How fast can you type?

[timw4mail]

I can type about 40WPM...according to these online typing tests, anyway.
(this is on my Model F.)

How fast can you type?
(And what layout and keyboard?)

[Mercen_505]

It depends. If I'm taking one of those typical online tests that throws out random sentences filled with esoteric words that are seldom used in modern times, then I average 58 WPM. If I'm typing up a forum post it's closer to 85 WPM.

[Rajagra]

I'm working to build up my speed, the best I've got is 65 wpm, but that's after warming up and doing a test I'm familiar with. More important is the fact that I can touch type at all (thankyou blank DAS!) I had been using computers for around 30 years without learning to use a keyboard properly.

That's with QWERTY. To put the fly in the ointment I started to learn to use Colemak yesterday. I know the layout now, but I'm painfully slow at it. One thing that messes me up is how S and U are only moved one key sideways between the formats. I wonder if they were really worth moving, and whether that is a common criticism of Colemak.

[o2dazone]

It also depends on what you use to test
Mine has fluxuated from 115 wpm on typeracer, to 105wpm on fast-fingers

[Manyak]

On average I get around 100.

It fluctuates though. I still get some tests where I only get like 80, but then I'll do 120 on others.

[huha]

Fast-fingers is a bit inaccurate insofar it counts actual typed words and not wpm. wpm := cpm / 5.
On fast-fingers in English I'll get about 440 cpm, in German 600 cpm. Nicely shows the difference between one's native language and English.

Typing tests don't really convey the speed I'm typing anyway, as usually my typing speed is limited by my thinking speed anyway. I don't know how to measure it, but I suspect bursts can go even higher than 600 cpm, but that would require measuring actual typing and not just typing a given text.


-huha

[timw4mail]

I'm getting faster, the different places to speedtype are really helpful. I just got a 61WPM average on Typeracer.

[o2dazone]

Fast-fingers is a bit inaccurate insofar it counts actual typed words and not wpm. wpm := cpm / 5.
On fast-fingers in English I'll get about 440 cpm, in German 600 cpm. Nicely shows the difference between one's native language and English.

Yeah, it's not a great typing test, I just wanted to include it as an example of tests that give drastically different results

[bitflipper]

Average about 55 to 62 wpm (on white alps).

I have a feeling I'd be faster if my fingers weren't so strong from playing guitar and various home improvement projects. I get a lot of  accidental keypresses on the cherry brown Filcos and Topre rubber domes.

[timw4mail]

Average about 55 to 62 wpm (on white alps).

I have a feeling I'd be faster if my fingers weren't so strong from playing guitar and various home improvement projects. I get a lot of  accidental keypresses on the cherry brown Filcos and Topre rubber domes.

Yeah, after having typed for a while on my Model F, typing on either my Cherry or SMK switch boards feels really weird.

[huha]

Here's a german typing test:

Rindfleischetikettierungsüberwachungsaufgabenübertragungsgesetz

Congratulations, you've just typed 1  WPM!

Just tested it:

Rindfleischetikettierungsüberwachungsaufgabenübertragungsgesetz
Word typed in 8688 ms. That makes 137 ms/char and 435 cpm


-huha

edit: weird. I didn't put a space in the word. Does the board software insert spaces for character breaking purposes? A zero-width space would be much less irritating.

[bitflipper]

I tell everyone my guitar playing would be faster if I didn't use the keyboard so much.

If you could get rid of those pesky strings and mod your fretboard with some blue cherry keyswitches.....

[timw4mail]

FASTEST TYPER EVER!

Warning, this YouTube video is so bad it's good.

Eww...what a disgusting keyboard.

Typeracer is addicting...I'm currently up to about 60WPM

[wellington1869]

Typeracer is addicting...I'm currently up to about 60WPM

typeracer IS fun. I just tried it, won a 'race' at 100wpm

Those races need to be longer though. Do they get longer if you keep racing?

[timw4mail]

typeracer IS fun. I just tried it, won a 'race' at 100wpm

Those races need to be longer though. Do they get longer if you keep racing?

The length of the passage to type varies, but that's about it.

[wellington1869]

Welly, It's a domehead icon!!

Thats your pic

Are you typing on the modded one?  I was worried when I didn't see any posts today.

