To earn the Registered Professional Reporter credential, you must pass a 120-question Written Knowledge Test and three five-minute skills legs dictated at 180, 200, and 225 words per minute, each graded to 95 percent accuracy. The RPR certification requirements are set by the National Court Reporters Association (NCRA), and all four components must be passed within a rolling three-year window or the earliest score expires. Once awarded, the credential is kept active through NCRA membership and continuing education.
Who Can Sit for the Exam
You do not need to be an NCRA member to take the RPR.1National Court Reporters Association. Registered Professional Reporter (RPR) Membership lowers the fee for every component, so most candidates join before their first attempt, but it is not an eligibility gate. NCRA also does not require a specific degree or program completion. Most candidates come out of formal stenographic court reporting programs because the speed standards are hard to reach without that training, but the association sets no formal educational prerequisite.
Registration goes through NCRA’s portal. For the Written Knowledge Test, NCRA sends confirmation and scheduling instructions within three business days of your registration.2Pearson VUE. National Court Reporters Association (NCRA)
The Written Knowledge Test
The WKT is a 120-question multiple-choice exam. Only 100 questions count toward your score; the other 20 are unscored pilot questions mixed in without identification.3National Court Reporters Association. Written Knowledge Tests – FAQs A scaled score of 70 or better passes.1National Court Reporters Association. Registered Professional Reporter (RPR)
The scored questions are distributed across three domains:1National Court Reporters Association. Registered Professional Reporter (RPR)
- Technology and Innovation, 43 percent. Software, hardware, security protocols, data storage, realtime translation tools, and protecting sensitive transcript files.
- Industry Practices, 34 percent. Transcript formatting, legal and medical terminology, parentheticals for non-verbal action, and the mechanics of deposition and courtroom work.
- NCRA, Professionalism, and Ethics, 23 percent. The NCRA Code of Professional Ethics and the impartiality obligations reporters carry.4National Court Reporters Association. NCRA Code of Professional Ethics
Technology is the heaviest domain. A study plan built around terminology and ethics leaves the largest section of the exam underserved.
You can take the WKT online through Pearson VUE’s OnVue platform or at a Pearson VUE test center.3National Court Reporters Association. Written Knowledge Tests – FAQs A preliminary pass/fail result and domain breakdown appear immediately after you finish. Official scores arrive by email two to four weeks after the testing window closes.5National Court Reporters Association. Written Knowledge Test Information
The Skills Test
The Skills Test is three separate five-minute dictation legs, each simulating a different kind of speech encountered in legal proceedings:1National Court Reporters Association. Registered Professional Reporter (RPR)
- Literary, 180 wpm. Standard prose or narrative speech.
- Jury Charge, 200 wpm. The technical instructions a judge reads to a jury before deliberation.
- Testimony, 225 wpm. Question-and-answer exchanges between attorneys and witnesses.
Each leg must be transcribed at 95 percent accuracy to pass.1National Court Reporters Association. Registered Professional Reporter (RPR) On the testimony leg, 225 wpm over five minutes produces 1,125 words, which gives you a ceiling of 56 errors.
Skills testing is conducted online from your own location. After the dictation plays, you have 75 minutes to edit your raw steno output and upload the final transcript.6National Court Reporters Association. How to Take an Online Skills Test with Realtime Coach, Guardian and Record+ That window covers all editing, proofreading, and file attachment.
What Counts as an Error
The error rubric is more granular than many candidates expect. NCRA counts each of the following:7National Court Reporters Association. What is an Error
- Wrong words, including a singular written as a plural or a verb written in the wrong tense.
- Omitted words. Every dropped word is a separate error.
- Added words you insert that were not in the dictation.
- Transposed words. Each word moved out of position is its own error.
- Misspellings, typos, and strikeovers.
- Wrong names.
- Missing or misplaced punctuation. Omitted periods, commas, and obvious question marks each count. Adding a question mark to a statement also counts.
- Contractions written as two words, or two words written as a contraction.
- Missing Q and A indicators in question-and-answer format.
- Incorrect numbers or money figures when spelled out.
- Omitted required capitalization.
- Splitting a compound word in two or joining two words into one, and substituting words for an acronym.
