Typing Speed Stuck At 60 Wpm For Some Time... How To Improve

[Ahsaniqbalkmc 0]

First of all, I didn't know where to put this topic, so @yordan if you feel that this is the wrong place, please feel free to move it to what seems correct place to you..So the thing is that I have been touch typing for quite some time. Before starting to learn touch typing, I used "hunt and peck" style and I was OK with that (around 25 WPM).. After I learned touch typing, my speed was increasing at a constant rate with time. It did take time to reach 30 wpm but after that my muscles got used to the location of the keys and the speed improvement was fast.But after I hit the 60 WPM mark (many months back), the speed improvement just ceased to happen and I am stuck at 60 WPM. Actually the improvement from 50 WPM to 60 WPM had bigger share of reduction of errors as compared to actual speed improvement. So I might be correct in saying that somehow, my fingers have ceased to improve the speed of their movement.I know that 60 WPM is not bad. Actually it is quite good especially in my field (medicine and surgery) where computer literacy is not that high. But I want to improve the speed. My goal is to touch the 100 wpm mark.I did some research on google to find out what is the average typing speed. It turned out to be between 40 and 50. So 60 wpm is above average but I know that 100 wpm is quite achievable.My assumption is that there must be something that I am doing wrong, because of which the speed improvement has ceased to happen. I tried to find out the flaws in my typing and so far I have found two...The first flaw in my typing is the lack of use of SHIFT key of the right side. Whenever I need to type capital letters, I would only press the shift key of left side. Even when I have to type alphabets that are typed with left hand like a, e, z, q. What I do is I press the left shift key with my left little finger and then press the alphabets (of the left side) with other fingers of the left hand. I am so used to this approach that the accuracy rate is more than 90 percent even with this bizarre method. But what I know for certain is that it reduces my typing speed.The second flaw in my typing is pressing B key with right index finger instead of left. This might be a cause of trouble in some select situations but I don’t even feel that I am typing wrong, and maybe this flaw can be overlooked.So what do you folks thing I need to do (in addition to correcting the above mentioned flaws) to increase my typing speed upto 100 WPM.

[yordan 10]

Seems that you need to go back to the basis.Need to learn how to put your fingers in the correct position (feel the additional form on the "f" and the "j" key, and learn to leave your index there, not to move them unless you need to type a key with the index.Then, star following a typing manual, with exercices on how to type training texts.You have to learn that, each time you type a capital letter, if the capital letter is to be typed with a finger of the left hand, the righ shift has to be used. Reversely, you have to use the left shift each time you type a capital letter with a finger of your right hand.And of course the spacebar has to be typed with the thumb of the hand whose finger did not press the last key : if the left key was pressed with the left hadnd, the spacebar with the right thumb.And of course the exercices from the typing manual have to be performed without looking at the keybord nor at the screend.The exercices of the typing manual are made for giving your graduated difficulty exercices, helping you learning whe the letters are placed.For instance typing poppa poppa poppa poppa four lines without errors (an extra line at each error), then more complicated sequences like hello hello hello hello, or moreover Hi Hey Hello Hi Hey Hello, and so one.And remember the correct position, your fingers have to stay on the a s d f position if you have a qwerty keyboard, moving fast to the typing key and going back the the a s d f position, same thing for the right hand fingers.If you have the correct typing book and if you daily do your exercices, you will see some progress. If you don't do that, you will stuck to slow speed because of bad knowledge of your keyboard and a poor finger and body position.

[manuleka 0]

there's a few online typing tools that can be quite good for type practicing, a quick google should point you to a few...

