Legal Dictation for Shorthand and Steno Exams

Legal dictation is the passage a steno or shorthand candidate writes down while someone reads it aloud at a fixed speed. The candidate then types a transcript inside a set time, and the transcript is marked for mistakes. In the English shorthand tests we checked, the Supreme Court of India sets the speed at 120 words per minute for Court Master (Shorthand), with 45 minutes for transcription ^{1 2}. Other notices in the same range use 100 to 110 words per minute ^{3 4}.

The notices fix the speed, the time and the error limit. None of the notices we checked says what the dictated passage contains, so this guide covers the exam rules and a practice method, and says where the evidence on legal language is thin. For a short definition, see what legal dictation is. Our overview of dictation for work and study covers the other professions that rely on dictated text.

Legal dictation is a passage read at a fixed speed, written in shorthand and then transcribed

Dictation is the act of saying words aloud for another person to write down. In a steno exam, the examiner reads at a fixed speed and the candidate writes in shorthand.

Shorthand is the tool. A typical shorthand system uses symbols or abbreviations for words and common phrases, which can let a well-trained writer keep up with speech ⁵. The shorthand glossary entry explains the main systems, and the stenotype entry describes the chorded machine that US court reporters use. For comparison, the US court reporter's testimony standard is 225 words per minute at 95 percent accuracy ⁶, and the UK journalists' Teeline certification requires 100 words per minute ⁷. The Indian figures in this guide, at 100 to 120 words per minute ^{3 1}, sit well below the US testimony standard. For the wider comparison, see stenography and shorthand.

The exam has two parts, and both are timed. The dictation is read at a set speed. Then the candidate transcribes, usually on a computer, and the transcript is checked for mistakes against the number of words dictated. A notice may also test typing separately, as the Supreme Court's notices do ⁸.

The notices we checked publish speed, passage length, transcription time and error limits

Recruitment notices are the main official source for these figures, and they differ by court and by post. The table below sets out the English shorthand rules in the notices we could open. Each figure is cited to the notice it comes from.

The Supreme Court notice gives the speed and the time for transcription, but not the length of the passage. The Delhi High Court notice states the passage length directly. Every notice in the table also sets a mistake limit, so a candidate has to plan for a fixed error budget as well as a speed. Across the notices, the speed sits between 100 and 120 words per minute for English ^{3 1}, as the chart shows.

The Goa figure is from a state government scheme, not a High Court, and it is included to show the same 100 words per minute standard outside the High Courts. Goa's junior stenographer test is set at ¹⁶. Read how fast stenographers type for the steno side, and how fast shorthand writing is for pen systems.

The chart compares only the English test. Notices for other languages set their own speeds, covered below.

The Supreme Court's 2024 advertisement sets three speeds for three posts

The Supreme Court of India's 2024 advertisement covers three posts: Court Master (Shorthand), Senior Personal Assistant and Personal Assistant ^{1 17 18}. Each post has its own shorthand speed. The three posts share the same 45-minute transcription window ^{2 19 20} and the same 5 percent mistake limit ^{9 21 22}.

The Court Master post also requires a computer typing speed of 40 words per minute, with 2 percent mistakes allowed ⁸. The senior post has the same 40 words per minute typing speed, with a looser 3 percent limit ²³.

The notice does not explain why the posts differ in speed. It sets the figures as entry and test requirements, so a candidate for a post should plan around that post's number, not the highest figure in the notice. The guide to typing speed for jobs covers the wider set of typing tests in government recruitment.

Mistakes are scored in steps, so the error limit works as a budget you can count

Each notice sets a permitted share of the words dictated as the mistake limit. The Delhi High Court notice states the figure directly: 4 percent of the words dictated ¹². The Delhi International Arbitration Centre notice gives the count for its passage: 3 percent of 500 words ¹³ is fifteen mistakes ¹⁵.

Marks are lost in different ways. The Supreme Court grading table takes off a fixed amount for each step of mistakes. A transcript with no mistakes scores 100 percent, and a transcript with up to 5 percent mistakes scores 50 percent ²⁴. The Delhi High Court notice deducts two marks for each full mistake ²⁵. The 2022 Delhi arbitration notice deducts four marks for each full mistake ²⁶.

Whichever system applies, start by working out how many errors the passage allows. Then count your own mistakes in practice against that number, so the limit is a figure you already know on the day.

Transcription time is eight minutes for each dictated minute in the 2022 Delhi notice

The transcription window is longer than the dictation in every notice that states both. The 2022 Delhi arbitration notice gives 40 minutes to transcribe the dictated passage, with no extra time for reading it ¹⁴. The 2024 Delhi High Court notice gives the same 40 minutes on computers ¹¹. Against five minutes of dictation ²⁷, that is eight minutes of transcription for each minute of dictation ²⁸.

Speed per word is a useful way to see the pace. At 120 words per minute, a candidate has half a second for each word ²⁹. At 100 words per minute, the time per word is 0.6 seconds ³⁰. Moving from 100 to 120 words per minute cuts the time for each word from 0.6 seconds ³⁰ to 0.5 seconds ²⁹. These are averages across a whole passage, not targets for each word.

