TypingClub

My most recent project has been to increase my typing speed. I was clocking in around 40-50wpm (words per minute), but I wanted to increase it to at least 75 or maybe even 100 if possible. I like to write stories, so increasing my wpm would ideally help me get my ideas out of my brain and into the computer faster.

Back when I was in high school, I took an online class that required me to practice touch typing instead of the hunt & peck method I had always used. The work was due on Saturdays, and it would usually require a few lessons a week. Since I was adjusting to a whole new way of typing, those few lessons could take up to 12 hours for me to get a "pass-able" score... and being ever the procrastinator, that's how I spent a large portion of my Saturdays every week until I finished with the class. I wanted to throw my computer out the window. Why was I being required to do this when it made me slower? In the early stages, my typing decreased to 10-15wpm, hence my long struggle to pass the lessons. By the time I finished the course, my typing had only increased to 30-40.

My hands had gotten the basics down and move pretty quick on the keyboard, but for certain uncommon letters and symbols such as a comma and question mark I still had to do a quick scan of the keyboard to use.

Then I discovered TypingClub.com, and now I'm finally able to make that high school teacher proud of my typing skills. This is a FREE website (most of the resources I talk about on this blog will be free, since I know the desire to learn doesn't always come with an endless pocketbook to support that desire). They do have a paid model for school districts/teachers, but the average user won't have to worry about that. Speaking of which, if you are a teacher, they offer a way to monitor your classes' progress on the website, you can read more about it HERE.

TypingClub is set up to teach anyone to touch type, in 100 lessons. It starts with the very basics and does a great job slowly introducing you to each new hand movement. The interface is very simple and effective; it shows you which lessons teach what so you can always return to them if you need more practice on specific things (for me it was those stubborn commas).

When I started this up, I expected to grudgingly practice just like I had back in high school and hate it every step of the way, but the stats and graphs they show on each lesson and overall really help encourage me. There are some lessons when my speed goes down to 30-40, and other lessons when I almost manage 70, but I'm able to keep working for progress rather than get discouraged by being so slow at times. I'm really enjoying it, and even though I only commit to 30 minutes a day, I often push myself a bit harder by saying I'll quit "after I get this level perfect" or "once I beat my best time" or "once I reach the next set of 5 lessons".

Some notes: I've only worked on this for 5 days so far (nearly 3 hours typing time), and I'm only at lesson 60. I will update you when I finish all 100 lessons, especially since lessons 70-75 (numbers) and 91-100 (symbols) will be completely new to me. Also, as I've been doing each lesson, since I'm already somewhat experienced, to make it more challenging I practice the lesson until I do it without any mistakes (red are for complete mistakes, orange for fixed mistakes, and green for perfect). Other ways I will practice will be to restart lessons 1-60 from the beginning and either try to beat my fastest time or just practice any weak spots I notice over and over again.

So what's your average wpm time? Take the test at TypingTest.com and share your results. Here's mine currently, and I'll share again once I've finished all 100 lessons on TypingClub.