After all the hard work you put into your resume and job applications, you finally have a chance to test for a transcription job you can do at home. Then the reality hits. You have to take a test for the job. It does not matter how much past experience or the amount of good references you may have, the only way that you will get the job is to pass a test.
The good news is you can pass the test. You can do it even if you are the worst test taker in the world. You just need a little planning and the rest will fall into place.
Your plan for a week to a day before the test.
If you are lucky enough to know that you have a transcription test in the next week or next couple of days, use that time to study. If you are trying for a medical or legal transcription position, study the terminology. Most people know the areas in which they are weak, so brush up on those areas. Study the formats of the documents you may be tested on and the basic rules of the profession. Medical and legal transcription tests usually include a vocabulary test as well as a transcription practicum section.
For those who are looking into financial, religious, general, or other transcription, brush up on your basic English skills. Reacquaint yourself with tricky homophones or sound-alikes. It is essential for a transcriptionist to know which form of it’s (or its) to use. You will also want to review punctuation rules. Many people confuse comma rules or don’t know how to correctly use a hyphen or semicolon.
Your plan for the day of the test.
First and foremost, it is essential to make sure you relax on the day of the test. If you do not relax, you will make mistakes that 1. You normally would not make and 2. Could cost you the job you have been trying so hard to get.
How do you relax? The first step is to rely on the preparations you have made beforehand. Take confidence in knowing you have the education and if you did not have a shot at the job, the company would not have asked you to test for them. You also should try to get enough sleep the night before. You will want to be alert and awake.
The next step is to make sure you have peace and quiet. Another way to make mistakes is to have too many distractions. Try to do the test when the family is at school or play group, or see if your spouse or a neighbor can take the kids for a while. This is very important to do if you are taking a timed test. Also turn down the phone. Only take essential calls until the test is over.
Every company that sends a test will also send instructions. Make sure that you read those instructions. Then read them again and make sure you understand everything they say.
If you do not understand the instructions, email the company for clarification. It is better to take the time email the company and understand all of the instructions than for you to do something quickly, but wrong, and not get the job.
Your plan for when you are finished with the test.
After you are done transcribing the test, there is still a lot of work for you to do. Your next step is to spell check and proofread the test. The computer will make changes to the words that are spelled wrong, but it will not fix everything that is wrong with your test.
You may have heard the work think, but when you typed it, you left of the “k” and the word is now thin. Spell check will not catch the missing “k.” This is also where your knowledge of homonyms comes into effect. The computer will not know that you meant “too” but typed the number “two”, or that you typed “there” when you wanted the contraction “they’re. ”
You also will want to check for fragments. The computer will catch most, if not all, fragments but it is your job as a transcriptionist to make sure that they become sentences. Then look for run-on sentences. Sentences should be as crisp and concise as possible. A reader should not have to re-read a sentence before they understand what was said because they could not remember the beginning of the sentence. Do your best to shorten the sentence. Just make sure you do not have a bunchof fragments instead.
Now that the proofreading is done, you have one more step before sending it in. You need to re-read the instructions again. Make sure that the transcript is formatted correctly and if there are any special instructions, you follow them to the letter.
Use the instructions as a checklist for before you sent the test in. Companies are looking for transcriptionists who can follow the instructions. They do not want to have to check all of a transcriptionist’s work every time he/she has an assignment. Failure to follow instructions could cost you the job. After all of this is done, you can finally send the test into the company.
Now you can relax and be proud of the job you have done. You will just need to wait to hear from the company about your results. Sometimes it takes weeks or even months to receive your results back from the company, but with patience and perseverance you will pass a test and become a transcriptionist, just like you dreamed.