[iGuest 3]

When I say keyboard, I'm not talking about Piano or Electronic Keyboard, which might confuse people reading this.Forget touch typing unless you learned touch typing on a Dvorak keyboard. I'll tell you why after this.When I use to touch type, I felt my speed seemed maxed on average around 100wpm and for a long time I could not seem to increase my speed (there was a speed test posted here that triggered this years back). I also play guitar and can play over 300 bpm, which compared to typing, may sound fast but there's roughly 144 notes on a guitar, and depending on chords, you can combine a lot into 1 so it's hard to compare. Especially when you can alter different pitches/octaves, and can replace notes with similar sounds which you can't do in a keyboard. So keys and notes were not shedding light on the situation at all of increasing my typing.So knowing these two different techniques, I tried discovering what makes my guitar playing faster than typing without trying to compare apples to oranges. I wouldn't want to bore you with the months (and it's still continuing to this day) it took me developing it, but it came down to notes and key mapping. Basically on guitar I could tell you every note (in standard tuning) just by where your finger touched on the fretboard. I can do the same with keys on a keyboard too, but the difference is, and the point I am trying to make......where your finger touches on the fretboard, I know where the other fingers would need to be to form a chord. So you like pre-emptive about finger placement, you know which fingers you should use and how it should be formed.This was what made typing different. I know where the keys are, but my fingers are stuck around home position and do not form the shape needed to do more at once, they do not shift like on a guitar. So I begin key mapping, visualising the keyboard where keys existed in words I wanted to type. I no longer have a home position and treat my keyboard like I was playing guitar. My hands actually now hover slightly lower of the area where the majority of the keys are needed (this is because stretched fingers seem faster than curled fingers) to form a word.It's probably hard to explain unless I could show it, but if I were to spell a word like HOME, my left index hovers over the H, ring finger on E on the right hand my index is sitting on M and the ring finger on O, effectively this whole word is covered and can actually be spelt in pushing both hands at once, but in a sense like finger picking on a guitar and similar to pushing on a piano.You could say it's an improved version of two-finger typing, but the rule is, you can use whatever finger you want to hit it. Basically I form chords (in guitaring 3 or more notes) on the keyboard and in doing so have learned numerous amounts of hand positioning for playing certain words on the keyboard. I haven't given this technique a name though.I now type over 150wpm, I still have a lot of room for improving my speed. I find playing music you like and increasing the tempo can help too. It's like you become a musician on a keyboard when you keep in time and use the chords you know for words.Without switching to Dvorak style (which I really want to try out too). I think this technique beats touch typing, due to the fact that you don't limit your fingers or hand position. I don't know about ergonomics though, whether it's better or worse, but it hasn't affected my guitar playing and I do regular hand/finger stretches.It would be good if more could learn this style, maybe we all could jam on keyboard together.I needed to add more since I read about your error with shift. I use CAPS over shift, this means my hands do not get fixed in any position and hitting caps on when needed and off when needed is not that slow. I was noticing when using shift in this style, I could lift my finger off shift too early and that hand was useless for working with chords which made the other hand just as bad. It also got harder the faster I started typing so I had to get rid of using shift. There's probably other things I do different too, but it's all based on ensuring I'm hitting the keys right.Cheers,MC

[yordan 10]

Ha-ha, different techniques giving different effects.Nevertheless, you see that ther are roughly two techniques, and you have to stick to one without deviating.The Shift Key is an important difference, the other one is that I tell you that your fingers should never go out of a fixed position, which is also a major difference.And of course, practice and exercices remain the main point.

[manuleka 0]

When I say keyboard, I'm not talking about Piano or Electronic Keyboard, which might confuse people reading this.
Forget touch typing unless you learned touch typing on a Dvorak keyboard. I'll tell you why after this.

When I use to touch type, I felt my speed seemed maxed on average around 100wpm and for a long time I could not seem to increase my speed (there was a speed test posted here that triggered this years back). I also play guitar and can play over 300 bpm, which compared to typing, may sound fast but there's roughly 144 notes on a guitar, and depending on chords, you can combine a lot into 1 so it's hard to compare. Especially when you can alter different pitches/octaves, and can replace notes with similar sounds which you can't do in a keyboard. So keys and notes were not shedding light on the situation at all of increasing my typing.