I wish. Didnt have a chance to do it last nite (thats a lie, i got too lazy when I looked at those 39 screws! Unlike you I dont have one of 'dem fancy shmancy electric screwdrivers ) so I watched tv and fell asleep, lol.  But seriously, I'd like to do it tonite. I'll eat a lot of protein all day so I have the energy for all those screws. (Its just impossible to not sound sexual when talking about keyboards?)

[wellington1869]

Unlike you I dont have one of 'dem fancy shmancy electric screwdrivers )

actually I take that back too -- I do have an old black and decker cordless screwdriver. I just fished it out of the closet. Problem is it takes AA batteries (which is fine, i use rechargeables) but the battery holder has a couple of loose contacts (hence its in the closet for the moment).

However--- this might be a great excuse to fix it. I believe all I need is some "conductive glue" or "liquid solder". Amazon has a bunch of products like that, great for quickly fixing loose connections.

So I might do that first -- fix cordless screwdriver (which I had been meaning to do for a while), then use that on the 39 screws (would go so much faster).

[wellington1869]

Actually I found it better to do the screws by hand so you don't strip anything. The black ones especially, they are only threaded at the ends IIRC.

Good exercise.

well you're prolly right but now I'm stuck on the idea of fixing my cordless first and guess what, I even had an old tube of conductive glue! I must have bought it at some point. Problem is its kind of dried out so I'm dissolving it in solvent right now.
Hmmmm, conductive glue. It smells great!

[timw4mail]

And I thought I was weird.

[joniho]

Using TypingTest.com I clocked in at 143wpm, though I was hitting the 150s in the beginning before my fingers started stumbling on the laptop keyboard.

[timw4mail]

Using TypingTest.com I clocked in at 143wpm, though I was hitting the 150s in the beginning before my fingers started stumbling on the laptop keyboard.

Showoff

Pictures or it didn't happen :biggrin:

[wellington1869]

And I thought I was weird.

[timw4mail]

Show Image

I need to stop derailing my own threads...

So, those who do type 100+ WPM, how do you do it? Just come naturally? Or did you do a lot of extra typing exercises at some point?

[Manyak]

I need to stop derailing my own threads...

So, those who do type 100+ WPM, how do you do it? Just come naturally? Or did you do a lot of extra typing exercises at some point?

Um, a bit of both.

The thing is that if you use one of those programs like Mavis Beacon or whatever, they only tell you the keys one at a time. This is great for starting out, but once you get to around 40-50WPM it starts to hurt more than it helps.

One of the biggest things that helps typing speed is you being used to common words and letter combinations. For example, if you see the letters 'st' in a word, you should already be moving your index finger to the 't' while you're pressing 's'. But the only way to really learn this is by typing, typing, typing.

[o2dazone]

I actually don't 'try' to type fast. I don't really find it a valuable skill, mostly because what I type is code, and I'm having to think of the logic behind stuff more than being able to just spew out keystrokes.

That said, I did my whole social networking stint when I was 16, and that's where I got most of it. Now I just work on a computer so often, and post on this place, it keeps my skills up

[joniho]

But the only way to really learn this is by typing, typing, typing.

Couldn't agree more. I find that typing tutor programs are useful only for learning the layouts, not improving speed. But if you want a strict regiment, grab a book and transcribe it.

Showoff

Pictures or it didn't happen :biggrin:

Unfortunately I slowed down a bit and my fingers are moist from the humidity.

[qso]

Language does make a difference. You'll just have to type as often as possible, especially those difficult words (normally a combination of a s w x z).

I do believe that English is harder to type on QWERTY layout than my Mother Tongue. Weird though lol not just because of that, but English's vocabularies like to stick on left hand (which is I'm having difficulty to type)

I can hit 719 cpm on fastfingers with 1 error or more less (this only got me 112/113 wpm).More than that the errors would spike up to 5-8 even more. There was this guy who could type more than 900 cpm @.@ with 134 WPM score and 0 error..... was it for real?? I'm hoping with filco's brown cherry it will improve my typing much better.



Btw do you all play Typing Maniac on Facebook? How high do you all get? I've heard there are softwares which can help you type , it's basically like NJ Star Communicator but in English, u type partial of the word and it will give you the list of possible words. Typing Maniac is really testing your left hand fingers LOL duh still wondering how one could get 1 million score meanwhile I only got 500k something.

