speed typing challenge

July 13, 2003 5:11 AM

Competitive typing.
posted by rushmc (46 comments total)

I got 458 correct keypresses per minute on my second try, which almost gets me into the Top 20 for the day. Must...try...again....
posted by rushmc at 5:12 AM on July 13, 2003

Well bah, it crashed.
posted by kavasa at 6:14 AM on July 13, 2003

478...
posted by rushmc at 6:49 AM on July 13, 2003

Bah! 432! I am worthless!

(But my keyboard is all crappy, and my sitting position is bad, and my wrists hurt, and... excuse, excuse). I will say that it does appear you can cheat on this test, provided you think quickly enough. For example, you always tend to get stuck on the "one-hand" long words, so if you just type a letter and then space, it counts the word incorrectly spelled, (which doesn't affect your score). I bet if you practice this method enough, and skip the long/one-handed/numbers, you could probably increase your score by about 50. But a nice little applet, overall.
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 8:05 AM on July 13, 2003

274 with an average of 54 words per minute. Pretty much exactly what I expected, and where I want to be.

(my goal in life is to be good enough to get along...)
posted by Irontom at 8:09 AM on July 13, 2003

484...

Interesting notion, Civil_Disobedient. I wonder if that's how people can get 550+?
posted by rushmc at 8:17 AM on July 13, 2003

Well, that or they're Dvorak users. Oh, and if you really want to lose your shit, check out the all-time high scores. That's right, folks, 830 -- probably around 180 words per minute.

I smell a rat.
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 8:23 AM on July 13, 2003

a really well trained rat, maybe ....

... I used to work with a very nice lady who could type pretty near 180 wpm - she did have a special keyboard (with standard layout) and a special chair, but she could type like the wind.

I have no doubt others like her are out there...

my score was 252, but the errors, oh! The errors.
posted by anastasiav at 8:51 AM on July 13, 2003

io cun"t typ[e qwerth A SHJIT
posted by quonsar at 8:51 AM on July 13, 2003

Ok, I must have misremembered - the world record holder "can maintain 150 wpm for 50 min (37,500 key strokes) and attains a speed of 170 wpm using the Dvorak Simplified Keyboard (DSK) system. Her top speed was recorded at 212 wpm"

While we're at it, here's another weird typing record
posted by anastasiav at 8:54 AM on July 13, 2003

I wish there were a cheap Dvorak keyboard out there. The sticker overlays just don't do it for me, but I don't want to pay over $30 for a keyboard (DvortyBoards has some on sale for $50 atm).
posted by rushmc at 9:03 AM on July 13, 2003

I got a 192. I'm proud of that. It isn't like I have to type other people's work since the advent of copy & paste.
posted by birdherder at 9:39 AM on July 13, 2003

Buy an old Model M (O Love Of My Life) and rearrange the keycaps.
posted by cortex at 9:41 AM on July 13, 2003

This little applet rocks. I had no idea I was such a bad typist...
posted by jonson at 10:16 AM on July 13, 2003

330 with a 66 wpm. Rating: Not bad.
posted by brent at 10:35 AM on July 13, 2003

Nifty. I got a 541 (108 words per minute), rating "ace," number seven for the day. Number 500 of all time (541) is this close. There goes my morning.
posted by pzarquon at 10:36 AM on July 13, 2003

Oop. I meant to type that number 500 is at 558.

FWIW, I took typing in high school and made 130 wpm. I wonder if they still teach keyboarding at all these days, or if they even need to. Even on QWERTY, self-taught tots can jam pretty fast with six fingers...
posted by pzarquon at 10:47 AM on July 13, 2003

I've always been faster on the 10-key than at typing.
posted by WolfDaddy at 10:58 AM on July 13, 2003 [1 favorite]

pzarquon - They still teach typing, but they use computers nowadays to do so, which, IMHO, is absolutely terrible because it affords learning students the ability to DELETE their errors. The best method I found to learn anything (whether typing or otherwise) was to start slowly, maintaining correct form, then slowly building up speed. These kids nowadays, with their CTRL-C and their fancy backspace keys... /old fogey
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 11:10 AM on July 13, 2003

