I think my best was 84 on a five-minute timed exercise. Maybe I had a machine that had had it’s moving parts worn down. 
This class was a revelation for my young self, in that I never knew that I had superior hand-eye coordination skills. I couldn’t understand at first why others in the class struggled with typing, and slowly came to the realization that I had an ability that many others didn’t have (I’m one of those people who nearly always catches the falling object). It did wonders for my shitty self esteem at that age.
I took not one, not two, but THREE semesters of typing in high school. The first was just basic keyboarding, and the second semester was about setting margins and typing business letters. I was the fastest in the class, so the teacher offered a third semester to me. Turned out he was the school’s Athletic Director, so I spent all semester typing up his letters and programs and results for that spring’s track meets. It was actually fun.
That skill paid off right away, as I got paid to type several research papers for seniors in their English class ($10!). Then when I went into programming, it really helped.
Now I teach programming and Microsoft Office, and I’m appalled at the lack of typing skills. I have many older students (well, they’re as old as me), and I cut them some slack. However kids right out of high school who type with one finger?!? Really? I bet they’re faster typing out text messages on their phones than typing a sentence in Microsoft Word.
So, yes, touch typing using the home-row keys is useful and effective. One big reason for the bumps on the F and J keys is with Word or Excel you’ll be using the mouse for many activities, and the bumps lets you move back to the keyboard more easily.
I actually typed the “correct” way coming out of high school. Being introduced to programming in college - FORTRAN or BASIC on a timeshare system via model 33 teletype - totally destroyed it. Reasons: keys so stiff you nearly had to hit them with a hammer, a keyboard so sloped that you simply didn’t reach the numeric row without moving your hands, and the fact that “touch typing” is aimed at actually typing a natural language not something involving lots of numbers and obscure punctuation marks. You might have touch typed COBOL I suppose, but enough of “MOVE FOO TO BAR” would convince you of the worth of using equals signs. Had I been doing C then, touch typing text sprinkled with {, }, ++, -> and so on would have been even more ludicrous.
I spent 30 years in the computer industry not typing exceedingly quickly. I’ve always maintained that this isn’t too much of an impediment because I’m in the business of THINKING about what I’m typing.
I learned touch typing in high school. Back then, I got mad with every error. That wasted a lot of time, not to mention having to erase them manually. That’s with a real eraser, not correction paper or Wite-Out. I type much better now. Whoever invented word processing, I am forever indebted to her.
I still make mistakes, but when I fix them, there’s not a lot of shredded rubber on my work.
My cardiologist types with his index fingers, but much faster than I can with all 10.
I start on the home row but I tend to use a hybrid method that is neither “correct” nor “hunt and peck.” I type pretty fast (around 90ish wpm) so it works for me 
Someone once said that they couldn’t believe that we had to type the same letters over and over. What was the point? I reminded her that on a manual typewriter, you had to have an even 'touch" so that your letters would be the same even color and on the same row.
I took typing in 1977 when it was still considered an occupational course. We did business letters mostly.
We had typewriters with blank keys. Just a raised dot on the f & j and you’re supposed to just know the rest of the keys.
Took shorthand, too. That comes in handy when unless one of my co-workers ever figures out that the little squiggles are just a margin note calling him a jackass.
When I was in elementary school, I loved to get out my mom’s typewriter and type out letters to my cousins, etc. I used one finger (index, dominant hand).
I got a manual typewrite when I graduated high school, but I never put it to much use.
In my mid-twenties, I had a warehouse job where I would sometimes have to type up a shipping label. That was where I honed my skill with TWO fingers (index, one per hand). As I started to learn where all the letters were, I also started adding in my two middle fingers.
A couple of years later, I signed up for Control Data Instititute (can a phone call change your life?) to learn programming. We had to punch all of our own cards, using the original card punch machine brought over on the Mayflower. Not the best instrument to practice typing on.
Eventually, I taught myself to use eight of my fingers (thumb + index, middle, and ring fingers of dominant hand, pinky, ring, middle, and index of non-dominant hand). The thumb presses the space bar, and the pinky presses the shift key (anything not reachable by other fingers on that hand are typed by the dominant hand).
I can hit some pretty high speeds, but only in bursts (my fingers know a lot of the more common sequences, though I usually have to retype “tino” as “tion” (couldn’t do the first one without thinking about it)).
My hand-eye coordination is terrible (yes, I watch myself type), so the Backspace key gets more use than the space bar, sometimes. Plus, I change my mind a lot about what I want to say, so I work that key like a dog.
Like another posted above, as a computer programmer, I am not paid for what I type, but for thinking about what I’m going to type.
