Typing practice

Why four numbers instead of one

Because a test that shows one figure has chosen which flattering definition to use on your behalf, and the differences are large. Type 300 characters in a minute with three errors left in and net says 57, adjusted says 54, gross says 60. Same minute, three defensible numbers, and only one of them is the one you could put in a document.

Net is the one to track. It is the standard, it penalises an error you did not notice more than one you stopped to fix, and it is the closest to the rate at which you can actually produce usable text.

A word is five characters

Including the space after it. Not an average of English word lengths, a convention from the early 1900s that every typing measurement since has used. It is the only reason a figure from here is comparable to one from anywhere else.

Rhythm, and why it is separate from speed

Two people at 70 wpm can type completely differently: one steady, the other in bursts separated by pauses to think or to hunt for a key. The second has more to gain, and the speed figure cannot see it.

Rhythm is how even the gaps between keystrokes were, as a percentage. Long pauses, more than two seconds, are left out, because reading the next line is thinking rather than typing, and counting it would make the score measure the length of the test.

The heatmap, and the finger breakdown

The heatmap shades each key by how long it took you on average, so the slow ones are visible rather than inferred. Keys you got wrong more than one time in ten are outlined, which is a different problem from being slow and usually has a different cause.

The finger breakdown matters because a problem concentrated in one finger has an answer and a problem spread evenly does not. Nearly everybody is slowest on the little fingers; knowing it is specifically your right little finger, the one carrying P, the semicolon, the brackets and Enter, turns "I should practise typing" into something you can actually drill.

The words that cost you

Ranked by how much longer they took than your own pace for that run, not by raw time, otherwise the list is just the longest words. A short word near the top of that list is usually a hand-alternation problem rather than a knowledge one.

Five sources, and when each is worth using

Common words are the two hundred that carry most of written English, which makes them the efficient thing to drill. Paragraphs add punctuation and the rhythm of real sentences. Numbers is the row nearly everybody is slowest on and almost nobody practises. Code uses brackets and symbols in the proportions code actually uses them. Your own text is for when there is a specific thing you need to be fast at.

What this will not do

It will not teach you to touch-type: that takes a course and a few weeks, and a test is not one. It will not fix a keyboard you are fighting. And the numbers are only comparable with themselves: every test site measures slightly differently, so your figure here and your figure elsewhere are not the same measurement.