How fast can you type?

[Karen G]

Take this typing test and find out. I was happy to see that I could type 75 wpm with no errors, pretty good for an old typing teacher.

 

[glypnirsgirl]

I type much slower when taking a typing test instead of just typing what I am thinking --- at least I think that is the explanation as to why i scored a 24 WPM. I have never had a formal typing class, I have just learned on my own. When I first started, I had to look at my fingers, but I have been past that a long time now. Still, 24WPM stinks!

elaine

 

[AwayWeGo]

Lickety-Split.

Fast enough for all practical purposes.

-- Alan Cole, McLean (Fairfax County), Virginia, USA.​

 

[Cathyb]

Hard one!

Take this typing test and find out. I was happy to see that I could type 75 wpm with no errors, pretty good for an old typing teacher.

I've taken many typing tests in my past (was exec secretary for 20 yrears) and this was by far the hardest with quotes, etc. I did terrible. Of course it was my long, fake nails that caused it right?

 

[dougp26364]

32 wpm. Gosh, and I actually thought I had become faster than when I took typing back in high school.

 

[siesta]

I haven't warmed up, my fingers still need cracking, and I haven't speed typed in awhile but here are my results:

75 Words per minute, 4 word errors leading to 94% Accuracy (I blame the name Roethlisberger as I was doing the sports one), adjusted speed is 71 words per minute.

How does my speed compare?
Your adjusted speed of 71 WPM was
97% above the average 36 WPM. Restart test
Share your resultsExcellent typing speed! See how much time you save Compared to the average typist...Average*36 Your speed71

 

[BevL]

Well, I was a little apprehensive as I make my living typing - transcriber.

Two minute test, 84 words with two errors so adjusted of 83 - astronauts was my subject.

First day back from holidays - I'm not sure if that helped or hurt me.

 

[stmartinfan]

Adjusted speed of 77 (84 with 3 errors)- which is about what I was able to do when I used to have to take typing tests (on a real typwriter) to get hired for some of my first jobs. And a few of them were on manual typewriters!

 

[SueDonJ]

Hey, that's a pretty good online test! It's one of the only ones I've ever taken that gives consistent results every time - took it five times between last night and today with five different subjects and varying between one and two minutes. Highest score was 64 with no errors, lowest was 61 with two errors.

But I'm going to keep taking it over and over until one of those zen typing sessions kicks in. All of us who typed for our jobs know what those are, right? You're working just like normal and then all of a sudden you realize that you've been typing faster than the speed of light for pages and pages with no errors and you have no idea how it happened! I can remember it happening just three times - once when typing a health insurance claims manual into the computer system, once when transcribing a real estate contract dispute deposition, and the last time was when I was typing a long post somewhere in that monster Aruba thread.

My typing teacher from all those years ago would be proud - he accused me daily of talking too much and not paying attention. Truthfully, Vinny in the second row third seat had more of my attention than Mr. R did.

 

[AwayWeGo]

Typing Class.

My typing teacher from all those years ago would be proud - he accused me daily of talking too much and not paying attention. Truthfully, Vinny in the second row third seat had more of my attention than Mr. R did.

Typing was the most useful & practical class I ever took. I doubt I would have graduated from college in 4 years + 2 summer sessions without already having summer session high school typing under my belt, even though my final grade in typing class was just C. So it goes.

In the summer of 1960, when the bell rang at the start of the 1st day of typing class, my bassoon-playing class-clown band pal, who enrolled in typing with me, uncovered his Remington Rand & immediately raised his hand. "Teacher!" he said in astonishment. "My typewriter is all messed up!"

"What exactly is the trouble, Robert?" the teacher said.

"The keys are all out of order on this typewriter. Instead of going A-B-C-D-E-F-G-H-I-J-K-L-M-N-O-P, they go Q-W-E-R-T-Y-U-I-O-P-A-S-D-F. I don't see how I'll ever be able to learn how to type with the keys all messed up like that."

-- Alan Cole, McLean (Fairfax County), Virginia, USA.​

 

[stmartinfan]

I think I've found a new obsession! After a couple more scores in the 80s, I finally made 91! (Only 1 error in a 2 minute test, so that helped keep the score up.)

I remember taking a typing test to get an Air Force job; to get hired you needed to hit 50 words a minute, but they only allowed 3 errors. The test examiner would check your sheet for errors. As soon as he/she got to the third error, he'd figure the speed to that point; anything beyond that point wouldn't count towards your speed. I really needed the job, so it was agony to take the test knowing I'd made an error or two at the beginning and couldn't afford another one. Of course, no backspacing to simply correct the error!