Yes and yes. I type mostly without looking but definitely not in the official way. I don’t know if I could retrain myself at this point. I had access to the Mavis Beacon software years ago but didn’t get very far, but that was a time when I might have been able to instill an actual method.
This is me, word for word.
mmm
ETA: OK, more like 80 wpm than 100, but you get the idea
I didn’t learn to type until I was already working with computers, in the early '70s. At first I used the “hunt ‘n’ peck” method. Then I realized that the keys weren’t going anywhere, they’re always in the same place, so why do I have to look for them each time? So I started just remembering where everything was . . . and finally came up with the “correct” way to type. But I still can’t touch-type the top row of numbers/symbols.
I took typing for four years (7th through 10th grades) and it is by far the most valuable skill I learned. The only thing I do differently than we were taught is that I always hit the space bar with my right thumb, no matter which hand finished the word, and I always hit the shift key with my left pinkie, even if the letter to be capitalized is an A. I hold the shift key with my pinkie and type the letter with digit #4.
My dad was super proud of my typing ability because when he was in the army he worked in the quartermaster’s office and ended up getting an award for touch typing. (So motivational, the US Army.)
I had to take a year of typing in high school (required class for both sexes), in the mid-1980s, on Selectrics. Wasn’t all that spectacular at it then, but adequate. The touch method with home-row keys and letters having a designated finger was taught.
Gained a lot of skill doing things like IRC in the 90s.
On my current trip through community college, one of the required courses for my program was basic keyboarding. I successfully tested out (the requirement was 28wpm/5 errors over a 2-minute timing), although the software not allowing me to correct errors gave me a LOT of accuracy issues. In a more realistic scenario, last test was 65wpm/0 errors.
As someone who did learn that “official” way via Mavis Beacon and still use it with minor modifications (using the ring finger instead of pinky for P), I now type 134-150 wpm with 98% accuracy. It’s a hassle to learn but it does work. And if you keyboard’s home row doesn’t feel comfortable, maybe try different ones? This one is a dream.
Glad you like it: I found it very uncomfortable. Mind you: in general, I find anything touted as ergonomic uncomfortable, as apparently I’m a statistical aberration.
Just ran a test at 358 keystrokes per minute, 1.89% errors. Quickest person ever in the same site clocked in at 612 keystrokes per minute (% errors not shown in the ranking). I move my right hand a lot more than I should: too much time in MOOs I guess…
Heheh, I must admit my left hand tends to rest more at the a-w-d position than the a-s-d-f position these days! 
The idea of using my little fingers to type seems horribly awkward. I never had typing lessons, but having been working with words on a screen for almost 20 years of working life I can type 70wpm easily and do it with my eyes closed. It’s not proper “touch typing” because I don’t keep my hands over the home keys but I use them to feel where I am on the keyboard and very rarely glance down at it - only if I have to type numbers or lots of symbols. I only tend to use two or three fingers on each hand, though, plus the thumb for the space bar.
I doubt if I could ever learn to type “properly” after all this time.
One thing that had me stumped for a long time: I’ve met some people who never used the shift key, always caps lock. I could see that making sense as a way to avoid using your ring finger to type A, but everybody who did it was a one- or two-fingered typist. When I finally asked one and once she understood the question, it appears to have been a matter of never having known it might be possible to use two keys at the same time.
When I explained it to my team, one of my coworkers said “:smack: so THAT is why she also never uses ctrl shortcuts…”
One of the games I got for my nephews in my mother’s computer is a typing game, another is typing math. I insisted that they split the keyboard in “parts” properly, not just use their dominant hand for everything: if you’re playing the typing math game use the numpad, if you’re playing the full-keyboard game use one hand for each half. The Nephew thought I was just being a boooooore until he realized that after a bit of practice he was going a lot faster than his mother. I don’t know if they’ll ever learn “proper typing”, but having more than two fingers is A Good Thing in my view.
In my limited experience, most people hate the ergo keyboards. You’re not alone
I cab tye farly fast mrybe 50 wpm witb he qto finegrer … what thaucks so look is all yhe correctiuons
I never learned to touch type, but I used to work in an office next to two very experienced typists. One generally did audio work. Various people, including me, would dictate onto tape for her to type up. It used to fascinate me that, with an earpiece on one ear and typing nine to the dozen, she could carry on a conversation at the same time.
The other used to copy type foreign language schedules and invoices. They would usually be in Spanish (for Cuba), Portuguese (for Brazil) or French (for several African countries). The boss would write them out in longhand and she would type them, even though she only spoke and read English. Accuracy was vital as errors would cause delays and customs problems.
On one occasion, the audio typist burst out laughing and ripped the paper from her machine. She had misplaced her fingers and typed several lines of gobbledegook.