Typing Speed - Let’s Improve It

Published January 25, 2022

How fast do you type?  I learned how to type decades ago. I started to go into a long trip down memory lane sharing my typing experience over the years but fell asleep when proofing it. Who cares how and when I learned to type. The bottom line is, fast typing is a beneficial skill.

Well, maybe not as beneficial as it was back in the day since now there are dictation apps and thumb-typing with on-screen keyboards (bless the younger generation. I just can’t warm up to that). But there’s still a market for and I believe a need for fast accurate typing.

Why Type Fast?

I believe my readers are a savvy group and they know the benefits of typing fast. Writers, coders, students, and creators understand this so no need for me to belabor the obvious. What I will discuss, however, is improving your typing speed.

As a writer and wannabe geek, I spend quite some time typing, and being able to do it faster is a good thing. As a result, I’m toying with improving my typing speed. Might as well be as fast and as accurate as I can.

My Speed Typing Inspiration

I’d like to say this was a self-inspired thought, but it’s not. I saw a YouTube video of Ali Abdaal who clocks in at over 150 WPM! That got to me thinking. How much more efficient would I be if I increased my typing speed. Last check, my speed was around 80 WPM. With Ali’s encouragement, I went to 10FastFingers.com and checked my speed.

True Transparency

I learned about Ali Abdaal by watching a video by YdnimC called How to type faster on Logitech K380 or K480 (I have the K380 and K780). YdnimC isn’t a fast typist like Ali, but she had nice tips. Through her, I learned about two additional sites, MonkeyType and TypingTest.

With all of these newfound sites, I decided to try them out.

All is Not Equal

In taking the typing tests, I learned something. Most typing tests are easy. They use letters only. Very few use numbers, hyphens, question marks, or exclamations. TypingTest.com, however, has three flavors of tests, easy, medium, and hard.

Here are my test results from MonkeyType:

And here’s 10FastFingers:

And finally, I took two typing tests with TypingTest.com

On my first go with TypingTest.com I took the medium-level test. I was surprised to see that my speed was much lower than what I clocked on 10FastFingers and Monkeytype. That’s when I realized the levels make a big difference.

On the medium test, my speed dropped to 80 WPM. However, taking the easy test my speed returned to 90 WPM. So, naturally, I’ll be using TypingTest as my speed typing site of choice. Anyone can type fast with an easy typing test. It’s the more difficult test that separates the wheat from the chaff (by the way, I didn’t have the heart to try the hard level yet).

Typing - Make it Fun

Even if you’re not a good typist, it’s fun to try these tests to see if you can improve your speed. According to Ali, spending about 10 to 15 minutes a day taking typing tests will  do much to improve your speed. I don’t know if that’s true, but I’m willing to give it a try.

Oh, and A Throwback

I’m so glad that I didn’t listen to the friendly advice given to me by an acquaintance back in the day. Right before I went in for my first insurance job interview as an Account Manager, she said, “Don’t let them know you can type.”

Last Modified: 4 September 2023