For the last 6 months or so I have been using free online typing tutors to try to help me improve my typing speed. I can’t seem to break 46wpm as my average speed without my accuracy dropping to about 75%.
I think I do everything right. I touch type, I spend most of my workday either typing for work, typing on the boards, or chatting online with friends (and I am only 24, so I have been chatting online for…12 years. You would think that would be enough). I have started playing typer shark every day on my lunch break, and more recently started working with learn 2 type
I think my problem is that I can only type as fast as I can spell the words out in my head. I have to actually say the letters to myself if it is a word that I don’t use all the time. I am fairly certain that if they typing tests just had me type whatever I felt like my typing speed would be in the 60wpm range, but even that isn’t terribly fast.
I want to get up to about 70wpm on a regular basis, how can I break through this barrier?
Thinking back to when I learned to type, you’re supposed to type each letter as opposed to words when you’re copy typing - that’s supposed to bring your speed up quite a bit.
I don’t actually do that anymore because my fingers can move faster than my brain - eventually typing will become rote so your fingers will automatically type the appropriate keys before your brain even knows what’s going on. weird, really.
FWIW - I type about 90 WPM with 0 errors - I have no idea why, but I find those typing games really fun and relaxing. Odd, I know.
When I was bored in high school and sometimes in college, I used to sit at my desk and touch type the lecture on a phantom keyboard. It took my typing speed from around 40wpm to about 80-90. If you have something you can listen to and try to type, it can speed up lots of common words. Your fingers learn the shape of the common words and prefixes, and then you don’t even have to think about the actual letters involved in easy words.
That is the place that I am trying to get to. I think I am typing about as fast as I can think, but am being held back by the fact that I can only type as fast as I can spell the words out in my head.
Well, I’ve been touch typing for a lot longer than you have, and I used to be a medical transcriptionist - I have a feeling you just need more practice.
My typing speed just about doubled after I’d been playing Gemstone IV for a few months. I’ve played TyperShark, and while it’s fun enough, I don’t think it’s particularly good for speeding up your typing…I think it’s more of an accuracy builder.
Small hijack, just curious if you still play GS Lynn. I only ask cause I’m a GM in another simu product and it’s always cool to meet another simu player /end hijack
Yes, I still play GS. Right now I have one fairly active character, one pretty much retired character, and one character that I started and never really did anything with. I’m a premium customer, and I keep thinking that I ought to go ahead and make a few more characters.
Of course, GS has led me into some bad habits, too…not typing out full words in many cases, for instance. On the other hand, I have the positions of various Function keys in my muscle memory…essential for casting spells and such.
I second iamthewalrus(:3='s method- type on an invisible keyboard. Do it while you’re watching t.v., having a conversation, thinking deep thoughts.
I have been able to type 90 wpm since junior high - as someone else said, focus on each letter and not the words themselves.
Oh - another thing I just remembered is to type to a steady rhythm - our typing teacher used a metronome - start slowly and then gradually increase the speed of the metronome and your fingers should follow.
The same way you get to Carnegie Hall.
On top of that, force yourself to type each letter as it is seen, not each word as you can spell it. Pretend that you are getting paid to type a note for note transcript. Also, I, personally can’t prove it, but I think chat rooms are just antithetical to learning to type quickly. (Yes, I know.) But, there is no structure there, it feeds on the rut you seem to be saying that you are in.
Type up something that interests you, rather than drills. Get a book that you like and type it up.I did this a few summers ago with a book that I wanted to save to Word, and I added 20 wpm.