I probably should have went with medium, not fast. My bad.
I still have problems, not with symbol keys, but with numbers, because we never got to the part where numbers were discussed. And we definitely never learned the numpad.
Still, I’m not certain I learned more from that class than I learned from just typing again and again. I was definitely slower in that class than I am now.
My big problem is slight motor problems, where, if I type to fast, letters get transposed. I can move faster with my right hand, and if I don’t watch it, I will type too fast with my right–just like I’ll play too fast on a piano with my right.
Also, I hate, hate transcription. I have to read the word, process it, and type it. I cannot just see letters, and I constantly need small breaks. This makes it very difficult to actually type anything that has any significant number of lines, as even a 1/2 second break will mean I’ll lose my place.
Other: I neither learned formally nor on computers. I taught myself from the age of 5. That was long before personal computers were in homes. I type reasonably fast considering I haven’t been trained the proper way and am doing it all wrong. But wrong or not, I’m able to type as fast and accurately as I need to. Do you see any typos in my posts? No. Because I sacrificed them.
I am fast, learned formally, have been crazy about computers since forever (which is about half a lifetime before I finally laid hands on one), and the things that slow me down aren’t listed in the poll.
Unfamiliar keyboard arrangements. I know the Spanish-International and US keyboards pretty much by heart, but sometimes I’ve been in situations where I had to use a different arrangement. In some of those, not even the “regular” IT guys had the admin authorizations required to set my keyboard to Something Where I Do Not Have To Hunt And Peck. And yes, damnit, if I have to type in Spanish I want a damn Spanish keyboard! The physical keyboard doesn’t have to be Spanish, it just needs to be convinced it is. In the last place where the IT guys couldn’t set the keyboard language, the original guy didn’t even understand what I was talking about - thankfully, he had the bright idea to transfer me to a colleague whose mother is from Spain; this one was familiar with “dual-language keyboards” but found out that not only was neither of us authorized to create such a setup, there was no procedure in place to request it and therefore it Could Not Be Done. Sigh.
If I catch whomever thought it was a good idea to localize shortcuts, I’ll need some serious restrain to avoid shortcutting his urethra to his throat. Whenever I am using a program in language A but I first learned it in language B, the shortcuts change: not only that, but the “original” shortcuts exist as well - they do different things than what my body memory expects, tho. And, this is the absolute kicker, sometimes the shortcuts and their function change between different programs of the same suite. GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!
So basically I have a language problem with keyboards and shortcuts.
That’s fast. I think average is about 30-45 (based on various apps I’ve used).
I learned how to type in second grade, took another class in middle school I think. I’ve used various programs on my own to try to improve but never topped about 65wpm on a QWERTY. I’m learning Dvorak but I’m only about at 25wpm, which drives me crazy. I used to type a LOT in school between homework and my own writing. I do tend to use the numbers pad on top instead of the top numbers for two or more digit numbers.
When I tested for typing speed, I scored around 60 to 70 wpm. Doing it “wrong.” I have 46 years of doing-it-my-own-way muscle memory for the keyboard and there’s no way that’s ever going to change.
I took typing in high school. I took it as a fuck off class, but unfortunately the teacher was a hard-ass nun (Sister Louise, AKA “Sister Patton”) who would patrol the room with a ruler and crack you across the knuckles with it if she saw you looking at the keyboard.
It still never really sank in for me. I still type with two fingers and look at the keyboard. I can do it a pretty good clip, though.
I guess I count as a lurker, and it has nothing to do with my typing skills. It has to do with the fact that by the time I get to most threads what I would have added has already been said and I feel no need to repeat it. I type medium fast, do best when typing what I’m thinking, took typing in high school, but didn’t get good at it until I started using a computer daily for work.
The U.S. Navy taught me to type back in 1973. On the typewriter I typed around 70 wpm. Once I moved onto word processors and computers, my fastest speed was in the 90-100 wpm range. I’m slower now. I slow down for shifted numbers (!@#$%^&*) but nothing else.