 

[laurac260]

back in the days of regular keyboards I typed 1200 keystrokes a minute. Laptop keyboards have since messed up my typing abilities, as the keys are much closer together than I am used to. I'll have to take the test to see how I do, but not tonite. Too tired!

 

[Fern Modena]

I can't type accurately any more. My left pinkie and ring finger don't work well, and I often hit the CAPS LOCK by mistake or something else. GRRRRRR. When I was working, and had all my fingers in sync (hey, that would be a good name for a boy band, wouldn't it?) I could do about 80 wpm with almost no errors, and that was *with* nails. I used to type a log at work sometimes, and when the others would get behind they'd offer to do my other work if only I'd type the log and catch them up. They would laugh as they heard the clicking of my nails between the keys.

Fern

 

[mecllap]

wow -- totally flunked that -- good thing I'm retired!

 

[pammex]

32 words per minute yuck or maybe good for one finger tayping more or less....

 

[Janann]

This was fun

I'm at 81 adjusted for the one minute test, but I know I'm slower as the test gets longer. At some point my hands start to hurt.

 

[Timeshare Von]

I've taken the 1" test with a couple of the different contents and have been consistently scoring in the 65-70 range with 2-3 errors.

 

[DVB42]

I am sure that my score of 17 will finish dead last in typing speed. I have a software program "Dragon Naturally Speaking" that does most of my typing for me. I talk into a microphone and everything I say ends up in type. There are sometimes errors, especially with technical terminology, but it does far better than my slow typing skills.

When retesting using the voice software, my score increased to 70.

 

[CarolF]

A friend in his 60's teaches soccer to juniors and told me how he ran like the wind down the field. Later he watched the video and he couldn't believe the old plodding man he saw.

My fingers fly like the wind. The computer tells me its 57wpm.

 

[mo1950]

I typed 77 with 3 errors. I was shocked - back in the day I used to type 104 with no errors. Oh well, guess we all get older.

 

[AwayWeGo]

q-w-e-r-t-y-u-i-o-p-a-s-d-f-g-h-j-k-l-z-x-c-v-b-n-m.

Every keyboard we've used -- typewriter or computer mox nix -- has been the standard QWERTYUIOP arrangement, specifically invented (I've heard) because it slows down even the lickety-split fast typists enough to keep the early manual typewriter mechanisms from jamming.

With electric typewriters & specially with computer keyboards, of course, that's not a concern, so Mr. Dvorak & his brother-in-law got to work & came up with their own new keyboard arrangement featuring letter placement so that the lickety-split high-speed typists can type lots faster than they're able to on QWERTYUIOP keyboards.

Click here for the Dvorak keyboard letter arrangement.

Supposedly it's possible to switch between Dvorak & QWERTYUIOP keyboards by just 1 click of a computer mouse -- i.e., without doing anything at all to the actual keyboard. I won't be trying that. At my advanced age, I'm sure I am so deeply imprinted with QWERTYUIOP that I'd be faster with a No. 2 pencil than with a Dvorak keyboard. So it goes.

-- Alan Cole, McLean (Fairfax County), Virginia, USA.​

 

[DebBrown]

OK... this is strange. I took the test and got 63wpm with 68 errors > adjust speed 0! I am pretty sure I spelled SOME of the words correctly. LOL!

Now, I know my accuracy isn't as good as it was in the old typewriter days. With word processing, editing is just too easy.

ETA: I tried it again and got 71wpm with 3 errors, adjusted to 68wpm. I think the first time I did the zebra one and didn't type the title at the top.


Deb

 

[Karen G]

Alan, that was really an interesting article about the Dvorak keyboard. I agree that it would be virtually impossible for me to switch now. I used to teach typing in high school and I remember those "fff" and other letter drills.

It was a very rewarding subject to teach because each year I'd start with classes of students who didn't have a clue what to do with that typewriter that had blank keys on it. By the end of the year most of those students had learned a very useful skill that they could use for the rest of their lives.

Nowadays, though, by the time a kid gets to high school, he's fairly adept at typing with his thumbs on his "mobile device."

 

[ArthurN]

43 wpm with 1 error. Fun test.

 

[AwayWeGo]

No More (New) Typewriters.

Click here for a story about the closing of the world's last remaining typewriter factory.

-- Alan Cole, McLean (Fairfax County), Virginia, USA.​