So knowing these two different techniques, I tried discovering what makes my guitar playing faster than typing without trying to compare apples to oranges. I wouldn't want to bore you with the months (and it's still continuing to this day) it took me developing it, but it came down to notes and key mapping. Basically on guitar I could tell you every note (in standard tuning) just by where your finger touched on the fretboard. I can do the same with keys on a keyboard too, but the difference is, and the point I am trying to make...

...where your finger touches on the fretboard, I know where the other fingers would need to be to form a chord. So you like pre-emptive about finger placement, you know which fingers you should use and how it should be formed.

This was what made typing different. I know where the keys are, but my fingers are stuck around home position and do not form the shape needed to do more at once, they do not shift like on a guitar. So I begin key mapping, visualising the keyboard where keys existed in words I wanted to type. I no longer have a home position and treat my keyboard like I was playing guitar. My hands actually now hover slightly lower of the area where the majority of the keys are needed (this is because stretched fingers seem faster than curled fingers) to form a word.

It's probably hard to explain unless I could show it, but if I were to spell a word like HOME, my left index hovers over the H, ring finger on E on the right hand my index is sitting on M and the ring finger on O, effectively this whole word is covered and can actually be spelt in pushing both hands at once, but in a sense like finger picking on a guitar and similar to pushing on a piano.

You could say it's an improved version of two-finger typing, but the rule is, you can use whatever finger you want to hit it. Basically I form chords (in guitaring 3 or more notes) on the keyboard and in doing so have learned numerous amounts of hand positioning for playing certain words on the keyboard. I haven't given this technique a name though.

I now type over 150wpm, I still have a lot of room for improving my speed. I find playing music you like and increasing the tempo can help too. It's like you become a musician on a keyboard when you keep in time and use the chords you know for words.

Without switching to Dvorak style (which I really want to try out too). I think this technique beats touch typing, due to the fact that you don't limit your fingers or hand position. I don't know about ergonomics though, whether it's better or worse, but it hasn't affected my guitar playing and I do regular hand/finger stretches.

It would be good if more could learn this style, maybe we all could jam on keyboard together.


I needed to add more since I read about your error with shift. I use CAPS over shift, this means my hands do not get fixed in any position and hitting caps on when needed and off when needed is not that slow. I was noticing when using shift in this style, I could lift my finger off shift too early and that hand was useless for working with chords which made the other hand just as bad. It also got harder the faster I started typing so I had to get rid of using shift. There's probably other things I do different too, but it's all based on ensuring I'm hitting the keys right.


Cheers,

MC

wow some pretty deep stuff there MC i play a bit of guitar as well, but i never really had proper training for it

[Ahsaniqbalkmc 0]

Seems that you need to go back to the basis.

The basics you described, I seem to know them all. Practically I follow all of them except the two flaws mentioned in the first post. I also think that the pressing of spacebar is not exactly like you mentioned. I seem to use the right thumb all the time… so this is the third flaw.
The remaining things, you mentioned are exactly like what I do normally when I type. So the remaining things won’t be a problem.
My main concern here is that how much improvement I will get after investing a considerable amount of time in correcting these three flaws in my typing. For the spacebar and the B key, I don’t think there would be much improvement. But I am sure that there can be improvement in the typing speed when I correct the Shift key flaw.

If you have the correct typing book and if you daily do your exercices, you will see some progress. If you don't do that, you will stuck to slow speed because of bad knowledge of your keyboard and a poor finger and body position.

As far as exercise goes, I do typing daily. The average would be 1000 to 1500 words daily and I think that it is enough exercise. And as I said above, the finger position on the keys is correct for most part except the three flaws mentioned. So this shouldn’t be a problem as well. The only other improvement I can think of right now is the reduction in the lifting of fingers while I type. So that I instead of hammering the keys, I press them gently. The science behind that would be that the decreased lift would result in less time taken for each keystroke, which in principle should increase the typing speed.

there's a few online typing tools that can be quite good for type practicing, a quick google should point you to a few...

A good typing game should be fun. Nowadays, I sit in front of my computer for relatively less time, and most of this time is spent in typing. So occasionally, I will get bored of typing in a boring plain text editor. So during this time, a typing game would do very well for me.
I occasionally use typeracer.com, and its quite fun to use.

