Look-typing? Not that fast. Boy, it's really gone downhill! Upper 60s. But when I listen to someone who has dictated, about 90-100 wpm. I make mistakes, but I see them all. Even those that are not caught bye spellcheck. See how I put in that bye, not by? that kind of error. A correctly spelled word, but not the correct word. It's what I do for a living. I don't do that so much on these boards since I don't really want to after doing it all day long.

Alisande - thanks, that was kinda fun. :)

I typed 84 wpm with 1 mistake. This is the best I have ever done on a typing test and, during the test I could tell how rusty I have gotten over the years. Fun, but I don't think this test is accurate.

Moonie, either it's pretty accurate or online tests are generally inaccurate. I've taken several over a period of time, and they've all scored within a small range of each other.

The worst I scored was on a test from the UK. They used an excerpt from a book that had what I would consider to be wretched sentence construction, plus a lot of contractions that were unfamiliar to Americans. I was so busy mentally editing in my head that I made a bunch of mistakes.

I got as far as reading those tortured lines and gave up!

I read recently that 'the young' aren't taking typing lessons. They think they know how to text, so what's the point. Uh-huh. Right.

I don't think that's why chisue. My son's schools have required type-written reports since 4th grade. Maybe they're already learned is why they don't need an additional class that can be better used for some real schoolastic material, e.g. history, economics, language...

Wow! My skills have really deteriorated. I was at 69 wpm with 4 mistakes. I never type from sight like that any more. I'm always composing as I type. I found while I was taking the test that I was having trouble concentrating on the text because I wanted to edit it. I guess I've lost the ability to translate vision to type without the intermediate step of comprehension.

I can type but am far from being a typist. My speed was about where it's always been over the years ... 44WPM, but I was amazed that I had no errors.

Shirley

Some young people can type very well. My 26 year old son is a software developer and his typing amazed me.

I use my tablets so much these days and typing on them is definitely not the same as typing on a computer keyboard. I use SwiftKey keyboard on the tablets and love it's predictive abilities. It cuts the actual typing time down. When I go back to the computer I keep waiting for the prediction to pop up.
I can still type well when I put my mind to it.
I wish I could master the swype method on the SwiftKey, I keep trying lol.

Here is a link that might be useful: How to swype

Why don't they make those as full sized keboards raven?

Well it can only be the size of the tablets since it's an on screen virtual keyboard. Unless you are using a stand alone add on keyboard. My Asus transformer does come with a keyboard that snaps on and makes it more like a laptop.
On the onscreen ones I use one hand to hold the tablet and one hand to type so it's just a finger tap typing. My big 13.3 inch tablet is what I use more often so it's virtual keyboard is pretty big but I can still only type with one hand while holding it. I don't like laying it flat and trying to use it like a regular keyboard, it's just not comfortable.
I have tried several Android keyboard apps and I still prefer the SwiftKey, I don't mind paying a little for a good app, and some of these keyboard apps have free trial versions to try out which is nice.

Yea, but why don't they make a fullsize keyboard like that?

:)

I know what you're saying, but they need to get on it!

I never learned to type, never needed typing skills in all my years in the computer industry. All that punctuation, etc.- no way.

I just took the test - 27 wpm.

This post was edited by monica_pa on Fri, Sep 19, 14 at 16:28

Are you thinking punctuation is difficult to type, Monica?

I would advise you not to take the UK test I mentioned above. LOL

I took learned to type in summer school before my freshman year in HS. The teacher must have gotten bogged down because just as we were getting to numerals, the course ended. I still have to look at the keyboard for those!

I can see learning typing earlier than HS, but I wonder how fast/accurate kids are if they don't learn it by 'drill'. Are they using all their fingers and thumbs? Don't need to look at the keyboard?

When I took typing in high school almost all of them were the old manual kind, we had I think 3 small electric ones. So during the term we each got to use the electric ones for a few days. We all thought how much easier it was tapping the keys on the electric compared to the pounding we had to do on the manual.
Amazing how much things have changed! I remember how excited I was when I got my own IBM selectric, I think my mother in law still uses it. Oh my gosh I just saw a refurbished IBM selectric ll like mine and it's $475. I had no idea they were selling for that kind of price. Mine is in excellent condition, maybe I should put my name on it for later.

Well, I guess I will just have to accept the fact that I now type better than I used to. Not too hard a pill to swallow. :)

Ha Ha, I worked as a secretary for a few years after high school before college. Man, my skills have deteriorated! 46WPM with 10 errors! Guess I better stick to my day job.

I think Monica means that in programming you are typing parentheses, brackets, braces, math symbols, quote characters, etc none of which are placed conveniently on the keyboard for speedy-touch typing. In fact, for a long time they weren't even placed consistently from one keyboard to another.

I knew even in high-school that I wanted to pursue a career doing programming, so I took a night class for typing. The metric used was words per minute, minus one for each mistake, by the end of the coarse my typing speed was 0 WPM.

That makes sense, Bob, thanks . . . I should have thought of it myself. :-)

My is 50 WPM

I look at this Diagram http://www.ratatype.com/learn/average-typing-speed/ Who has more than 60 WPM are professionals. Hmm...

chi, so when my son first started submitting typed reports, I basically let him get close to "failing". After he'd try to type it and one page would take him hours, I'd sit and he could dictate to me. He had to try first. A handful of times I did that. Next, he figured out he could start it at school, edit it on the bus, and final print at home. And now, he just goes to his room, types it up and he's done. It was a huge process, and maybe typing would be better, but he's not "using his thumbs". Yes he's looking, but I assume typing by feel will be next.

Why? Because that's how I learned to type. Actually, I typed up term papers (they don't even use that terminology any more!), by hunt and peck. I didn't have time for typing in my school schedule. Only needed it once a year. Then I went to work and hunt/peck only goes so far.

And now my hands get ahead of what I am saying in my head! I never learned to really add in the numbers. I use the keypad. That, I also learned by feel, and can do a million times faster than extending my fingers to the top keys.

John, that was interesting. That woman typed 216 wpm! I didn't know they had electric typewriters in 1946.

Rob, I'm not sure what you mean by "It was a huge process, and maybe typing would be better...." I thought you were saying that he's been typing.

learning by trial and error is a huge process.

:)

I was not a staff programmer, so I had to write very little code, except when I was teaching , designing or updating a course. I had the luxury of testing my code, and text editors before it was sent to a printer.
I worked for one of the largest DP companies, teaching or troubleshooting all over the world.