This is an interesting thing to me. In school you've always been taught to type with all your fingers, but man hasn't that been a long time ago? When I look around, I never really see anyone type with all of them though. My grandparents and not-very-computer-literate people type with 2 index fingers, but even my peers don't use them all I think it may come from playing Starcraft too often back in the day or other bad habit developments, it really trains you not to use your pinkies I feel.
Do you feel like you lack from typing speed? Typing speed is undoubtedly a very important thing in today's technology driven society. Has anyone used to type with only a few fingers and now types with all of them? How did you do it? Did you find it to be a huge help? What have you guys found to help with your typing speed and accuracy?
For myself, I currently type at a respectable 90wpm while I'm working, and around 80wpm when I'm just being lazy on the computer. However to type actual letters, I only use 5 fingers. My index and middle fingers, and my left ring finger for a & z. Even though I only use such few fingers I do alright, and therefore I was wondering about peoples' experiences with their typing, and if they have done anything about their typing in their past.
Question 1:
So I ask you, "How many fingers do you type letters with?" A thumb for space bar doesn't count, and using a finger just for shift/ctrl doesn't count, using a right pinky for enter/backspace does not count either. Having a finger for comma, period, semi colon, colon, question mark, brackets, quotations, does count however. This is to get the most accurate correlation of fingers used to typing speed because using one pinky for enter or backspace doesn't attribute much to typing speed, hence the logic.
Remember, this is not to brag, but to gauge how most people type.
Poll: How Many Fingers Do You Type With? (Read Specifics Above)
8 (448)
37%
6 (269)
22%
7 (113)
9%
2 (102)
8%
3 (99)
8%
5 (94)
8%
4 (85)
7%
1210 total votes
Your vote: How Many Fingers Do You Type With? (Read Specifics Above)
Now my second question, how many wpm (words per minute) do you type at? Again, this isn't about bragging, so if you're going to take a wpm test (link below), try to take an average number, don't try 50x and reply with your one highest outliar because you had an easy text to type. We're trying to get an accurate assessment. ^^ And of course it should be a typing speed with at least a 99% accuracy.
Remember, an average 13 year old types at 23wpm, an average typist types at 40wpm, and an average secretary types at 70wpm. If you haven't taken a typing test in a while, it'd be preferred you did one to know your speed more accurately. and give this poll more accurate data.
I am really looking for some anecdotal evidence with typing speed, opinions about typing with fewer fingers, how to change bad habits, spur discussion, link topics to research done, etc. I think it has the potential to benefit a lot of people, thank you!
I type with all my fingers(by whatever standards you have), with top speed at around 120wpm, but my average wpm is probably around 80-90.
Sometimes, when I get lazy I type using one hand.
When I first started, I think I used to use 2 fingers to type. Then I had some typing classes which taught me how to type properly, and I just typed like this ever since then.
My advice would be to remember every letter in the keyboard first. Then just practice. I used All the Right Type program to practice my typing in the beginning. Afterwards, I got a lot of practice from just using the computer a lot lol.
On April 16 2014 12:19 Nemesis wrote: I type with all my fingers(by whatever standards you have), with top speed at around 120wpm, but my average wpm is probably around 80-90.
Sometimes, when I get lazy I type using one hand.
When I first started, I think I used to use 2 fingers to type. Then I had some typing classes which taught me how to type properly, and I just typed like this ever since then.
My advice would be to remember every letter in the keyboard first. Then just practice. I used All the Right Type program to practice my typing in the beginning. Afterwards, I got a lot of practice from just using the computer a lot lol.
Hmm, see but I'm in university and I've been typing for a long long time. It's not like I type slowly, is it worth relearning typing? I never look at the keyboard when I type, and I type faster than what most people do with 8 fingers, and from the few people I've talked to online, I've heard the same thing. That they may use 6 fingers but still type quite well.
Yes, relearn typing if you type with less than 8 fingers. It's not about speed, it's about not straining your fingers and causing injury down the road. Speed comes with the territory though.
Just realized I only use 4 fingers. Only my middle finger when using my left hand and the ring, middle and index fingers when using my right. I have a hard time typing capital letters. I only type at 75wpm.
i use 6.. my pinky and thumbs arent used for letters... didnt check my wpm but i feel like i can type pretty fast if i want to without many mistakes and im pretty fast at correcting those mistakes if it does happen...
8/55. I had to take typing class in 5th grade while band practiced because it was pointless for the teacher to teach to less than half the class. That got me to ~75 WPM. Some time last year I randomly decided to switch to Dvorak, I became proficient but never explicitly trained for speed as I didn't really have the need to type faster then or now. It was hilarious because I switched cold turkey without any program help and I was stuck at 10WPM for a good 2 weeks. Pain in the ass to type anything at that speed.
