so ive been trying to learn CW for about 3 months now and i feel like im totally stuck at 5wpm. i can copy most letters fine when theyre sent slow but anything faster than maybe 6 or 7 and my brain just falls apart. i start missing letters and then i panic and miss more letters and it just snowballs from there.

ive been using the LCWO website which everyone seems to recommend and i do the Koch method lessons but i feel like i hit a wall. my elmer told me to just listen to a lot of code even if i cant copy it all, like just let it wash over you, but honestly that feels a little weird and i dont know if its actually helping or if im just wasting time.

is there a specific way people practice that actually works for building speed? like should i be doing short sessions every day or longer ones a few times a week? also at what point do people usually start trying to copy real QSOs on the air instead of just practice material

the wall you're hitting around 5-7wpm is super common and almost everyone goes through it. the thing that finally got me moving was switching from character speed and overall speed being the same, to using Farnsworth timing — basically sending each character at maybe 15-18wpm but putting longer gaps between them. sounds counterintuitive but it trains your ear to hear letters as sounds instead of counting dots and dashes, which is what slows people down at that stage.

on LCWO you can set this in the settings, theres a spot for character speed separate from effective speed. i'd try setting character speed to 15 and effective to 8 or so and just work from there, creeping the effective speed up every week or two once you're comfortable. also your elmer is right about listening even when you cant copy it all — your brain is still processing patterns even when you think its not. i remember thinking the same thing but it genuinely does sink in over time. short daily sessions beat long occasional ones every single time for this kind of thing, even just 15 minutes a day is better than two hours on a Saturday.

honestly same boat here not too long ago. what helped me more than anything was just getting on the air even when i felt completely not ready. like i found the CWT mini contests and just listened for a while, then one day i just answered a CQ and the guy sent slower when i asked QRS and we actually had a QSO. it was rough and i missed a bunch but after that i was way more motivated than i ever was just staring at the computer doing drills.

also someone told me about the app called Morse Mania which is more gamey and i used that on my phone during lunch breaks. probably not as systematic as LCWO but kept me from getting bored with it