Yes, I remember copying the ARRL practices, and then checking my copies
against QST. Sometimes, they would transmit the text backwards to make
it nearly impossible to guess while copying.

The man who taught me Morse code (VE2BRD) used to say that code is
a sequence of sounds, not a set of pictures in a dictionary. Once you
have grabbed that simple fact, learning to identify each character as
a self-contained sound pattern and immediatly write it down is not that
hard.

Learning the Morse code remains a worthwhile endeavor IMHO. Good
luck to anyone who will try!