On April 16 2014 12:42 hellokitty[hk] wrote: Change to dvorak...
Not practical, because if I go somewhere else, they will likely have a qwerty keyboard and I will be unable to use it quickly. If I was only at home or at work at all times, and I had a Dvorak keyboard there, I'd agree with you.
I think Broodwar d*cked my typing, sometimes my index and middle finger run across the keyboard and I have to slow down and force myself to get back in line. Anyway type with all fingers usually and generally 110wpm. Something crazy I've noticed is my aunt types at ~150WPM average and other than that she isn't very computer literate.
On April 16 2014 13:30 sUgArMaNiAc wrote: I think Broodwar d*cked my typing, sometimes my index and middle finger run across the keyboard and I have to slow down and force myself to get back in line. Anyway type with all fingers usually and generally 110wpm. Something crazy I've noticed is my aunt types at ~150WPM average and other than that she isn't very computer literate.
You do realize that for prolonged lengths of time the world record typing speed is around 150wpm. Just so you're aware. People go throwing around 120wpm like it's nothing.
I only use my first three fingers on my left hand and first 2 fingers on my right hand (unless you count using the 3rd finger just for backspace) and I type at around 110wpm. I think the amount of amount of fingers vs speed only matters when you want to push past 120+ wpm.
I just realized I use just 5 fingers when typing. My index and middle finger do most of the work on the left while my right hand only uses the middle finger. Left thumb for spacebar. Left pinky for shift. Ring finger on my right hand is only ever used for backspace whenever I need it so I guess that counts as a 6th finger? Ring finger on the left sees use when I use ctrl+shift when highlighting huge chunks of text at a time.
Need to relearn typing I guess. But I can already hit 110 wpm like this so not sure if I really need to.
On April 16 2014 13:49 rebdomine wrote: I just realized I use just 5 fingers when typing. My index and middle finger do most of the work on the left while my right hand only uses the middle finger. Left thumb for spacebar. Left pinky for shift. Ring finger on my right hand is only ever used for backspace whenever I need it so I guess that counts as a 6th finger? Ring finger on the left sees use when I use ctrl+shift when highlighting huge chunks of text at a time.
Need to relearn typing I guess. But I can already hit 110 wpm like this so not sure if I really need to.
Thumb on spacebar doesn't count as a finger, and left pinky for shift doesn't count as a finger either. But I guess nobody reads the thread anyway.
And it's not about hitting it anyway, it's a speed you can reasonably maintain and what accuracy you can type at.
I use 8 fingers, thumbs on spacebar. occasionally I'll bring thumbs up to the bottom row of keys if needed. On the test I got about 59 W/M with 97% accuracy. I lost a lot of time fixing some mistakes though so my pure typing speed is probably a bit higher than that.
8 fingers; had computer class in elementary school (with this terrifying teacher who used to walk up and down the rows thwacking a ruler again this palm really loudly, but I digress), the right pinky doesn't get used for much, pretty much only "p", ";", and the delete key, but it is used. I also took violin and viola lessons from a relatively early age, so I think that strengthened my pinkies too (one obviously from the fingerboard, but bowing hand posture is important too).
As for wpm...I used to enjoy this typing speed racing game, and after some warmup could get low 80s. I'm a little sloppy though, so that figure includes needing to delete and rewrite words/letters (ie if I had higher accuracy my wpm would be higher). Now, I know this is a starcraft forum but I am really skeptical of people offhandedly claiming 100+, especially with fewer than 8 fingers...
Recently I've needed to use a tablet instead of my desktop, and typing on that thing is a real nightmare...you can't rest your hands on the screen and it feels like the letters are too close together, so I've regressed to this really awkward pecking
On April 16 2014 14:18 jubil wrote: 8 fingers; had computer class in elementary school (with this terrifying teacher who used to walk up and down the rows thwacking a ruler again this palm really loudly, but I digress), the right pinky doesn't get used for much, pretty much only "p", ";", and the delete key, but it is used. I also took violin and viola lessons from a relatively early age, so I think that strengthened my pinkies too (one obviously from the fingerboard, but bowing hand posture is important too).
As for wpm...I used to enjoy this typing speed racing game, and after some warmup could get low 80s. I'm a little sloppy though, so that figure includes needing to delete and rewrite words/letters (ie if I had higher accuracy my wpm would be higher). Now, I know this is a starcraft forum but I am really skeptical of people offhandedly claiming 100+, especially with fewer than 8 fingers...