Forget touch typing unless you learned touch typing on a Dvorak keyboard. I'll tell you why after this.

Wow…. That’s some comment @MC. I have always heard that touch typing is better than almost every other form of typing. But what you say seems strange to me…

When I use to touch type, I felt my speed seemed maxed on average around 100wpm and for a long time I could not seem to increase my speed (there was a speed test posted here that triggered this years back).

Well, 100 wpm is the ultimate goal for me (most likely). The reason is that I am not a professional typist and my job doesn’t require to me type fast (actually it doesn’t require me to type at all). Its just the additional work I do with my website and on the internet that require me to type. And above all, I like to type fast…. It so cooool… So for me 100 wpm would do very good. And it would be ideal for me if I achieve this without investing huge amount of time into it, which probably means that I should stick to qwerty and touch typing.

I also play guitar and can play over 300 bpm, which compared to typing, may sound fast but there's roughly 144 notes on a guitar, and depending on chords, you can combine a lot into 1 so it's hard to compare. Especially when you can alter different pitches/octaves, and can replace notes with similar sounds which you can't do in a keyboard. So keys and notes were not shedding light on the situation at all of increasing my typing.

Well, I didn’t understand most of what you have said but it appears that you are a pretty good guitarist… wooooo…

You could say it's an improved version of two-finger typing, but the rule is, you can use whatever finger you want to hit it. Basically I form chords (in guitaring 3 or more notes) on the keyboard and in doing so have learned numerous amounts of hand positioning for playing certain words on the keyboard. I haven't given this technique a name though.

It appears to be pretty awesome, but do you have to look at the keyboard while you type?.....

Without switching to Dvorak style (which I really want to try out too). I think this technique beats touch typing, due to the fact that you don't limit your fingers or hand position. I don't know about ergonomics though, whether it's better or worse, but it hasn't affected my guitar playing and I do regular hand/finger stretches.

I tried once to switch to DVORAK style, because I was told that the shift is not that hard to make and that the reward is worth the little trouble. I changed the layout of the keys of one of my usb keyboards to the DVORAK style and I gave it a try. However, I was very disappointed with my progress. It was very frustrating because I always used to press keys as if the layout was QWERTY. So it became clear quickly that the shift would require quite a long period of trouble and hard work, so I gave it up and decided to stick with qwerty.

[manuleka 0]

i think typing speed of 60wpm is good enough, unless you are working on a data entry type job...

[yordan 10]

Data entry job is something different. Usually, you only type numbers.And typing numbers needs only one hand on the numeric keypad.And you have to go slowly, in order to prevent errors, because errors on numbers are not obvisous for a fast visual check.

[Ahsaniqbalkmc 0]

i think typing speed of 60wpm is good enough, unless you are working on a data entry type job...

Yes @manu I know its good enough but I want to improve further. I would love to have a typing speed that touches the 100 wpm mark. So my goal is to reach 100 WPM mark. And I am not in any sort of data entry business. I just type for my website and the Xisto forum ( and its quite a bit of typing). So basically I want to reduce the time I give to typing without reducing the amount of words I type. And this can be only achieved through increased typing speed. So that's why I want to increase my typing speed further.

 

Data entry job is something different. Usually, you only type numbers.And typing numbers needs only one hand on the numeric keypad.And you have to go slowly, in order to prevent errors, because errors on numbers are not obvisous for a fast visual check.

Well I don't have much to do with numbers. I can't even type all of them without looking at the keyboard, and still I would be typing at about 60 WPM. This is because numbers has negligible share in the type of typing I commonly do. So I don't care much about numbers.

 

However, I would like the typing speed for normal english typing to reach the 100 wpm mark. As of error, I do make them but they are not in a significant quantity to cause a considerable loss of typing speed and time. I would still like to be an error free typist but currently this comes as a secondary goal. The primary goal is to reach the 100 wpm mark.