I got 398 and a rating of "nice". Alas, damned to mediocrity.
posted by littlegirlblue at 11:18 AM on July 13, 2003

361 = 72 wpm. Cool. I had to type the word "plagiarize" FIVE times during my run...grrr.
posted by davidmsc at 11:38 AM on July 13, 2003

It asked me to spell stuff like That's the sprit and winfow-panes. What's a winfow? So I got 355 the first time, and 423 the second.

Civil-Disobedient - I've never understood people's hatred of my precious backspace key. I'd much rather fix an error as I make it than assume I'm going to find that comma I missed afterwards. Although, just about everything I write these days is either e-mail or code. In both cases I would take accuracy (in the sense of being correct in the end, not per-keystroke) over a little more speed.
posted by Gary at 11:45 AM on July 13, 2003

My point was that it's a bad idea to rely on the crutch of the delete key when you're learning to type. A bad analogy: once you've learned the language, it's OK to refer to the thesaurus. A worse analogy: it's OK to strap on the SCUBA tank after you've first learned how to swim. You get the idea...
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 12:12 PM on July 13, 2003

gah. All the misspelled stuff was really difficult for me to type. I kept wanting to correct things. Got frustrated and stopped. I applied for a temp job the other day so I know my typing speed's about 65 on a five minute test. Although I learned to type on a giant humming electric typewriter in new york's public schools, I have adapted to the backspace-correct method over the years (although I don't use it all that often).

I'm sure kids still learn to type; what I wonder is whether they bother to teach them handwriting anymore... or anyway, if they will in ten or twenty years.
posted by mdn at 12:52 PM on July 13, 2003

Hrmm. I tried to set up a group metafilter for some competitive rankings, but I'm not sure it's worked properly. The group name is metafilter and keyword is mefi if anyone wants to try to sign up.
posted by jacquilynne at 1:05 PM on July 13, 2003

Too bad all the low 400's gets you is a "nice". Where are my prizes :(.
posted by rudyfink at 1:20 PM on July 13, 2003

Interestingly, I have not gotten any misspelled words. If you do a few sessions, you should get into a better word set, methinks.
posted by rushmc at 1:46 PM on July 13, 2003

My son types faster and more accurately than I do, which, as far as I can tell, he learned by using the chat function when playing Diablo online. He had a few lessons in elementary school, but not enough to account for that level of speed (I clocked 75 wmp on my last typing test). The next generation... scary they can be.
posted by jokeefe at 1:47 PM on July 13, 2003

Just confirmed the above with my son, who said that he had to learn to type quickly before the cows killed him. Obviously there are motivational factors here that could be exploited in the teaching of typing....
posted by jokeefe at 2:01 PM on July 13, 2003

Interestingly, I have not gotten any misspelled words.

well, then it's clearly just a bug in the program.

Actually, I just went and looked again, and it seems like all m's and y's are replaced with r's, for me. "How ranr prograrrers does it take..." and "if soreone sars he will do sorething..." were examples just now. It took me a few tries for it to work at all... [I'm mac/ie]
posted by mdn at 2:47 PM on July 13, 2003

50 wpm PECKING. I never learned to type.
posted by jojo at 5:27 PM on July 13, 2003

I can type. But I don't trust reality. So I must constantly check the keys to be sure they are not capering about beneath my fingertips. Just because they never have doesn't mean they never will. Tryst no en0.
posted by Opus Dark at 5:45 PM on July 13, 2003

Civil_Disobedient: You may not be aware of this, but one of the nice things you can do with computers is configure them the way you want. For example, you can program the computer to ignore the delete key, and then sell your program to schools.