Recently I've needed to use a tablet instead of my desktop, and typing on that thing is a real nightmare...you can't rest your hands on the screen and it feels like the letters are too close together, so I've regresses to this really awkward pecking
I made this thread because I really came looking for help. I honest to god use 4 fingers most of the time, sometimes use my 5th, and when I do the test like super super focused, I can consistently get 100-110wpm, by typing normally, just being focused and not being jittery I get 90wpm, and when I type very nice and relaxed, I type 80wpm.
So it is possible, but I also do feel people are inflating their numbers for sure, which is sad to see happen. When does typing speed have to become a dick measuring contest. =/
And yeah, typing on touchscreen is really hard, I need to hold it with two hands so I always have to type with 2 thumbs only. That's why I use a 13inch laptop and a larger smartphone, satisfies all my needs (:
I got 102 wpm with a few mistakes. use 8 fingers. Learned to type quickly originally from playing FPS without a mic and then got faster as I started LRing I suppose. I think just having a task to complete just builds up the speed over time. When I would just use the computer for whatever I wouldn't really improve my typing speed. I still trip up pretty badly on things like quotes and numbers. I can usually hit letters on the first try going quickly as possible but I'll transpose some letters every few words. I do feel like I could probably type faster though since I still make mistakes.
Does anyone ever use the left shift btw? I notice that I exclusively use the right shift button
Do you guys transpose letters a lot? Maybe I am just thinking too far ahead or something so I mess up. Might just be that my right hand is quicker than my left because it's usually a right handed letter that gets placed too early.
7 fingers (right hand pinky is shift only) / 80-90 WPM. I noticed I only used my left hand pinky for 'a' and 'z', and my left hand covers probably 2/3 of the keyboard, but I guess that still counts.
I managed to get 102 WPM at 98% accuracy on my second try by focusing on typing quickly. I think I could probably hit that as an average if I was always focusing, but I rarely try that hard when I type even when I'm typing a paper or something.
I often type with my left hand only so I decided to see how badly I would do on it using only my left hand. 27 wpm at 99% accuracy, better than I expected tbh :D
I ended up with 81 WPM somehow, which is strange because I suck at typing. I have no defined method for typing and will alternate between using four to eight fingers as my whims suit me, occasionally dipping down to two if I'm feeling really lazy. (I used four on the test, I think)
I've developed really bad habits and am trying to change them, though my WPM suffers when I try all eight like I should.
8 fingers (thumbs only for spacing and occasionally alt in Excel). I used to care quite a bit about typing speed a few years back and had 120+ consistently, but due to tendinitis these days I'm somewhere between 100-120 with about 98% consistency. typeracer.com ftw~ (E: remembered 95, but that's actually kind of low)
7 fingers + pinky for enter/shift. does right pinky for enter/shift count? i keep it over there since i hit enter so often 101 wpm at 98% accuracy on the typing test. i probably average around 90~95, but i don't really pay too much attention to punctuation or capitalization most of the time
I use 8 and I average around I think 100 wpm. I just started typing with 8 fingers a couple months ago. Before that, I used to type with only 2 fingers and averaged around 140 wmp.
7 fingers in english, 8 in hungarian (we have 35 single letters) by criteria in OP. i learned to type in hungarian naturally by myself, so no conscious training. 78 wpm in english with 94% accuracy on first try. i don't often have to type correctly and i doubt i will ever type stuff like inquisition correctly without stopping for half a second to think first. i never use the left shift when typing.
6 Fingers I don't use my pinkies for anything, haha. Use thumbs for alt and other modifiers consistent 110ish with 95 accuracy
I learned through experience, it took me forever to stop using "Caps Lock" instead of Shift -- that was a wonky habit i developed since I taught myself how to type. i managed to kick that habit, but I never figured out how to use my pinkies
index middle ring finger on my left hand and my index and middle on right. this is ignoring pinky's on side keys like shift enter and ofc my thumb on space.
my only issue with typing is pressing space either to late or to early when typing. Imagine having like 300ms ping on your space bar pressing. I either preempt it for when i think im going to finish a word, or i will miss it and be halfway through the next one.
Probably got the habit of 5 fingers from gaming, gotta keep my ring and pinky on my right hand flat so i can slide back over and grab my mouse as quick as possible o.ob
8 fingers is definently not needed, im a pretty fast writer and i use all except the pinky. The pinky isnt needed at all. I dont know why you would use the pinky finger. To test this write some random words and see if you use the pinky. Beacuse i also thought i used all 8 fingers (discarding thumbs). For shift i use pinky finger, there it is usefull.
4 fingers. 90+ wpm 95% accuracy. Typing for extended periods of time (4+ hours) really fucking hurts my hands because of how I type though so at some point it would be in my best interest to relearn how to type.
34 wpm on the test with 97% accuracy, and clicked 6 fingers, but 5 may be more accurate when I think about it.
I can type mostly without looking on the keyboard, but I make frequent mistakes, which takes a lot of time...