[keyb_gr]

I do believe that English is harder to type on QWERTY layout than my Mother Tongue. Weird though lol not just because of that, but English's vocabularies like to stick on left hand (which is I'm having difficulty to type)

For me as a lefty, that's actually quite practical. My "left-hand zone" extends pretty far to the right, certainly up to the P-L-M line (no touch typist, obviously). The right hand is mainly for the "commandy" stuff, like Backspace, Return or period. If I want to type real fast, I actually tend to stick to the left hand only - my coordination isn't the best. I can hit almost 100 wpm like that in a synthetic benchmark (read: some boring test sentence), but I think my average is more like 50..60 wpm.

[timw4mail]

For me as a lefty, that's actually quite practical. My "left-hand zone" extends pretty far to the right, certainly up to the P-L-M line (no touch typist, obviously). The right hand is mainly for the "commandy" stuff, like Backspace, Return or period. If I want to type real fast, I actually tend to stick to the left hand only - my coordination isn't the best. I can hit almost 100 wpm like that in a synthetic benchmark (read: some boring test sentence), but I think my average is more like 50..60 wpm.

I was basically forced to learn to touch-type in Middle School, so I'm actually kind of glad after the fact. I'm not as fast, or in most cases, as accurate as I'd like to be, but hopefully, I'm getting better.

[IBI]

And I thought I was weird.

Not unless you practice kitten huffing, own a non-electric can opener or drive a fnord.

[qso]

For me as a lefty, that's actually quite practical. My "left-hand zone" extends pretty far to the right, certainly up to the P-L-M line (no touch typist, obviously). The right hand is mainly for the "commandy" stuff, like Backspace, Return or period. If I want to type real fast, I actually tend to stick to the left hand only - my coordination isn't the best. I can hit almost 100 wpm like that in a synthetic benchmark (read: some boring test sentence), but I think my average is more like 50..60 wpm.

From my experience, a lot of English vocabularies use letter combinations from left hand zone. Since I'm not a lefty, duh it's really hard to move my little finger and ring finger fast .

Lol how u can type 50-60 even 100 wpm with one hand?
I think most ppl who tested their typing speed on webs and got around 100wpm normally would get only 50-60 or more while thinking+typing at the same time. If the person could get around 100 wpm while thinking+typing it means, his/her brain works wonderfully faster than normal.

I learnt touch typing for 3 months without a significant result. Then at the time I was thinking, hmmm this would never get my anywhere so I scrubbed the letters with a coin, and with only 1 month I managed to touch typing. So basicaly first one week It was like hell, it took me over 2 minutes to type a single word.

[Hamps]

I'm a lefty myself. I've noticed that I also use my left hand a lot more in common words and think that seriously does give an advantage on qwerty.

I've never really "trained" until lately when I realized I was fast. I didn't even know I typed fast until college. I had a professor a couple semesters back who made us take a typing test at typingtest.com and I had 108WPM. I was like, is that good? while everyone else was around 20-40WPM. The girl next to me said, "Holy ****!" So yeah, since then though I've been taking typing tests regularly and buying mechanical keyboards in hopes of impressing girls. It pays off too, I'm typically at 120WPM these days when I'm fresh. Unfortunately that probably just makes me look even more pathetic. I mean, what an uncool skill to have eh?

Man, we were graded on a 100 scale for that test too. So if you had 38WPM, like the girl next to me, you got a 38! What a harsh professor. Since we used typingtest.com though, I changed her URL. Typingtest.com's test apparently follows the honor code lol. You can change it to whatever you want... so she got a good grade, har har.

 
DO I GET A 9218 OUT OF 100, PROFESSOR? A+++++++++++++++++???  No, we only changed it to like 90 or something so as not to raise suspicion, but yeah typingtest.com's results are like penis sizes on the internet. Speaking of which, you think that girl would have done something to mine after... y'know, saving her grade and all... but no such luck. ;(

[keyb_gr]

Lol how u can type 50-60 even 100 wpm with one hand?

Like I said, with stupid test sentences it's possible (think "quick brown fox"). You can listen to my audio clips. If I have to read or even think at the same time, I obviously slow down a lot. I just retyped my earlier post above and recorded the sound. 504 characters (plus 1 return, not counted), 2:07 including tpyo correction (caught all of them, maybe 4 or 5). That makes a net speed of 3.97 cps or 47.6 wpm, about in line with what I got in online typing tests. Only the final Return was entered with the right hand.

I was already considering to open a new thread "Unusual typing styles" yesterday.

