Are you able to run the Audio Setup Wizard which should have popped up before the tutorial? This is where you set the volume levels of the microphone.

Below my sign-off are some new user tips.

--
Martin Markoe, eMicrophones, Inc.

I have several suggestions to make your transition to Dragon NaturallySpeaking more fruitful:
1. Read, "Key Steps to High Speech Recognition Accuracy" at:
http://www.emicrophones.com/docDetails.asp?DocumentID=38

2. Go to our Links/Articles page at:
http://www.emicrophones.com/articles/index.asp
Listen to the three sound files on How to Sound and How Not to Sound. Essentially, it may be continuous speech, but it is not conversational speech you need to master. Each word must be enunciated clearly. Speaking in phrases, helps the system because the system is listening not only for the sounds of words but comparing each word to words before and after for context clues.

3. http://www.emicrophones.com/faq_answer.asp?contentID=69
The above link in our Dragon NaturallySpeaking FAQ or frequently asked questions section, tells you the proper way to create a new user profile including when to add your typical documents (not during the training phase).

4. When you begin to make corrections, make corrections within the context of at least one other word. This will improve the speech profile as relates to your particular style of speaking and will increase the probability that the word will be recognized correctly the next time you speak it.

The 1st time you launched NaturallySpeaking
it most likely prompted you to create a new user profile. You may have
created a user profile but you probably didn't train it and that is a no-no. You
cannot use NaturallySpeaking until it is properly set up which means creating
a user profile, running the Audio Setup Wizard and then continuing with a 7
minute training session. You can elect to skip general training but we do not
recommend it. Try the following:

Click the NaturallySpeaking menu. You
should see a menu item labeled 'Prepare user for Dictation'. After you have successfully trained NaturallySpeaking
this menu item will appear in gray because it is no longer necessary. However,
you will probably find it black because you haven't finished training your user
profile. You will probably note that most other menu items are currently gray
too. Just click this menu option and follow the prompts. You should be up and
running in about 10 minutes. If you'd like a crash course on
NaturallySpeaking you might want to check out the "How Do I
(Start)" chapter of our KnowBrainer Installation/Training
Guide

Note that when you purchase Speech
Recognition Microphones, Digital Recorders and NaturallySpeaking software/utilities
from Nuance Gold Licensed vendors you typically gain you an extra layer of
Nuance Certified tech support. Our customers do not have to post these types
of questions

Additional responses to this question are available on
the KnowBrainer
Speech Recognition Forum

Lunis Orcutt - Developer of KnowBrainer &

Host
of the Http://www.KnowBrainer.com Speech Recognition Forum

A Nuance Gold Certified Endorsed Dragon
NaturallySpeaking Vendor/Trainer

ALWAYS Ask If Your Speech Recognition Vendor Is
Nuance Certified

Best thing to do is to nail that exam down. Later, when you have some quality time, explore DNS, which requires some attention and practice to produce the best results.

Bruce