unusual), but some of them are ridiculously fast and incoherent. 

I'm really not trying to stir up anything here or argue that anyone is wrong.  I truly am just curious to know why AHP is not a good school.  I have many people ask me about what I do and where I got my training, and when I tell them that I've read online that the quality of an AHP education is questionable, I have no reason to give.  Thanks!