[timw4mail]

So, do any of you feel that you type faster on a certain keyboard that you own?

For example, I feel fastest on my Model F.

[Mr.6502]

So, do any of you feel that you type faster on a certain keyboard that you own?

For example, I feel fastest on my Model F.

To this day I still type fastest on my Acer Extensa 367d.  Its what I took notes on in college.  I used to take notes verbatim in class so I could do fulltext searches on them later on for studying.  I've slowed down considerably since I've switched from taking notes every day to mostly writing code.

I average around 120 WPM on all the keyboards I consider decent for typing.  An old IBM rubber dome one I like, an MS Ergo Elite, and, most recently, a Dell SK-1000.  

I also have a Razer Tarantula on which I can type around 70 WPM.

[qso]

So, do any of you feel that you type faster on a certain keyboard that you own?

For example, I feel fastest on my Model F.

So far a newly bought low profile rubber dome, not more than 3 months of use. And also when I'm not typing English LOL :typing:

[keyb_gr]

I feel fastest on MX blues. I actually slow down a bit on Ms but the improved accuracy is well worth it.

[Rajagra]

I average around 120 WPM on all the keyboards I consider decent for typing.  An old IBM rubber dome one I like, an MS Ergo Elite, and, most recently, a Dell SK-1000.  

I also have a Razer Tarantula on which I can type around 70 WPM.

Thanks. I've been wondering why the Tarantula isn't more popular, I think you've answered my question.

[qso]

I feel fastest on MX blues. I actually slow down a bit on Ms but the improved accuracy is well worth it.

Cherry blue is really good or not the best for a short time typing. It does force you to type with a rhythm, and with rhythm u can type a bit faster, smooth and relaxing but with a superior accuracy.

[qso]

It also depends on what you use to test
Mine has fluxuated from 115 wpm on typeracer, to 105wpm on fast-fingers

This is weird. Typeracer has caps and punctuations, on the other hand, fast-fingers without caps and punctuations should be much easier. Or maybe full-texts line is much better than a single line.

[timw4mail]

This is weird. Typeracer has caps and punctuations, on the other hand, fast-fingers without caps and punctuations should be much easier. Or maybe full-texts line is much better than a single line.

If I understand correctly, fastfingers does not have
5 characters / Minute = 1 WPM

Meaning, its not really a fair measure of typing speed.

[qso]

If I understand correctly, fastfingers does not have
5 characters / Minute = 1 WPM

Meaning, its not really a fair measure of typing speed.

Oh I see, my fault. Then we should consider CPM : 5 - Typos hehe :fencing:

[iggysaps]

Typing at about 70-80 wpm here, using Colemak and my trusty Cherry G84.  I think I type most accurately on my Unicomp Spacesaver though.

[itlnstln]

Iggysaps, you list the G84 in your sig as having Cherry blacks.  In actuality, it has Cherry MLs which only come in one variety (AFAIK).
 
Unless... you modded it somehow, and in that case, I apologize.

[DreymaR]

It does depend a lot on what I'm typing! But on the average long-run test I'll do around 65 WPM I guess, with Colemak and a borrowed (never giving it back now - muahaaa!) IBM M.

http://hi-games.net/profile/83

[ch_123]

On type-racer I get about 60-70 on average. Have to try it with my Filco next.

[timw4mail]

On type-racer I get about 60-70 on average. Have to try it with my Filco next.

That's right in my range of speed, actually.

Maybe that's just the speed that the Model F works best at?

[iggysaps]

Iggysaps, you list the G84 in your sig as having Cherry blacks.  In actuality, it has Cherry MLs which only come in one variety (AFAIK).
 
Unless... you modded it somehow, and in that case, I apologize.

Thanks for the comment.  I modified and corrected my sig accordingly.  Cheers!

[erricrice]

I thought I was fastest on cherry blues too, but since getting this IBM M yesterday, my speed has improved more than 15 wpm, just in one day!!!!  I can't wait to see what will happen once I actually get used to the 'board.  I am a very heavy typist so I can see why I feel more natural on it.  I'm around 95 wpm on fast fingers but as low as 70 on typefaster lessons.  Those are ridiculous words anyway though lol so of course it's going to be less.

[keyb_gr]

You must be a heavy typist indeed. On a Cherry with blues I feel like I'm only limited in speed by the ol' PBKAC.