Touch-Typing Speed Test

[Ben]

Here we go.

I want to be better!

[TerrorDæmonum]

Wow! Tell me how you learned to type.

Two people in a row haven't posted snapshots.

Touch typing is a skill which can be acquired.

Speed is something which is dependent on the individual's nervous system.

If one were to take a bunch of touch typists, give them a meaningful test, and score them all the same, one would find that touch typing speeds are generally far more modest than what one would think. Speed actually doesn't benefit much these days. If one can type without thinking about it, then that is what matters.

I personally learned to type by using touch typing principles learned in school (but not developed due to lack of use) when I got my first computer and learning to program.

The only abnormality is a heavy preference for the left shift key due to my first computer's keyboard having a broken right shift key.

It is not worth correcting that habit for me. Although, when I use a typewriter, I use both shift keys properly.

[Irenaeus G. Saintonge]

And once more, because why not?

[Bonaventure]

Those fingers, whoa!

[Kaesekopf]

458 CPM, 92 WPM. 

Got all 82 words correctly, though.

[Ben]

And once more, because why not?

Yeah, you'll get better. The more you use that site the better scores you'll get.

Paeniteo says that speed is not all that important. I've heard this elsewhere. That the age of the typist is over. I would like to think that being able to type, say, 110 wpm would make you instantly attractive to employers.

[Ben]

458 CPM, 92 WPM. 

Got all 82 words correctly, though.

Very good! No snapshot though.

Unusual number of great typists here.

[Bonaventure]

What's considered good?

[Irenaeus G. Saintonge]

And once more, because why not?

Yeah, you'll get better. The more you use that site the better scores you'll get.

Paeniteo says that speed is not all that important. I've heard this elsewhere. That the age of the typist is over. I would like to think that being able to type, say, 110 wpm would make you instantly attractive to employers.

Well, I know that if I were to choose between getting my WPM up to, say, 120, or practicing with RiskSolver on Excel, I guarantee that the Excel will be more valuable on a resumé.
I think it is a law of diminishing returns thing, for most people. Obviously someone like a court stenographer or closed captioning transcriber needs a very very high speed, but for most people a 'relatively high' average is all that will really count.

[Kaesekopf]

458 CPM, 92 WPM. 

Got all 82 words correctly, though.

Very good! No snapshot though.

Unusual number of great typists here.

Too lazy and not worth my time to post a picture. 

[Irenaeus G. Saintonge]

What's considered good?

According to the site we are using, the median is 189 characters per minute, and 50th percentile is right around the same spot. So anywhere above that, according to these results, is 'above average'. 75th percentile looks like about 270 CPM, 90th is 360, 95th is 430, and 99th is around 510, I think.

[TerrorDæmonum]

Unusual number of great typists here.

Considering that this forum requires to type to post on it...

Paeniteo says that speed is not all that important. I've heard this elsewhere. That the age of the typist is over. I would like to think that being able to type, say, 110 wpm would make you instantly attractive to employers.

They still have it occasionally as a token, but in reality, touch typing itself is what is valuable. Typing 30 WPM or 230 WPM does not make a difference in terms of work for most jobs. Data entry and transcription are the only two where it would count.

I think it is a law of diminishing returns thing, for most people. Obviously someone like a court stenographer or closed captioning transcriber needs a very very high speed, but for most people a 'relatively high' average is all that will really count.

Actually, no. Those people are not typing.

They are using a chorded key system which is shorthand, and does not have English output. I have some knowledge of this (I owned such a machine, but I did not learn to use it in a functional way, I just now how to).

The skill of those people is not in typing. It is in listening and mastering the shorthand system they are using.

That is actually a difficult and specialty skill to obtain, as the standards are strict, and the skill requiring a lot of practice.

Here is what the output looks like:



It says:

"This is an example of machine shorthand from a steno keyboard with paper."

[Eliza]

[Eliza]

ok, so my image didn't work. But I got 92 wpm.

[Archer]

Your score: 413 CPM (that is 83 WPM)

Your score beats or equals 94.27% of all!

In reality, you typed 421 CPM, but you made 1 mistake (out of 79 words), which was not counted in the corrected CPM score.

Your mistake was:
Instead of "brought", you typed "borught".