Speed and accuracy

In typing speed a "word" is any five characters, so "I run" counts as one word and "rhinoceros" as two.

Start with a puzzle. Two friends each take a one-minute typing test. One types short words like "I run to it" and the other types "rhinoceros" over and over. (A made-up example.) Both press about the same number of keys. Who typed more words? Counting real words would hand the first friend an easy win, so typing tests don't count real words. They count a standard word instead: five characters, counting letters, digits, spaces and punctuation. Keys that make no character, such as Shift and Backspace, are not counted. By that rule "I run" (five characters with the space) is one word and "rhinoceros" (ten letters) is two, and the two friends come out level.

Characters ÷ 5 ÷ minutes

Speed in words per minute, WPM, follows straight from that rule. Gross WPM is the characters typed, divided by 5, divided by the minutes. 250 characters in one minute is 250 ÷ 5 ÷ 1 = 50 WPM. 300 characters in two minutes is 300 ÷ 5 ÷ 2 = 30 WPM. The time doesn't have to be a whole number of minutes: 180 characters in 45 seconds is 180 ÷ 5 ÷ 0.75 = 48 WPM. Characters per minute, CPM, is the same count without the division by 5, so 200 CPM is 40 WPM. Korean typing programs usually report tasu, a count of keystrokes per minute that sits closer to CPM. The last unit explains how it is counted for Hangul.

Errors left behind come off the speed

Gross speed ignores errors. Net WPM subtracts the uncorrected errors per minute. Type at 60 gross WPM for two minutes and leave 6 mistakes, and the error rate is 6 ÷ 2 = 3 a minute, so the net speed is 60 − 3 = 57 WPM. Accuracy is a separate percentage: the correct characters divided by all the characters typed. 147 right out of 150 is 98 percent. Typing.com, one of the large practice sites, used to show a net figure that blended the two. It dropped that figure, saying it pushed learners to chase speed and ignore accuracy. It now shows speed and accuracy side by side, and so does the practice keyboard on this page.

Exactly how this page counts

Sites count in slightly different ways, so here is exactly what this page does. The timer starts at your first key and stops when the last line is finished. Speed uses only the characters that match the line, so a wrong letter adds nothing until you fix it. Accuracy judges each character once, at the moment it is first typed. If it was wrong and you fix it, it still counts as a mistake, because the time was spent. Finished lines keep their counts as you move on, so the numbers at the end describe the whole lesson.

Speed grows out of an even rhythm

Rushing rarely makes anyone faster. Type at a pace where you make almost no mistakes, and keep the keys evenly spaced in time, like a slow, steady beat. Read a few letters ahead of where you are typing, so the fingers always know what comes next. Short sessions done often tend to work better than one long one; ten or fifteen minutes a day, say, with breaks for the hands and eyes. Typing.com says its 3 and 5 minute tests give the most repeatable results. So when you test yourself, type for a few minutes rather than a few seconds.

A speed only counts next to its accuracy

Read a speed only with its accuracy next to it. 70 WPM at 85 percent accuracy leaves a lot to correct. 45 WPM at 99 percent produces clean text. Measure yourself on ordinary sentences you haven't practised, because familiar text is always faster. The Sentences lesson below includes a pangram, "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.", which uses every letter of the alphabet in 44 characters, or 8.8 standard words.