Testing information
Online Skills Tests
You have to pass three five-minute Skills Tests (SKT), which evaluate your skills level in three areas:
- Literary at 180 wpm
- Jury Charge at 200 wpm
- Testimony/Q&A at 225 wpm
After dictation, you will have three minutes to attach your steno notes and then 75 minutes to transcribe and submit your final transcript. You must have 95 percent accuracy on each leg to pass.
You do not have to pass all the components of the exam at one time.
RPR - What is an error?
All candidates are required to read the Skills Test instructions and technical requirements prior to registering and taking their test.
Written Knowledge Test
The Written Knowledge Test, or WKT, is a 120*- question, multiple-choice test that focuses on three areas that come from the RPR Job Analysis:
- Technology and Innovation (43%)
- Industry Practices (34%)
- NCRA, Professionalism, and Ethics (23%)
You must pass with a scaled score** of 70 or better.
* To provide candidates with a valid and reliable test, NCRA pretests items for the RPR Written Knowledge Test (WKT). Pretesting ensures that all items on an examination are items with good statistics and no brand-new, untried items will appear on any test. This means that the WKT will have 120 items instead of 100. These pretest items will not be scored, so the WKT score is only based off 100 items. Candidates will not know which items are pretest items. Candidates have 110 minutes to complete all items on the test.
** Scaled scoring is a means of assuring fairness and consistency in the difficulty level from one test administration to the next, achieved by applying two widely accepted standard-setting methods to each individual test question. NCRA works with Pearson VUE and the Test Advisory Committee to ensure that NCRA's programs continue to meet testing industry standards.
All candidates are required to read the Written Knowledge Test information prior to registering and taking their test.