Domain Skill Test for the Post of Personal Assistant - Steno Type Test Instructions

Sep 30, 2026

Uploaded by Jacob

Domain Skill Test instructions specify the English stenography shorthand typing and transcription requirements for the Personal Assistant role. The document defines minimum qualifying speed, dictation and transcription passage lengths and timing, trial practice parameters, and the rules governing software key logging for illegal combinations. It also details standardized word definition, accepted dictionaries for spelling checks, error counting methodology including full, half, and ignored mistakes, and rules for input formatting such as separate text boxes, shorthand-only dictation notes, and punctuation handling.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryExam

FormatPDF

Pages3

Reading Time8 min

AccessFree to download

General Instructions

Transcription related instructions

Domain Skill Test for the Post of Personal Assistant STENO TYPE TEST INSTRUCTIONS General Instructions: 1. The detailed parameters for the English Steno Test are given as below – | S. No. | Item | Steno Typist | | --- | --- | --- | | 1 | Minimum Qualifying parameters | Minimum qualifying speed of at least 100 words per minute in English shorthand; and transcription speed of minimum 20 words per minute in English with maximum 8% of mistakes. | | 2 | Test passage length for dictation | Two paragraphs of 250 words each. All 250 words in each paragraph are given as single paragraph only. | | 3 | Dictation Time | First Para will be of 2 minutes 30 seconds. After arest of 2 minutes; second Para will be dictated for 2 minutes 30 seconds. | | 4 | Transcription Time | 25 minutes for 500 words | | 5 | Trial Passage length for dictation | 200 words | | 6 | Trial Passage Time for dictation | 2 minutes | | 7 | Transcription Practice Time for trial | 2 minutes | 2. The typing test software records all key combinations pressed by the candidate during typing test. Candidate is strongly advised not to press any illegal combinations such as Microsoft Windows Key combinations like Windows+L, Ctr+Alt+Del etc. In such cases candidate will be responsible for the loss of time or any other inconvenience caused. No extra time or chance will be given in such case. Transcription related instructions: 1. Definition of a "word" has been standardized to combination of characters separated by punctuation mark (except hyphen) or space. 2. The following dictionaries/spell checkers will be treated as standard dictionaries/spell checkers for spelling purpose: 􀁸 Oxford Dictionary of English 􀁸 English spell checker provided in MS Office Note-Decision regarding spellings of foreign words, proper nouns and other words not present in any of the above dictionaries/spell checkers will be taken by a committee of language experts constituted for this purpose. 3. CALCULATION OF ERRORS: i) Full mistakes: 3.1.1 Omission of any word 3.1.2 Substitution of any wrong word 3.1.3 Addition of any wrong/Extra word not found in the passage 3.1.4 Candidate is expected to spell properly commonly used English words only as per standard dictionaries/spell checkers. Wrongly spelled words will be treated as full mistake. 3.1.5 English full stop "." (except when used with abbreviations) , Question mark"?" will be considered as separate words and any mistake in them will be treated as full mistake. If there is no space after these punctuation mark, then it will be treated as space error. 3.1.6 Numeric words must be transcribed in numeric form only otherwise it will be treated as full error. Thus, "Five hundred" must be typed as “500” and not as “five hundred”. 3.1.7 Abbreviations and short forms: 3.1.7.1 Abbreviations except titles must be typed as their full form. Thus the words like Government, Private, Limited and Company should be typed in full form and not as Govt., Pvt., Ltd. and Co. respectively, otherwise they will be treated as full mistake. The only exception are the commonly used titles, which can be transcribed as abbreviation or their full form. For example, the dictation words Doctor, Sardar, Professor can be typed as full form or their short forms when used in title. Similarly both Doctor and Dr. will be treated correctly when used as title. So transcribing Dr. Garg as either Dr. Garg or Doctor Garg will be treated as correct. Abbreviation in English has to be followed by dot(“.”), else it will considered as full mistake. (ii) Half mistakes: 3.2.1 Spacing errors: Where no space is provided between two correctly typed words (PanjabUniversity) or a correctly typed word is split into two words due to space (Uni versity) . 3.2.2 Case errors : Wrong use of capital or small letters. Note-All the errors are counted but the total mistakes counted in a single word should not exceed one full mistake. (iii) Ignore mistakes: 3.3.1 Punc

FAQs

What are the minimum qualifying speeds for the English steno test?

Minimum qualifying speed is at least 100 words per minute in English shorthand, and transcription speed of minimum 20 words per minute in English with maximum 8% mistakes.

How long are the dictation passages and transcription time?

The dictation consists of two paragraphs of 250 words each: first paragraph is dictated for 2 minutes 30 seconds, then there is a rest of 2 minutes, and the second paragraph is dictated for 2 minutes 30 seconds. Transcription time is 25 minutes for 500 words.

How are mistakes calculated and categorized?

Full mistakes include omissions, wrong substitutions, extra words, incorrect spelling of commonly used English words per standard dictionaries, and numeric words not typed in numeric form. Half mistakes cover spacing errors and case errors, while certain punctuation and repeated identical wrong spellings may be ignored under defined rules.

Sep 30, 2026

Uploaded by Jacob