VideoText workflow guide
Preparing for the GoTranscript qualification test? This guide covers exactly what the test evaluates, the most common formatting errors that cause failures, and how to practice before submitting.
The guidelines page carries dated changes at the top. The ? prefix for an uncertain speaker (March 2022) and the removal of [sic] (November 2019) are both live rules that older tutorials and forum posts still get wrong.
Get the words down, then make a separate clean-verbatim pass: fillers and stutters out, uninformative false starts out, emphasis repetitions kept, slang expanded, "Oh" kept. Trying to do both at once is where words get dropped.
A bold label, colon and single space on every turn, including in a single-speaker file. [inaudible 00:00:00] or [unintelligible 00:00:00] with full hours, minutes and seconds at the exact point, and [crosstalk] where speakers overlap.
No timestamps. No [sic]. No exclamation marks. No bracket note outside the listed set. Then check single-digit numbers are spelled out, and that nothing has been added to demonstrate thoroughness.
Clean verbatim text. Speaker names in CAPITAL LETTERS followed by a colon. Timestamps in [HH:MM:SS] format at 2-minute intervals and at speaker changes. No paragraph longer than 8 lines. Inaudible sections marked [inaudible]. False starts and fillers removed.
Clean verbatim on most jobs, full verbatim where the job says so. Bold speaker labels followed by a colon and a single space. [inaudible 00:00:00] and [unintelligible 00:00:00] for unclear audio, [crosstalk] for overlapping speech. Timestamps only where the job calls for them, in bold [00:00:00]. Paragraph breaks at topic shifts, under roughly 500 symbols.
Structured document with consistent heading-style speaker labels, paragraph breaks, correctly formatted timestamps, and clean or full verbatim as specified. Formatted for direct delivery — no manual cleanup required before attaching to the client email.
Run a practice recording through the GoTranscript preset in the Guideline Format tool and compare the output against your own draft. The differences are the rules you have not internalised yet, which is more useful than re-reading the guidelines a third time.
Re-read the update log, then check the rejected file against the four deletions above before assuming the problem was accuracy. Over-formatting is the more common cause and the easier one to fix.
If you already transcribe where every filler is kept, practise the clean-verbatim pass deliberately. The habit of preserving everything spoken is the hardest one to switch off under test conditions.
Correctly formatted [00:00:00] stamps on a test that asks for none — the single most cited reason a competent submission fails.
Um, uh and you know kept because the speaker said them. On a clean-verbatim test that is not faithfulness, it is the error being tested for.
The tag without its full HH:MM:SS time. The test checks the shape of the tag as much as the fact that the audio was unclear.
A monologue submitted with no speaker label, on the reasoning that there is nobody to distinguish them from. The labelling rule applies regardless.
Clean verbatim by default. Speaker names in ALL CAPS followed by a colon. Timestamp format [HH:MM:SS] every 2 minutes and at speaker changes. Maximum paragraph: 8 lines. Inaudible: [inaudible]. Crosstalk: [crosstalk]. False starts and filler words removed.
Clean verbatim by default, full verbatim where the job specifies it. Bold speaker label, colon, single space (Speaker 1:, Interviewer:), with a ? prefix when the speaker is uncertain. [inaudible 00:00:00] for speech that cannot be heard and [unintelligible 00:00:00] for speech heard but not understood; [crosstalk] for overlap. Timestamps are job-dependent: bold [00:00:00] every 2 minutes or at every speaker change. Paragraphs under roughly 500 symbols. Spell out zero through nine.
Strict verbatim — all fillers and false starts preserved. Timestamps required at each speaker turn. Speaker format "SPEAKER NAME:" in caps. Specific bracket format for technical notation. Paragraph breaks only at speaker changes.
Many agencies specify hybrid rules that don't map cleanly to any standard guide — for example, Rev-style speaker labels with GoTranscript-style clean verbatim and no timestamps at all. These combinations must be documented explicitly because the formatter cannot infer them.
The GoTranscript qualification test is clean verbatim with no timestamping required (per their official guidelines). It tests accurate transcription, speaker separation, speaker label format, inaudible/unintelligible notation, and clean-verbatim rules (fillers removed, slang expanded).
Allow enough time to transcribe carefully and review your work. Focus on clean verbatim accuracy, bold speaker labels, correct inaudible tags, and removing fillers — not on adding timestamps (the test does not require them).
GoTranscript does not publish an exact passing score on their guidelines page. Test transcripts are evaluated by their team. After approval, editors rate ongoing work on a 1–5 accuracy scale (96–100% = score 5).
The most common test failures are: (1) adding timestamps when the test explicitly requires none; (2) keeping filler words that clean verbatim requires you to remove; (3) wrong inaudible format — use [inaudible 00:00:00] with full HH:MM:SS, not plain [inaudible].
Use VideoText's Guideline Format tool with the GoTranscript preset: paste a draft transcript, remove fillers, apply bold speaker labels, and use correct [inaudible 00:00:00] tags. Practice clean verbatim without timestamps to match the actual test format.