A transcript submitted entirely in all capitals or all lowercase is an automatic fail, regardless of error count.7National Court Reporters Association. What is an Error
Skills results come back by email within 10 to 15 business days of your test.8National Court Reporters Association. Online Skills Testing – FAQs, Requirements, and Policies Expedited scoring is not available.
Exam Fees
WKT pricing depends on membership status:5National Court Reporters Association. Written Knowledge Test Information
- Student member: $181
- Reporter member: $220
- Non-member: $253
Skills test pricing is per leg, with a discounted bundle for registering two legs together:9National Court Reporters Association. Online Skills Test Registration
- RPR member: $110 per single leg, $165 for a dual bundle
- Student: $90 per single leg, $135 for a dual bundle
- Non-member: $144 per single leg, $216 for a dual bundle
A member who passes all three skills legs at these rates spends $275 on skills testing. A non-member spends $360.
Equipment Rules for Online Testing
Because skills testing runs on your own machine, the equipment rules are strict enough to disqualify an attempt before the dictation starts:6National Court Reporters Association. How to Take an Online Skills Test with Realtime Coach, Guardian and Record+
- Internet: minimum 3 Mbps down and 3 Mbps up; 12 Mbps down and 8 Mbps up recommended.
- Operating system: Windows 11 or macOS 10.13 at minimum, macOS 10.15 recommended. Windows 10 is no longer supported as of October 2025.
- Webcam: external strongly recommended; built-in laptop cameras are allowed but cause positioning issues after the room scan.
- Audio: wired headphones only. Bluetooth is not permitted.
- Browser: the Guardian Browser must be installed.
- Display: one monitor only. Disable any second display before testing.
Chromebooks, tablets, smartphones, and Linux machines are not supported. Remote-control software such as TeamViewer or AnyDesk must be uninstalled or fully disabled, and Kaspersky security software is known to block the testing platform. Run a full system check before your window opens so you have time to troubleshoot.
The Three-Year Clock on Passed Components
NCRA sets no cap on retakes. You can sit for any failed component as many times as it is offered.10National Court Reporters Association. Exam Retention Policy The constraint is time. Once you pass any single component, whether the WKT or a skills leg, a three-year clock starts on that specific result. If the remaining components are not passed within those three years, the expired score is wiped and that test must be retaken.
Each passed component has its own expiration date tied to its own pass date. Pass the literary leg in January 2026 and the jury charge leg in July 2026, and those scores expire in January 2029 and July 2029 respectively.10National Court Reporters Association. Exam Retention Policy Candidates who stall on the testimony leg or the WKT can end up retaking components they already cleared. Keep your attempts bunched together.
Keeping the Credential Active
The RPR is not a once-and-done credential. To keep it active, you must maintain NCRA membership and complete continuing education on a rolling three-year cycle.1National Court Reporters Association. Registered Professional Reporter (RPR) The first cycle begins the day the credential is awarded and ends on the first September 30 that falls at least three years later.
Each cycle requires 3.0 total continuing education credits, with at least 2.0 of those coming from Continuing Education Units (CEUs). The remaining credit can come from other approved activities. Up to 0.5 extra units can be carried into the next cycle, but only if submitted within the cycle they were earned.11National Court Reporters Association. Continuing Education Program Rules
Fall short at the cycle end date and NCRA grants one four-month extension per cycle. That extension is subtracted from the start of the next cycle, shortening the runway for the next round of credits.11National Court Reporters Association. Continuing Education Program Rules
Where the RPR Fits With State Licensing
The RPR is a national credential, but court reporting is regulated state by state, so the RPR alone does not necessarily qualify you to work. According to NCRA’s state certification requirements, at least 14 states either require the RPR or accept it as satisfying their skill-testing requirement for state licensure: Arizona, California, Georgia, Iowa, Kentucky, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia.12National Court Reporters Association. State Certification Requirements Some states on that list treat the RPR as mandatory; others treat it as one of several qualifying pathways, and in a few, licensure itself is voluntary. States not on that list may require their own Certified Shorthand Reporter exam or a separate state-administered skills test. Check your state before assuming the RPR is enough.