I wouldn't mind spending 20-30 minutes a few times a week to train proper typing. Any suggestion for free sites that can provide good (and not too boring) training? Thanks.
~103 wpm with 98% accuracy. I can type up to 120+ wpm depending on what I'm typing (and how hard I'm trying to go fast, I usually type at a pretty relaxed pace of ~75-85 wpm) and on a semi-related note I play at around 170 apm in SC2.
110 wpm with 97% accuracy and I use two fingers to poke frantically at the keyboard like birds pecking seed. I guess four fingers if you count space bar and shift.
Tried proper typing before and even had two years of training in it during highschool but I'm still noticeably faster my way. Plus its uncomfortable on my pinkies.
I think its also important to note that I dont look when I type. People have this impression that you need home keys in order to type without looking but its really just muscle memory. Type the same way for 20 years and you just subconsciously know where your fingers are at all times.
I'd just like to add that the test you linked is absolutely horrible, it's too short. I recommend 10fast fingers, or even better websites that give you a text to type out. I use 7 fingers, Ratatype gives me 122wpm. I've always wanted to get used to typing with all my fingers, but it's just too hard
I got average of 60wpm and 97% accuray. I however only use 3 fingers.. both my index fingers for all the letters of the alphabet and my thumb for space....
i use 8 fingers (and left thumb for spacebar) and type at around 100wpm. i went to a business school and one of our subjects was basically just typing for about a year or so. i hated it in the beginning but fairly quickly became faster than everybody else in my class and then i loved it cause i just typed everything out and then surfed the internet/talked to my friend who was almost as fast as me for the rest of the lesson.
On April 16 2014 20:33 Rizell wrote: I got average of 60wpm and 97% accuray. I however only use 3 fingers.. both my index fingers for all the letters of the alphabet and my thumb for space....
lmao you can touch type with 3 fingers? That's pretty impressive. And if you can type with one hand.....
Before university, i wrote letters pretty fast but i was slow at using special characters.(# % ' ; < etc.) Thanks to c++, java and html i can use pretty much every character without thinking :D I got 101 wpm with a single mistake from the test P.S:10fastfingers is also nice but typing random letters is not a good way to test speed imo. I like typeracer more because of that.
I used to use six fingers because I grew up playing FPS games on my pc. Over the last year, I've taught myself how to touch type using all eight. I don't think I'm as fast, but I'm getting better.
I use 9 fingers, thumb is for space bar. Either one, whichever thumb is more convenient is the one that is used to hit space. I'm like at 60-70 wpm in English and like 50-60 in french.
On April 16 2014 15:01 NapkinBox wrote: I use 8 and I average around I think 100 wpm. I just started typing with 8 fingers a couple months ago. Before that, I used to type with only 2 fingers and averaged around 140 wmp.
you realize that 140 wpm = 140*5characters=700 characters/60 seconds= 11.66666 characters a second with 2 fingers.
the tip of your indexes must have burned or something dude.
100-110 (depending on how awkward the text is and I'd say 6 fingers. I tend to anchor with my thumb for space and pinky for shift/caps and move around the place a bit. Not the most efficient but it certainly works for me, one thing I noticed is that despite being right-handed my left hand is much, much more dextrous from playing guitar and the like. Been trying to get my right hand a bit up to speed in that regard as I want to get learning the piano soon.
On April 16 2014 15:16 TyrantPotato wrote: 5 fingers 100wpm approx.
index middle ring finger on my left hand and my index and middle on right. this is ignoring pinky's on side keys like shift enter and ofc my thumb on space.
my only issue with typing is pressing space either to late or to early when typing. Imagine having like 300ms ping on your space bar pressing. I either preempt it for when i think im going to finish a word, or i will miss it and be halfway through the next one.
Probably got the habit of 5 fingers from gaming, gotta keep my ring and pinky on my right hand flat so i can slide back over and grab my mouse as quick as possible o.ob
holy cow 100wpm on 5 fingers?! damn that's fast.
I just tested myself on that link, I'm between 70-80 pretty consistently and I use 9 fingers.
I use 7, right pinky is dedicated to shift and enter, left pinky is pretty much solely used for the a-key and ctrl, but a is a letter so it counts =]
I type ~100wpm at home and tested at 85 in an interview on a terrible keyboard so voted 80-100
I feel like my accuracy with m,n,z,x,c, period, and comma would be improved by implementing my pinky, but I have poor lateral mobility and control in my fingers so rotating my hand to use ring finger is much more comfortable for me and I don't notice a significant loss of speed, accuracy to motivate me to relearn to type.
