From 114 To 131 Words Per Minute - Touch Typing Deliberate Practice Experiment

[Paul McCarthy]

I want to share with you the results of a deliberate practice experiment for touch typing that I recently finished.  The net result was a 15% wpm increase from 114 to 131. 

I've included a video about it, but if you prefer I've also included the main points in text underneath.

 

 

The Short Version

• I ran a touch typing "project" in order to improve my touch typing speed
• I did daily practice for 2 months
• The practice consisted of at least 20 minutes of hard, focused touch typing training
• I ended up increasing my Words per Minute from an average of 114 to 131 (an increase of 15%)
• I didn't have a coach or a teacher, so it's not true deliberate practice, but I did manage to find some tips from Sean Wroma (pretty much the world's fastest typist) and I found a Facebook group that contains a bunch of extremely fast typists and all round good people (see resources below).

 

What I've Learned about how to type faster

• Unless your typing is extremely accurate, then your practice should be focused on improving your accuracy rather than trying to force yourself to type faster than your current ability. 
   
• It's recommended to vary your speed so that you you blitz through the shorter, easier words, but slow down for the harder words where you are prone to making mistakes.  Mistakes in longer words are very expensive - for instance making a mistake in a 10 character word means a loss of 2 WPM instantly.  It's better to take that split second longer to get the word correct.  (Tip from Sean Wroma)
   
• When touch typing, focus on the word ahead of the current word that you're typing in order to try and maintain a consistent and steady typing rhythm.  Having a stop, start rhythm is a massive speed killer, makes it harder to get into flow and, for me at least, always leads to more typing errors.

 

My Recommended Program For Typing Faster

• Commit to doing at least one month, preferably two months, of practice every day.
• Your daily practice routine should consist of the folllowing
   
  • 1) Blind typing of 1,000 words from a book or a kindle.  Here the focus is on accuracy.  You can't see what you're actually typing so it discourages the use of backspace in order to correct mistakes.  Instead you are focused 100% on the text you are copying.  At the end of each paragraph, you can check the typing that you've done to see how accurate you are.  Your goal here is to be absolutely focused on typing that perfect paragraph, with zero mistakes.  In reality, this will be hard to do, but that's what you should aim for.
     
  • 2) Do at least one 10 minute marathon test here: http://paulmccarthy.co.uk/marathon - this test is designed to build endurance and get you in flow.
     
  • 3) Do at least one 1 minute speed test here:- http://paulmccarthy.co.uk/sprint
     
• Important note about practice:- This shouldn't be easy or enjoyable.  You're not having a nice typing session. When you're practicing, it must be focused and difficult.  You must feel drained at the end of it - otherwise you are not doing it right.

 

Resources

• http://10fastfingers.com - a great site for practicing your typing
• http://paulmccarthy.co.uk/typefb - a great Facebook group for meeting other typists, some of whom are extremely fast!
• http://www.seanwrona.com/typing.php - typing tips from one of the world's fastest typists (Sean Wrona)

 

 

 

Edited April 5, 2017 by Paul McCarthy