Scopist Training Online - How To Become a Scopist in 2021 ($35-75K/YR!)

Scopist Training To Help You Become a Scopist For Court Reporters

If you’re looking for what Scopist training you need and wondering how to become a Scopist, the good news is that you don’t need to have a college degree to get a job as a Scopist.

However, becoming a Scopist from home is not something you can do without real knowledge or experience in the field, therefore, some form of training will be crucial to become good at any scoping jobs.

Note: If you don’t know much about scoping as a career and wonder what does a Scopist do, I cover that below along with a few other questions you might have about scoping.

This post contains affiliate links.

What Scopist Training Do I Need?

You can enroll in an online Scopist training, or you can get some training from another Scopist that is willing to help mentor you.

In my opinion, it’s best to get some training as a Scopist online yourself. It will give you more credibility when searching for scopist jobs.

After doing some research and reviews, I found a few places where you can get training as a Scopist online.

I will list them first and then review with you my top choice, and why…

I highly recommend the Internet Scoping School. They also have a FREE Scoping Mini-Course you can go through that will help you decide if scoping is right for you.

Why Choose ISS As The Best Scopist Training Online?

Linda Evenson, the course creator has over 35 years of experience as a Scopist.
ISS is highly recommended by National Court Reporters Association in the US (NCRA).
The course uses a modern website that makes it easier for students to navigate in comparison to other courses.
There is no pressure to complete the course within a set time-frame. Other courses must be completed within a year.
Students are able to pay for the training in installments as opposed to one lump sum.
There is lifetime access to the course material online and support.
The course teaches students both how to be Scopist AND how to get scoping jobs.
A private Facebook group is available for students and graduates of the program to make connections, get referrals, ask questions, and help others.

To start with the free Scopist training first, you can get access to the ISS Mini-Course here.

How Long Will it Take To Complete The Scopist Training?

The full course at ISS is self-paced with no rush to complete each module. However, if you are willing and able to dedicate 15-20 hours a week to the training, it is possible to complete it in approximately six months or less.

What is a Scopist? What Do Scopists Do?

A Scopist is basically someone who edits transcripts created by court reports.

Court reports often hire Scopists to edit their legal transcripts to help save them time. Court reporters are often busy writing up various transcripts while in court. Therefore, having a Scopist edit their work is very valuable to them.

The good thing for Scopists is that they don’t have to be in the courtroom to do their job. They can work from home or anywhere!

Keep in mind that scoping from home is different than proofreading from home.

They are both similar, but Scopists edit files after a court reporter types up their work using a steno machine. Proofreaders proof the FINAL copy for any overlooked spelling and grammatical errors after scoping is done.

Scopists must fill out any missing parts in the transcripts, check and correct spelling and other errors and make sure it all makes sense.

A Scopist also needs to know how to put together a transcript, how to read the machine steno notes and how to use the CAT (computer-aided transcription) software. You learn how to do all this with the Internet Scoping School.

How Much Do Scopists Make?

The Scopist salary on average is $35000-45000 a year.

Income as a Scopist will depends on a variety of factors such as:

The speed of typing (recommended at 50 words per minute).
How well you can write.
Years of experience.
How many hours you’re willing to put in.
How comfortable you are working with your software program.
The type of turnaround requests you accept. For example, 1-day turnaround jobs are usually double the regular page rate.

A beginner Scopist may want to start working a few hours a week to get into the groove of scoping while building up clients.

Entry level Scopists can easily make $1000 a month part-time and slowly gain more clients, thus increasing their income with time and experience.

It is not uncommon for beginner Scopists to be making $40,000 a year.

Experienced Scopists can make anywhere between $50,000-$70,000 a year.

What Skills Are Required To Become a Scopist?

For the skills needed to become a Scopist, you should remember that first and foremost, a scopist should have (or be near) perfect English fluency in writing. Since the main job is to edit documents, it is crucial for the scopist to be able to find grammar and other main errors that could easily be left out by the court reporter. This may include spelling, capitalization and punctuation.

A wide vocabulary that includes medical and legal terminology is also a must since scopists will be encountering a lot of medical and legal terms in transcipts.

Aside from these, a scopist should be able to meet the work deadlines provided for each job.

Lastly, scopists must be self-disciplined to work from home and be comfortable working alone.

What Equipment or Tools Do I Need?

To start working as a scopist, you must purchase specialized CAT (computer-aided transcription) software.

There are a few options to choose from such as the Case CATalyst, Eclipse, TurboCat, StenoCat, DigitalCAT, and the ProCAT.

You will learn about them during your online scopist training, but the most commonly used are Case CATalyst and Eclipse.

There are some scopists who use two or more software programs so they can take advantage of more jobs (those that are familiar with a particular court reporter).

However, this is not recommended for novice scopists.

Other Necessary Equipment:

Good Internet connection
Good-quality headphones
Secure laptop or desktop computer

Concluding Thoughts on Training To Become a Scopist

Whether you want to work from home part-time or full-time, you could make good money as a scopist within your first year.

Although you don’t need a degree to learn how to become a scopist, getting some online scopist training, is super valuable and recommended.

You can learn directly from a scopist how to do the job, but ideally, you would take a scopist course to give yourself a competitive edge.

If you need help deciding if scoping is the right career for you, get access to the FREE 7-day mini-course currently available.

Scoping is a unique and in-demand profession, and more and more people are taking notice of it.