On April 16 2014 15:01 NapkinBox wrote: I use 8 and I average around I think 100 wpm. I just started typing with 8 fingers a couple months ago. Before that, I used to type with only 2 fingers and averaged around 140 wmp.
you realize that 140 wpm = 140*5characters=700 characters/60 seconds= 11.66666 characters a second with 2 fingers.
the tip of your indexes must have burned or something dude.
lol, I wish I could see a youtube video of 140 wpm with 2 fingers for an extended period of time.
After some Googling, I've come to the conclusion that either this thread is full of lies (gasp!) or you guys are all using Colemak / Dvorak and not QWERTY.
On April 16 2014 15:01 NapkinBox wrote: I use 8 and I average around I think 100 wpm. I just started typing with 8 fingers a couple months ago. Before that, I used to type with only 2 fingers and averaged around 140 wmp.
you realize that 140 wpm = 140*5characters=700 characters/60 seconds= 11.66666 characters a second with 2 fingers.
the tip of your indexes must have burned or something dude.
Haha, perfect example that this thread is full of crap I can top around 100, but I'd say average 80-100, type with all 8 (thumb for space)
On April 17 2014 00:21 c0ldfusion wrote: After some Googling, I've come to the conclusion that either this thread is full of lies (gasp!) or you guys are all using Colemak / Dvorak and not QWERTY.
or maybe a forum dedicated to professional computer gaming attracts a lot of people that spend entirely too much time typing on their computers
8 but i really use my ring fingers in place of pinky a lot more than i should. i do 90-100wpm very accurately. i can go higher but it isnt as reliable. what usually if i am taking notes or something
50-60 wpm, 8 fingers. I noticed that numbers (and names, i tend to make mistakes like holding shift for a tad to long so i end up with the second letter being big as well) slow me down a lot, are you using numblock or do you jump the two rows from basic grip for something like dates?
I type with either 6 or 7, depending on if you count the right pinky for Enter. You didn't mention it and since you said that the thumb for spacebar doesn't count, I wasn't sure whether to count this one or not.
My "last 10" rating on typeracer.com is 132, whereas my "career average" on there is 125. Personal best on that site is 153. ... I almost failed typing class back in high school because I didn't use the correct method (and also because I think the teacher was secretly jealous that I was typing practically twice as fast as she does.)
I can attach a screenshot when I get home if people don't believe it... stuff like imgur/tinypic/etc. are blocked at work so I can't do it now.
Average around 110-120 with 5 fingers. I use all the fingers on my left hand but only the index finger of my right hand. Not sure why exactly, just habit.
also, most of my typing was learned from runescape. Typing the same thing over and over again like "selling lobbies 300 gp ea" because the game didnt allow copy/paste really sped up my typing. Now I average ~120 and can peak around 130 without any mistakes.
70-90 WPM with 8 fingers and way too much backspacing for my liking. I used to be able to do 750 WPM with 13 but then I got shot and now I can't feel some of my arms.
I use 9 fingers, only one which I barely ever use is the left thumb. I use the left pinkie for caps lock, tab, shift, and the right one for Enter. Right thumb for spacebar and other fingers for letters. At my best I can type at about 140 wpm, but probably I usually average around 100-120.
On April 16 2014 15:01 NapkinBox wrote: I use 8 and I average around I think 100 wpm. I just started typing with 8 fingers a couple months ago. Before that, I used to type with only 2 fingers and averaged around 140 wmp.
you realize that 140 wpm = 140*5characters=700 characters/60 seconds= 11.66666 characters a second with 2 fingers.
the tip of your indexes must have burned or something dude.
Haha, perfect example that this thread is full of crap I can top around 100, but I'd say average 80-100, type with all 8 (thumb for space)
There definitely appears to be some exaggeration, but I did my best to make it an honest as possible. I really want some tips about people who have looked into it, to see which way is the best to switch to 8 finger typing, or just experiences with different typing styles, and general information that others have.
I use 8 fingers, with an average of between 70 and 80. I use my left pinkie for shit and tab and all that, and never use my right shift for anything, even capitol a (I just slide my hand over 1 key). When I was in 6-7th grade I had keyboarding class and was forced to learn 8 fingers (we even had covers over the keyboards so we couldn't look down, it was a horrible first few weeks). By the second time around I went from using 2 fingers with maybe 20-30 wpm to 8 fingers at 120+ wpm. It really helped sitting next to some of my best friends because we made it a competition at that point, and we all got really fast. It's been a long time since that though, so my average and general posture has gone down quite a bit.
A combination of guitar playing and computer games lead me to develop much more dexterity in my left hand than in my right, so I use all the fingers on my left hand but only 2 on the right to type.
Fuck you guys are ridiculous... I don't want to even post mine. I usually use 6 fingers though and dont have very good accuracy at all, probably because i move my main fingers around so much. I guess this is what i get for always looking at my keyboard when i was learning to type when i was 9...