Grew up in (mainly) the early dawn of the computer age. Played multi-player games like Quake for 5-6 hours a day (a lot of chatting). Self-taught, average is ~115 wpm.
I do not use the home row or any other conventional method. I use both thumbs and usually my first three fingers on either hand. I developed my own little system. If I tried to use the homerow now, I’d probaby be abysmal.
Ironically, this skill got me my first decent (and current) job. The civil service exam was weighted 50% towards typing speed/accuracy.
I am a fast-as-hell typer with very few mistakes. I know, from my experience at an insurance company typing loss descriptions as they’re being told to me by callers, that I type faster than an average person talks. For a really fast talker I may struggle to keep up (but I won’t forget what they’ve said, it just takes me longer to type it than they did to say it). I haven’t timed my wpm though, I don’t really care. Maybe if I need that information on a resume I’d clock it, but the number is not a big deal to me.
I don’t keep my fingers on the home row. I navigate a computer keyboard like I used to play the piano–by committing to muscle memory the intervals between keys. My hands go where they are needed. And I don’t use pinkies, except for the shift or control keys.
I put average. Took typing in high school on an electric typewriter. I do about 60 to 70 on a keyboard. But I suck at this hunt and peck I gotta do on the iTouch I’m using right now.
My kids thumb-type on these types of keyboards and are ridiculously fast for thumb-typing.
I type at around 45-60wpm depending on what I’m doing and how irritated I am. Irritation increases both typing speed and error rate
I did take one typing class in high school and I do believe it gave me a good foundation to build on but I still credit most of my typing skills to many many hours of computer gaming.
I never look at my fingers but since I’m a chronic multitasker half the time I’m not looking at the screen either resulting in a mess if I happen to shift off of home row.
One thing however, when I was in the airforce I was a payroll and accounting clerk and the holdover from that is I am lightning fast on a numeric keypad.
The answer seems to be that for this skill in particular practice is the key. No matter how you type or how you learned the more you use it there better you get.
Typing class in high school on good old IBM Selectrics. Can still here the sound they made when the whole class was typing away. After that computers and work gave me enough practice to maintain my marginal typing skills. Around 45 wpm on a standard keyboard but only 35 or so on my laptop, the keys just have never felt right. And managed 30 wpm on the QWERTZ keyboard I use at work. Evidence that I am not entirely a touch typist.
According to wikipedia, an average is 33 wpm. On various online typing tests I score in the 60-90 wpm range, so I guess I’m fast. I took a one-semester typing test in high school, on an electric typewriter. At the end of the class I was doing about 30 wpm. I’ve had a lot of practice since then. The class didn’t teach how to touch-type numbers and symbols except quotation marks, comma, period, slash, and question mark. A few years ago I taught myself to enter numbers on the number pad by touch. I still have to look for most of the other symbols, except the at sign and hyphen.
I’m a self-taught hunt-and-pecker. My high school grading was funny, I scored high on everything in typing except my form. They gave up on making me use home row.
I grew up with typewriters, then later computers, so somewhere along the way my fingers learned where all the keys are. I’ve never studied typing formally, and in retrospect I think I’m glad I didn’t; it might have screwed me up, or at least been worthless. I don’t have a system; I just hit the keys with whichever fingers happen to be handy.
I have no clue whether my typing speed is above or below average, but when I type “out of my head” (like I’m doing now), I can type as fast as I need to, and… well, there actually isn’t much call for typing much that isn’t “out of my head.”
Eons ago I was in the 7th grade and had to choose a class for summer school. Nothing looked good, so I chose typing. Turned out to be the most useful course I’ve ever taken. It has served me well ever since. I did miss the week when they taught that top row of numbers and, to this day, I have to basically hunt and peck anything in that row. Otherwise, I’m lightning fast. I think I’m in the 60-70wpm nowadays, but I was in the 80-90wpm in my heyday.
