When I was in high school in the 70s there was a movement to make the girls and the boys take classes that weren’t usually considered for their gender. The girls were expected to take shop and the boys had a choice of typing or home economics. I chose typing. Since I eventually went into the software business, it was a fortuitous choice. So yes, I touch type.
Perhaps the single most useful thing I ever did during my entire education was to take a typing class my senior year in high school (1975). I work in IT, so being able to type is critical - and being able to type well is very helpful.
In this day and age, touch typing should be taught at the same time as basic penmanship.
One of the few things I did right in my life was take a typing course. I tell everyone I know to learn how to touch type. In this day and age you will never regret it.
I took typing for one term in high school and hated it. It was part of a six week rotation where you got to ‘sample’ all of the vocational classes that the school offered. Once those six weeks were over, I went back to two fingered typing.
Then college hit and all the reports and essays that come with it. I got a PC for my house and it came with a free copy of Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing. Since fast and accurate typing didn’t really seem like such a waste of time any more, I forced myself to spend at least a few minutes a night practicing with the software. I got to be a decent typist. I could manage perhaps 30 wpm.
EverQuest came out and it did wonders for my typing. I was basically getting a solid 3 to 4 hours of typing practice a day for several years. Now I can manage 70 wpm pretty easily.
I’m 20, and I don’t touch-type, though I’ve been hunting and pecking for several years, so I’m pretty damn fast anyway. Nowhere near as fast as my mom, though; she and my brother are around 120 wpm.
I’m 40, and I touch type. It’s interesting, though, because I knew I was going to be a computer programmer since the 8th grade, and yet my typing skills were lousy all through Junior and Senior High. I took a mandatory typing course for one semester in my freshman year (I think) on a manual typewriter. Cripes, talk about painful! I still cringe at the thought of my fingers slipping and getting jammed down in between the keys. ::shudder::
I didn’t really start becoming proficient at typing until I was in college. I will say that the class did lay down a really great foundation for the typing basics, though. As long as I can find home row and I have a standard keyboard, I’m pretty good to go.
I’m 29 and touch type as I assume many in my age range do.
There was an optional typing class in Junior High that I remember taking to learn to touch-type QWERTY. (I forget what the alternative class was)
Then I learned the Dvorak layout in high school and have been using that ever since. Since I use QWERTY keyboards, I kind of have to touch-type!
Last time i took a typing test I was in the 70-80 wpm range.
Anyone know a good place to learn touch type? Online perhaps? Is that even possible? Having written a thesis, dissertation, articles and countless papers I really need to learn. This 50/50 staring at the keyboard 50% of the time and the other 50% looking at the screen.
On the test that Bridget Burke linked to I got 96 wpm with 0 mistakes. I touch type in the sense that I don’t look at the keys, but the speed is a result of the years I’ve been using the computer rather than any practice. My fingers aren’t over the correct home keys so my typing is certainly below optimal, although it’s fast enough that I don’t feel a pressing need to train.
If you use Firefox there is a free typing training add on.
I luckily wasted no time learning to touch type but thanks to* Dragon Naturally Speaking*, I type as fast as I can talk.
I took a touch-typing class in highschool. I’m really glad I did, though I can’t test at more than about 60 wpm when I’m going for accuracy.
I’m 36, and have mentioned before that because of my dyslexia, I have to watch the keyboard when I type. I can touch-type, just not the way they teach you. I mean, I usually don’t look at the keys, unless I am typing certain words that I know I will always screw up (initial ‘c’ and initial ‘s’ are always swapped for me, even when I am watching). I type with a grand total of 5 fingers (my right thumb, index and middle fingers and my left index finger) and the last time I had to take a typind test, I tested out at 130 wpm. Yeh, it’s freaky. Since I do the chat for our website as well as answer phones, I have customers constantly commenting on my typing speed (they can hear me typing while I am taking their orders).
Funny note – when I was in college, I had to take “keyboarding” to get my degree. The teacher told me point blank that although he could see how fast I was and I have about a 3% error rate (if that), he would fail me if I didn’t learn to type with all 10 fingers. I tested out of the class, since the test was only concerned with speed and error %, and had an A for the class.
Yup. 93 wpm and one error (a capitalization error!) on the test linked above.
I learned in grade 9, in 1989, in typing class, on an electric typewriter. I also learned basic formatting - a skill which was obsolete by the time I finished high school. It’s one of the skills I value most.
Phlosphr, you need to be really really strict about not looking at the keys. Maybe try covering the letters up with tape or something. I know that’s what really made the difference for me - in typing class they had this plastic thing to cover your hands so you couldn’t see what you were doing. This forces your brain to remember which finger produces which letter, without relying on your eyes. It sounds incredibly difficult to begin with, but you have to trust your brain to find the letters without looking, and you’ll probably be surprised at how much you already know.
Yes I touch-type. My mom taught me the basics - she was an amazingly fast typist - she did almost 100 wpm on the OLD school typewriters back in the '60’s.
I recently tested at 102 wpm. The test did not include the top row (numbers, symbols etc) - if it had, my score would have dropped a fair bit. For some reason I am just not great at that top row.
I have noticed co-workers who are younger than me (in their 20’s) are super fast at typing, and almost everyone in that age group seems to touch-type. My husband hunts and pecks but he is still pretty quick. 
I touch-type, I’m 30. Scored 74wmp on Silverfire’s link.
I also got this wonderful message after I took the test:
I touch type, but my accuracy isn’t what it used to be, nor is my speed. I learned on a very, very old IBM Selectric that I swear is now being used for a prop on the set of “Mad Men.”
Yeah. I took typing in summer school between 8th and 9th grades at my mother’s urging. She thought it would be helpful for me to type term papers and stuff, but she cautioned me (only half jokingly) not to mention the skill in the workplace for fear I’d be assigned to typing for other people. This was in 1967, so the attitudes about women’s job skills were . . . not what they are now, and typewriters were manual.
Yet another thing my mother was right about, although for the wrong reasons. She didn’t foresee my going into IT, what with my math grades and all, and didn’t realize that being able to type well by touch would help me get a really GOOD job, but still, thanks Mom!
I’m 30, and I touch type.
I’m mostly self-taught, since typing courses in the early/mid 1990s were still treated as prep for clerical positions. Back then, that was a somewhat correct assumption (albeit shortsighted), given that most people didn’t even have PCs in their homes, let alone internet access.
I’ve been informed that I’m using a somewhat bastardized version of QWERTY - I do use the home row, but my fingers are transposed one key to the right. There are also several keys in the middle of the keyboard that I hit with whichever index finger is free, rather than the one that’s properly designated for the task.
Typing speed is roughly 70-80 wpm last time I checked.
I don’t touch type but I have been told by a few touch typists now that I am one of the fastest peek and poke typists they have ever seen. That is actually thanks to being a programmer and typing so much on the Dope.
Jim
I took typing I and II in high school back in the 70s. I could actually type faster on a manuel typewriter, slinging the old carriage back (I think that’s what it’s called) at the end of each line.