When i try to type the proper way and keep form, my wrists and hands start aching pretty bad. I guess i just need more practice
I use 8 fingers and type at over 120 WPM, and owe that ability to some rather (un?)fortunate circumstances (also many years of computer games):
When I was in elementary school a local oil and gas company was responsible for a rather large underground oil spill, and in reparations were forced to pay our school district a fair bit of money. As a result, in 5th and 6th grade we were provided with pretty basic little laptops called eMates! The functionality was pretty limited but they had games like Snake and whatnot, as well as Type to Learn. Around the same time my mom was going to grad school at night, and rather than pay a babysitter, she would pay me to sit in the hall outside and I would play Type to Learn for 3 hours 3 nights a week. Needless to say, I got quite good.
I didn't know it at the time, but I'm so glad that's what I decided to do with my time out there. Watching my girlfriend type is painful (20-30 WPM with a hybrid hunt and peck method) and I've tried to encourage her to learn to do it a bit better but it's difficult when you are already in a professional environment and need to do your job, not learn to type faster.
If I had any suggestions for someone serious about learning how to type better, I would recommend those learning games that are designed for children. They have you learn to type one set of fingers at a time so you slowly add them to your repertoire, until you're suddenly using all of them. It takes some time but can definitely be worth it. And then you can practice by playing Typing of the Dead ^^.
Up to 8 fingers and 60 wpm after having had an abysmal typing behavior for a long time. Decided to learn to type properly and practiced like 15 minutes every day until it wasn't a struggle any more. It's kind of awkward at first when you have to tell each individual finger what to do but after some weeks it starts to come naturally. Now I'm just working to speed it up without having too many errors.
8 fingers, 55 wpm. Thank you MUDs for teaching me to type quickly, efficiently and without errors (unless, of course I'm taking my hands off the keyboard, then get back to typing without looking at the screen or keyboard only to notice later that I've written an entire paragraph with everything one key to the side...)
I probably developed most of my ability to type when I was doing Live Chat for a marketing company. You know those little "chat with me now boxes" I was doing that for car dealerships. When you're expected to chat with up to ten people at a time about up to ten different things you learn to go pretty quickly, even when you are using pretyped phrases for most of the time.
I use 6 fingers and that test you linked resulted in ~71wpm with ~97% accuracy.
[edit] I just read the part where you asked for results with 99% accuracy. My errors come from not being that used to typing English sentences, so I'd say the result is still pretty much valid.
This is an interesting topic to me. Until recently I thought I typed with all 8 of my fingers, but I had an epiphany when I realized that I only use about 4, and most of the time, only 3. I use my left hand middle finger, my left pointer finger, and my right pointer finger. My left ring finger is only used for Q, A, and Z, so a lot of the time I'm only really using 3 fingers to type. This seems terribly inefficient. I type around 70-80 WPM casually and can go up to 80-90 if I'm trying to type quickly. I tried to take the test in the OP but it wouldn't load properly on my work computer.
It's good to see that others also have strange and inefficient typing habbits as I thought I was the only one. It would probably be tremendously helpful to my WPM if I actually learned to use all fingers, but I'm not sure it's worth the headache that I'd have to go through to relearn how to type.
And as someone else mentioned, I also have the strange habit of only using the right shift key.
The next logical question is whether or not you keep your fingers on the proper home keys. I remember back when we were forced to "learn" typing in high school, the teacher would walk around and scrutinize everyone's hand position. We'd all have to scramble and put our fingers back on the home row -- shortly before reverting back to our old bad habits as he'd walk away. I have my own default hand position for my left hand, usually with my pinky on control, but my right hand moves around the keyboard so much that a default position for it isn't very beneficial.
On April 17 2014 03:19 o29 wrote: This is an interesting topic to me. Until recently I thought I typed with all 8 of my fingers, but I had an epiphany when I realized that I only use about 4, and most of the time, only 3. I use my left hand middle finger, my left pointer finger, and my right pointer finger. My left ring finger is only used for Q, A, and Z, so a lot of the time I'm only really using 3 fingers to type. This seems terribly inefficient. I type around 70-80 WPM casually and can go up to 80-90 if I'm trying to type quickly. I tried to take the test in the OP but it wouldn't load properly on my work computer.
It's good to see that others also have strange and inefficient typing habbits as I thought I was the only one. It would probably be tremendously helpful to my WPM if I actually learned to use all fingers, but I'm not sure it's worth the headache that I'd have to go through to relearn how to type.
And as someone else mentioned, I also have the strange habit of only using the right shift key.
