so ive been at this for about four months now and im stuck somewhere around 11-12wpm and it feels like ive hit a wall. when i first started i was doing the Koch method with LCWO and honestly the first few months felt like real progress, went from nothing to being able to copy maybe 5-6 words a minute without too much pain. but now its like my brain just stops processing when things speed up even a little bit.

i practice every day, usually 20-30 minutes in the morning before work. mostly just listening to random QSO recordings and doing the LCWO lessons. someone at the club told me i should be sending more, not just receiving, so ive been using a straight key to send back along with whatever im hearing but im not sure if thats actually helping or if im just reinforcing bad habits.

curious how long it took other people to get comfortable around 20wpm, and what actually made the difference. i feel like some days i can copy pretty well and other days its like ive never heard morse code in my life which is frustrating. is that normal or am i doing something wrong

that plateau around 10-13wpm is so real, almost everyone hits it. what helped me more than anything was switching to Farnsworth timing early on - basically keeping the character speed high (like 18-20wpm) but putting longer gaps between the letters so you have time to process. the idea is your brain learns each character as a sound, not by counting dits and dahs. if you slow the whole thing down your brain starts counting again and that kills you later.

also the good days bad days thing is completely normal, honestly it never fully goes away but it gets less dramatic. fatigue, stress, whether you had coffee, all of it affects copy more than people expect. i wouldnt worry about it too much. just keep showing up every day like you already are, thats really the main thing. it took me probably 8 months to feel solid at 20wpm but i wasnt practicing as consistently as you seem to be so you might get there faster.

i'm in almost the exact same spot right now lol, like 11wpm on a good day. someone in another thread mentioned just jumping straight into real QSOs on 40m even if you miss half of it, said that forced his brain to adapt faster than any software practice. havent tried it yet because honestly the idea terrifies me but maybe thats the point