Blog

Writing about typing

Why your WPM differs between sites, what a same-finger digraph costs you, the arithmetic behind accuracy-before-speed, and how to tell a plateau from a bad week.

All posts

Technique9 min

Typing practice for students: what the speed actually buys you

Typing speed costs you marks in one situation and almost nothing in another. Which is which, what to aim for, and a four-week routine that fits around a term.

Technique8 min

QWERTY vs Dvorak vs Colemak: should you switch layouts?

The speed evidence is thinner than either side admits. What is not in dispute is how much of your typing lands on the home row, and that is the number to decide on.

Technique8 min

Touch typing vs hunt and peck: what actually makes you faster

The largest study of modern typing put the gap at about five words per minute. What separates fast typists from slow ones is not the number of fingers.

Measurement10 min

How to pass a typing test for a job

What employers' typing tests measure, how their scoring differs from practice sites, and a realistic prep plan for one week, one day, and one hour before.

Technique8 min

Typing posture: how to set up your chair, desk and keyboard

Where your wrists, elbows, screen and feet should sit, why resting your wrists on the desk caps your speed, and how to fix a setup in under ten minutes.

Measurement9 min

Typing speed requirements by job: what employers actually ask for

Data entry, transcription, admin and customer service: the WPM and accuracy each role asks for, where those numbers come from, and how to check where you stand.

Technique6 min

How to stop looking at the keyboard while typing

Looking down puts a ceiling over your speed. The method for breaking the habit, what to expect during the week it feels worse, and how to know it worked.

Technique7 min

Keyboard finger placement: which finger types which key

Which finger types which key, row by row, with a full QWERTY chart. The standard touch typing finger map, and the three assignments that people get wrong.

Measurement6 min

Why your WPM is lower here than on other typing sites

Typepace counts the characters you got right. Most sites count the characters you typed. The gap between those two numbers is the useful part.

Technique7 min

The mistake that isn't a mistake: same-finger digraphs

Some letter pairs are slow because of anatomy, not carelessness. Knowing which is which changes what you should practise.

Technique5 min

Accuracy before speed, and the arithmetic that proves it

The advice is old and usually delivered as a moral. It is actually a calculation, and you can run it on your own numbers.

Progress6 min

What a plateau actually is, and how to tell one from a bad week

Progress is noisy enough that most 'plateaus' are nothing at all. Here is where we draw the line, and why we refuse to answer sometimes.