The next logical question is whether or not you keep your fingers on the proper home keys. I remember back when we were forced to "learn" typing in high school, the teacher would walk around and scrutinize everyone's hand position. We'd all have to scramble and put our fingers back on the home row -- shortly before reverting back to our old bad habits as he'd walk away. I have my own default hand position for my left hand, usually with my pinky on control, but my right hand moves around the keyboard so much that a default position for it isn't very beneficial.
Using proper technique usually your left pinky is only used for Q,A,Z, and that's what you do with your ring finger, and as such I definitely would consider that typing with 4 fingers. The below is the proper form that you should use when typing:
On April 16 2014 12:29 mikeymoo wrote: Yes, relearn typing if you type with less than 8 fingers. It's not about speed, it's about not straining your fingers and causing injury down the road. Speed comes with the territory though.
I use the 3 middle fingers on left hand and first 2 fingers on right hand to type. I use my right thumb for space and I use my left pinky for shift, so left thumb, right pinky and one next to that are never used. I've used this particular set up for years, I am self taught, I can type perfectly with my eyes closed and I can type very fast. What are the problems for my health here exactly? Typing is actually quite a large part of my job and in my spare time I'm typing a lot too so I don't really like that idea of anything bad happening to me.
Here's just a little test that I wanted to do with my eyes closed so that I could feel out if I was actually using any of my other fingers but nope I'm not using any other fingers from what I can tell although I haven't probably used all the letters of the alphabet
Yay! I did it fast too
It would appear Tyrant Potato also uses this awesome method ???
Hm, whenever there are no numbers in the thing that I have to type (I don't really type with numbers most of the time, usually just spell out each number whenever I have to write it because that's what they force me to do at my school) I type between 15 and 30 wpm faster. Just an observation (probably because I don't use my pinkies much for anything other than a few characters).
8 fingers, 105 wpm in English. It's not my native language and I'm using the french AZERTY layout (which I think sucks for English, and especially programming), I think I could go faster with plain QWERTY but I'm too lazy to try switching :'(
Edit: Seems like I got faster since the last time I took a test, cool :D
This thread made me curious... I did some typing tests 1-handed for the heck of it and I apparently type 7 wpm faster with my right hand than I do with my left... What really surprised me is that it's over 40. I think I need to go outside more.
On April 16 2014 15:01 NapkinBox wrote: I use 8 and I average around I think 100 wpm. I just started typing with 8 fingers a couple months ago. Before that, I used to type with only 2 fingers and averaged around 140 wmp.
you realize that 140 wpm = 140*5characters=700 characters/60 seconds= 11.66666 characters a second with 2 fingers.
the tip of your indexes must have burned or something dude.
Well I dunno how accurate typeracer is but that's what I used back then :S
I think I use 8, but for Q I have always used my left ring finger instead of pinky. It's easier than lifting my wrist up to allow my pinky to stretch that far. So my left pinky is used for shift, A and Z.
If I'm typing numbers across the top I normally will go with my ring, middle and pointer fingers, as I would in BW. 1212131313
On April 17 2014 03:19 o29 wrote: This is an interesting topic to me. Until recently I thought I typed with all 8 of my fingers, but I had an epiphany when I realized that I only use about 4, and most of the time, only 3. I use my left hand middle finger, my left pointer finger, and my right pointer finger. My left ring finger is only used for Q, A, and Z, so a lot of the time I'm only really using 3 fingers to type. This seems terribly inefficient. I type around 70-80 WPM casually and can go up to 80-90 if I'm trying to type quickly. I tried to take the test in the OP but it wouldn't load properly on my work computer.
It's good to see that others also have strange and inefficient typing habbits as I thought I was the only one. It would probably be tremendously helpful to my WPM if I actually learned to use all fingers, but I'm not sure it's worth the headache that I'd have to go through to relearn how to type.
And as someone else mentioned, I also have the strange habit of only using the right shift key.
The next logical question is whether or not you keep your fingers on the proper home keys. I remember back when we were forced to "learn" typing in high school, the teacher would walk around and scrutinize everyone's hand position. We'd all have to scramble and put our fingers back on the home row -- shortly before reverting back to our old bad habits as he'd walk away. I have my own default hand position for my left hand, usually with my pinky on control, but my right hand moves around the keyboard so much that a default position for it isn't very beneficial.
Using proper technique usually your left pinky is only used for Q,A,Z, and that's what you do with your ring finger, and as such I definitely would consider that typing with 4 fingers. The below is the proper form that you should use when typing:
Why would you use your index finger for r, that makes no sense. Middle finger is way closer.
