so ive been at this for almost a year now and i started from zero, got up to about 13wpm pretty comfortably but now i just feel like im hitting a wall. my copying falls apart when i push past that speed and i get this weird panic thing where i start trying to write every letter as it comes in and then i miss the next one and everything kind of cascades from there.

i know the goal is supposed to be head copying but honestly i dont even know how to practice that specifically. right now i mostly use the W1AW code practice files and some random QSO generators online. im going for the 20wpm extra class eventually but at this point 20 feels pretty far off. anybody gone through this and gotten past it? what actually worked for you

oh man yeah the 13-15wpm plateau is real, i spent like 4 months parked right there and thought i was just not wired for it. what finally broke it for me was forcing myself to listen at 18 or even 20wpm even when i was only copying maybe 30% of it. sounds counterproductive but your brain starts recognizing the rhythm of whole words instead of individual letters and eventually something clicks. the Koch method talks about this, always train at or slightly above your target speed not below it.

also the panicking and trying to write everything is exactly the wrong instinct, i know its hard to just let letters go but you really do have to get comfortable missing stuff. if you copy 60% of a qso you usually have enough context to fill in the rest. took me forever to actually believe that but its true. keep at it, the plateau does end

just chiming in cause im kinda in the same boat, around 11wpm right now. somebody on another forum told me to try LCWO dot net if you havent already, you can set character speed high like 20wpm and just slow down the spacing between letters (Farnsworth method i think its called). that way your brain learns the sounds at the right speed even if you have more time to process. seemed to help me at least with recognizing the characters faster even if my overall copying speed isnt there yet