In other words, don't be such an idiot. We couldn't use the delete key in typing class when I whent to school (well, we could use it, but it didn't do anything)
posted by delmoi at 6:56 PM on July 13, 2003

Oh yeah. Also I always bomb these typing tests because my brain just gets hung up on certan words, spesificaly the ones I don't know how to spell...
posted by delmoi at 6:58 PM on July 13, 2003

delmoi: don't be such an idiot. Ok, I won't. I know from personal experience (my old high school) that they did not disable the delete key. Thanks for playing, though.
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 7:07 PM on July 13, 2003

Rating: mediocre :-( Story of my life. At least my correct keypresses per minute rate was above average (if only 1 above average). Actually, I can type faster than the 45wpm they gave me, if what I am typing makes sense.

I must constantly check the keys to be sure they are not capering about beneath my fingertips
I thought it was just me who did that. I know full well where the keys are, but keep glancing down anyway.

Civil_Disobedient, if you want to go back a generation in learning to type, my mother learnt on a manual typewriter with completely blank keys.
posted by dg at 7:42 PM on July 13, 2003

Never admit you can type.
posted by stvc15 at 7:46 PM on July 13, 2003

Type? Wimps. I write out every letter using the mouse (I tried scrawling on the screen, but I just got scratches on it, and the dry erase markers don't work either).
posted by namespan at 9:56 PM on July 13, 2003

dg - Now that's hardcore. Out of curiosity, do you happen to know how fast she types?
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 9:57 PM on July 13, 2003

I don't actually, but that was pretty much the order of the day back then, apparently. Along with the ruler that the typing teacher carried to whack anyone over the knuckles if they glanced down at the keys. For schools that did not have blank keys, they used a kind of apron that went around the student's neck and clipped to the front of the typewriter, covering the keys completely.

I used to work with someone who learned to type under similar conditions and she could type at 180 wpm with amazing accuracy. She could do it while carrying on a conversation, as well. Amazing to watch and used to make me feel completely un-coordinated just listening to the whirr of the keys behind me.
posted by dg at 10:26 PM on July 13, 2003

My point was that it's a bad idea to rely on the crutch of the delete key when you're learning to type. A bad analogy: once you've learned the language, it's OK to refer to the thesaurus. A worse analogy: it's OK to strap on the SCUBA tank after you've first learned how to swim. You get the idea...

Point taken. I guess my experience was different because by the time I took keyboarding in junior high, I had already been typing for 10 years or so (and was pretty fast). However, it did force me to learn how to touch type instead of hunt and peck. It also programmed me to forever leave two spaces after every sentence. I'm not sure I'll ever break that habit.
posted by Gary at 11:46 PM on July 13, 2003

Exactly, Gary! I think that having to consciously think about only using one space for this test slowed me down, at least in the beginning. The single-space thing is by far my least favorite online text convention.

Come on, guys, surely there is SOMEONE here who can challenge pzarquon for Mefi Typing Master! (Has anyone else at least scored "Ace?" I'm wondering what the cut-off for it is.)
posted by rushmc at 5:33 AM on July 14, 2003

452... not even close. Something I noticed, however, was that the skipping method on difficult words consistently gives me better scores, which means that the final score does not subtract points for spelling errors. I'd think that typing consistantly at 90 wpm without errors is better than 120 wpm with 10 mistakes.
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 8:00 AM on July 14, 2003

299 and 39 wpm. I always thought I was a pretty fast typist, (even though I have to look at the keyboard, and only use four fingers) but obviously not. Great fun though.
posted by seanyboy at 9:56 AM on July 14, 2003

284 and 56 wpm

I blame MS Word and its auto correction of missing apostrophes in contractions.
posted by rhapsodie at 2:50 PM on July 14, 2003

rhapsodie, that and the new-fangled reliance on the backspace key that has been previously mentioned are what hold back many people from ever achieving good accurate typing skills. When you had to roll the paper up, erase the error and risk rubbing a hole in the paper and then re-align the page every time you made a mistake, you pretty soon learnt not to make mistakes
posted by dg at 6:48 PM on July 14, 2003