I am a pretty fast typist under certain circumstances and with certain caveats.
I am fastest when I am typing something straight out of my own head, by FAR… typing from dictation or transcribing or copying slows me down enormously, even if I’m very familiar with the material. I think I clocked at 90wpm at my very best. But my accuracy isn’t fantastic, although my corrections are fast as well. I almost never use my pinkies for anything, so I guess I’m an 8-finger typist.
I am fastest when I touch type, but I never learned to formally, I just realized that I actually could after awhile and forced myself to practice doing so. However I cannot touch type any numbers or symbols outside of period, comma, exclamation, question mark, apostrophe, quotes, colon and semi-colon. Everything else I need to at least glance at the keyboard if not actually hunt down what I need. (which is one reason I loved it when the formatting options were upgraded…typing out brackets and slashes was always a pain, I would set up macros to handle it. Even though I prefer to keep my fingers ont eh keyboard as a general rule, mousing is a pain of its own. I really want talking to the computer to be perfected…)
I didn’t take a typing class and I didn’t get good at typing until computers became a daily part of my life as an adult, in my twenties.
So I’m wondering about other people and how they do, especially now that pretty much all of us, and certainly all of us here, type all the time, and how different people of different ages learned and how well they type.
You know what just occurred to me as I thought about this: how some people’s lurking and minimal contributions might be a DIRECT consequence of their very limited typing skills. Hmmm… I hope we get some lurkers to participate in the poll.
So choose the description that is closest to you:
POLL COMING I JUST NEED TO PLUG IT IN…
I took typing class in high school. Basically, because there were a bunch of cute girls I knew were taking the class too. It was an easy A if you didn’t fuck off too much … which was a close call for me.
And I’m talking type-writers, not computers. Loading ribbons, stuck key-hammer-thingies, white-out … the works.
I still don’t do everything according to Hoyle – I haven’t touched the shift key on the right in 30 years – but I do ok.
I’m average*, entirely self-taught, grew up using computers and don’t particularly struggle with any keys at all.
I think. according to various online tests and a formal test once I transcribe at aproximately 45wpm, but type things that are my own words closer to 65wpm. That’s normal, isn’t it, typing your own thoughts faster than following a prompt?
I started using computers in the mid-70s when I was 6…so typing has always been pretty natural for me.
In middle and high school, I spent way too much time playing online text-based games from Galacticomm back in the MajorBBS days - before the internet was popular/existed in its present form. First person to type “get sword” got it.
Last time I took a typing test, I was in the 120mph range. It’s a handy skill for my job.
I started with a manual typewriter, then moved on to computers (Vic-20, C128). I did have a typing class my freshman year in high school, but my habits were well-engrained by then, so it’s had no effect on my typing skill, so far as I can tell. I touch-type, mostly with the classical home row method, but I do have some fingering quirks–I don’t always use the standard or the same fingers for each individual letter, although I do type with all my fingers. When I temped, my typing speeds were generally clocked in the 95-105 correct wpm range. For example, I just took this random test and scored 102 wpm, with no errors (I did make errors, but deleted them as I went along.)
I think I’m a pretty decent typist, but I bet kids these days could blow me away, growing up completely on computers.
I am weird-I learned to use all 8 fingers (plus thumb for the spacebar) in high school. When I switched to computers at some unknown point I somehow mysteriously started using only my index fingers-but I’m not a hunt and peck guy, as my index fingers know where all the keys are without looking. But I do have to fix a lot of typos tho from mistrikes.
I’d say average, usually about 60WPM. It just came from typing essays all the time. I may’ve played Typing of the Dead once or twice, but I wouldn’t say that counts as formal training.
I had to take at least one vocational class in high school to qualify for a county scholarship - it was book keeping or typing, so glad I took typing. I learned to type on a manual typewriter and I am a smokin’ fast typist. Which is great, since I am a technical writer and have to type all day.
I would say although I took a formal typing class in high school, my insane typing speed was honed by Everquest - typing out short bursts of text during spell casts while raiding
My mom said taking a class for typing was stupid and a waste of credit. So she put electrical tape over the keys of the old electric Royal (which was blue), bought me a how-to book and set me to learning on a typewriter with a ribbon and type bars and everything.
I still mostly touch-type, but since I was never graded and Mom was just getting me to type like a grown-up, I cheated a bit and sometimes have to look. I use all ten fingers, but mess up with my right pinkie and punctuation a lot.
The last time I took a typing test I think I’m around 45wpm. It’s fine. I don’t care. It gets done what I need to, I have no trouble making multi-page documents, and I was never hired at any job for typing skills. Spelling and grammar are another story.
I couldn’t figure out how to vote. I type about 60 words a minute and learned formally. what throws me are laptop keyboards. I need a quality one to type well.
I played “Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing!” or whatever when I was a kid. I also took a mandatory “business” class in high school that taught us, among other things, how to type, neither of which I would consider formal training.
I type incredibly fast with 100% accuracy more often than not regardless of any special characters.
The right hand shift key has never even occurred to me. Thanks, Jack!
When I was in eighth grade, I had a one-semester block that needed to be filled with “something.” I didn’t want to take home ec nor woodshop, so typing it was.
Honestly, probably the most useful class I’ve ever taken.
I think we had to do some typing tutoring in school, as I was in high school when class PCs first really started becoming popular (just before 2000), but nothing that I can really remember sticks out.
I type at about 100wpm+, accuracy 99/100%, depending on if I’m allowed to correct my errors or not.
Want to know the best way to learn how to type fast and accurately? Be an obsessive speller, learning how to roleplay in a java-based chatroom with 100 or more occupants. You type fast, or you’re behind the conversation before you’ve even started.
I am a ten-finger typist, I use both shift keys, though I tend to prefer left shift, even if I’m typing something with my left hand. Well, maybe a 9-finger typist. I don’t tend to use my left thumb on the spacebar. That just hangs out in the air. Though when I’m thinking I do tend to tap my thumb on the spacebar.
I also have a similar ksph rate on the number pad, though I’m on my laptop so I can’t do a test with that at the moment. Don’t have one. That was because I used to play a blitzkrieg number quiz on my dad’s Amiga.
I’m a home-row typist. I have on occasion played tricks on coworkers by swapping out all of the keys on my (or their) keyboards, leaving only the home keys in place. Then had massive lulz at the cries of “Why isn’t it typing what I’m typing?”. Extra more so when I’d use their computers and could type fine I’m a cow.
I type and tab too fast for our computer system at work to keep up some days. I’ll go through a whole screen filling everything out then saving and tabbing through various fields, then I’ll have to stop and wait for the fucker to catch up with me.
I’m a very fast typist. I also used to be accurate, before self-correcting typewriters and computers. Not so accurate now, but I can be if I slow down to 90 wpm or so.
Now with 4737 posts, I would hardly consider myself a lurker. But often, I open a thread thinking I will say a certain thing, and someone has already said it. Not because I type slowly, because I don’t read the forums all that regularly. Sometimes I say it anyway. Sometimes I compose a reply and then think, “Well…no.”
Other. I took typing classes in high school, then after that began working with computers. No real struggling, my fingers know where the keys are, when I miss I back up if I catch it. Otherwise, it’s not that important to me most of the time. If it’s a formal document I’ll spell check it and get someone to proof-read it.
I’m a cow.