Plan to type the whole passage once inside the window, then use the last part of it to check. A transcript that has not been checked can still carry errors, and the mistake limit counts every one of them.

U.S. Supreme Court writing has grown harder to read, and legal Latin adds a spelling burden

The notices do not describe the text of a legal dictation. The difficulty of legal language therefore has to be taken from research on court writing, not from exam notices. The research is about readability, and the notices do not compare legal with general dictation, so this section does not claim that legal passages are harder than others. Ryan Whalen's 2015 study of more than six thousand U.S. Supreme Court opinions is the most direct evidence we found. It states that the study analyzed "the full text of 6,206 Supreme Court opinions" ³¹, and it concludes that "legal writing at the Court has become more complex and difficult to read in recent decades" ³².

Whalen measured difficulty with SMOG, a readability index. SMOG "looks to the length of sentences and the number of long multisyllabic words in each" ³³. That is a formula, so it can show that a passage is long-worded, but not whether a candidate will understand it. The study is also about U.S. opinions, not Indian judgments, so it is a guide to the kind of writing, not a measure of an Indian exam.

Latin is the second difficulty. Legal Latin is a set of terms "wholly or substantially drawn from Latin, or anglicized Law Latin" ³⁴. One example is a fortiori, which is "meaning that, because one fact is true, a second (related and included) fact must also be true" ³⁵. A candidate who hears the phrase has to write it correctly, and cannot always work it out from the words around it.

Two practical lessons follow. Practice with long sentences and Latin phrases, and check how you spell them in your transcript. For the wider set of legal writing tools, see legal dictation software and legal transcription.

Practice with timed audio at rising speeds, then transcribe inside the exam's time limit

Structured dictation practice is often used to build shorthand speed and listening accuracy ³⁶. The plan below uses the figures from the notices above, so you can check your progress against a real target. The full method is in how to practice legal dictation.

1. Start at 100 words per minute. That is the English speed in the Delhi arbitration notice and the Personal Assistant post in the Supreme Court advertisement ^{3 18}.
2. Take down a five-minute passage. At 100 words per minute, five minutes is 500 words ¹³, the same length as the Delhi test.
3. Transcribe within 40 minutes. That is the Delhi window for five minutes of dictation ¹⁴. Stop the timer at 40 minutes whether or not you have finished.
4. Count your mistakes against the limit. A 500-word passage ¹³ allows fifteen mistakes at 3 percent ¹⁵. Count every error and record the total.
5. Move up only when you are under the limit. Once you can transcribe at 100 words per minute with fewer mistakes than the limit, move to 110 ⁴, and then to 120 for the Court Master test ¹.

Use audio you can stop, replay and time, since a live reader cannot be paused. Practice with the same kind of passage the notice describes, and keep a log of each attempt. Speed without accuracy loses marks under a notice with a 3 or 4 percent limit ^{15 12}.

Shorthand outlines for frequent legal phrases save the most time

A phrase that appears again and again in court language is the best candidate for a single outline. Shorthand systems provide symbols for common phrases ⁵. The time saved on a phrase you write every day compounds across a long passage, so a list of your own phrases is one of the most useful practice tools.

Build the list from your practice audio, not from memory. Each time a phrase comes up twice, write it as an outline in your system and note it. When you meet the same phrase in the next passage, use the outline. The shorthand outline question explains how to set up the list and how to test it. The stenography and shorthand guide covers the pen and steno systems side by side.

Do not learn outlines from a source you have not checked. A wrong outline can cost more time than none, because you have to stop and correct it under the clock.

Hindi and other Indian-language tests follow their own notices, so check the speed for your language

The notices behind this guide test English, so this guide gives no Hindi or regional speed. Language tests are set out in the notice for each post, and a Hindi test can carry its own shorthand speed, typing speed and mistake limit. Check the notice for your language and post before you plan your practice, and do not assume the English figures apply. The question on Hindi legal dictation explains how to find the notice and what to look for.

Read the full scheme of examination rather than the speed line alone. The transcription window, the typing test and the marking rules are often set in the same table.

Transcription is now typed on a computer, so typing speed is tested too

The notices test typing as a separate skill. The Supreme Court's Court Master post requires 40 words per minute of computer typing, with 2 percent mistakes allowed ⁸. The Senior Personal Assistant post has the same speed with a 3 percent limit ²³. A candidate who writes shorthand quickly but cannot type at 40 words per minute ⁸ will not meet the typing requirement in these notices.

Dictation work has moved to computers in other settings too. Digital dictation recordings can be encrypted and sent to a transcription service by cloud platform, local network, FTP server or email ³⁷. The digital dictation entry defines the term, and the typing speed guide covers how typing speed is measured and what counts as fast.

The notices test shorthand and typing separately, so train both in every practice session rather than leaving typing until the end.

Start from the notice for your exam, then use the guides for your practice

Each figure in this guide is cited to the notice it comes from, and each notice applies to its own post and cycle. Use the notice for your post as the authority, and use this guide to understand what it means. The Supreme Court's Court Master test is the most demanding example in the notices we read, at 120 words per minute ¹.

For related guides in this area, see legal dictation software, legal transcription, medical dictation and speech to text for students. The overview of dictation for work and study lists every guide in the group.