On April 17 2014 03:19 o29 wrote: This is an interesting topic to me. Until recently I thought I typed with all 8 of my fingers, but I had an epiphany when I realized that I only use about 4, and most of the time, only 3. I use my left hand middle finger, my left pointer finger, and my right pointer finger. My left ring finger is only used for Q, A, and Z, so a lot of the time I'm only really using 3 fingers to type. This seems terribly inefficient. I type around 70-80 WPM casually and can go up to 80-90 if I'm trying to type quickly. I tried to take the test in the OP but it wouldn't load properly on my work computer.
It's good to see that others also have strange and inefficient typing habbits as I thought I was the only one. It would probably be tremendously helpful to my WPM if I actually learned to use all fingers, but I'm not sure it's worth the headache that I'd have to go through to relearn how to type.
And as someone else mentioned, I also have the strange habit of only using the right shift key.
The next logical question is whether or not you keep your fingers on the proper home keys. I remember back when we were forced to "learn" typing in high school, the teacher would walk around and scrutinize everyone's hand position. We'd all have to scramble and put our fingers back on the home row -- shortly before reverting back to our old bad habits as he'd walk away. I have my own default hand position for my left hand, usually with my pinky on control, but my right hand moves around the keyboard so much that a default position for it isn't very beneficial.
Using proper technique usually your left pinky is only used for Q,A,Z, and that's what you do with your ring finger, and as such I definitely would consider that typing with 4 fingers. The below is the proper form that you should use when typing:
Why would you use your index finger for r, that makes no sense. Middle finger is way closer.
I didn't make it taught, however that is the way it is taught essentially everywhere. If you disagree with what they are teaching, feel free to contact the people who create instruction for this topic. S;
On April 17 2014 05:42 krndandaman wrote: 8 fingers
On April 16 2014 12:54 Emerson_H wrote: 8 ofc. How else would I get my 141 wpm avg?
By lying obviously.
once you type that fast you'll realize it's not actually that impressive, sean wrona is insane....
I always thought 130+ WPM was normal until me and my friends started dicking around during research class and played typeracer. I saw the standings and saw 150-160 WPM at rank 1 and thought "what that's not so high". placed 1st there a few times but usually top 10 for the day.
Saying it's not impressive or absurd is silly though. when only about 0.025-0.05% (1 in 2000-4000) of the population can type at 130wpm+ it is impressive. I would be willing to bet you several hundred of dollars that you wont find more than 5 people on teamliquid that can maintain a 130wpm+ for 15 minutes.
Remember, everyone will do the test, type fast for 30 seconds, and then brag about how fast they type. I really don't understand why everyone has such a need to talk about their score like it's nothing impressive but say they have 120wpm, and it is impressive, and very likely this a burst speed they are reporting, opposed to something the thread is actually trying to achieve.
I would much rather we discuss the health effects of typing styles, how to improve typing style, etc. For 99% of the population if they can maintain 80wpm, they have all the typing they need. Going above 80wpm isn't necessary for an average person because you don't have enough time to formulate what you wish to type, and it's just really not necessary besides when you are transcribing information and minimal thinking is required, which is essentially never for a lot of people.
The reality is, I am very certain that at max 1/3 of teamliquid can actually type at a consistent 80wpm, and improving the typing speed of these people should take precedent opposed to bragging about typing speed.
On April 17 2014 06:01 FiWiFaKi wrote: Saying it's not impressive or absurd is silly though. when only about 0.025-0.05% (1 in 2000-4000) of the population can type at 130wpm+ it is impressive. I would be willing to bet you several hundred of dollars that you wont find more than 5 people on teamliquid that can maintain a 130wpm+ for 15 minutes.
Remember, everyone will do the test, type fast for 30 seconds, and then brag about how fast they type. I really don't understand why everyone has such a need to talk about their score like it's nothing impressive but say they have 120wpm, and it is impressive, and very likely this a burst speed they are reporting, opposed to something the thread is actually trying to achieve.
Keep in mind that as you get better, your standards for what is good or impressive keep going up. I'm sorry, but I don't think that 100wpm is impressive. I am actually disappointed whenever I do a typing test and get a 100wpm, 100% accuracy result. I used to think it was completely amazing, but as I played MUDs and such when I was younger, I got better and I left that plateau behind me for a long time ago. In those games, if you didn't type accurately and quickly, you often died.
The same phenomenon happens to everyone in pretty much anything. Do you think Ovechkin thinks 30 goals in a season is impressive? No. Only 21 guys in the league managed it this year but the 30 goal plateau is well beneath his expectations to the point where he'd be disappointed if he only put up 30 goals in a complete regular season. Do you think Jordan or James would be happy with a 15-point game? How about Usain Bolt with an 10-second race?
There's a reason why I included my average through about 500 races, my peak and my last 10 on that site. I'm not trying to show off. If anything, having a 18wpm difference between my average and my best really shows that if you only look at a singular instance, it's easy to misrepresent yourself and to make you seem better than you actually are. You view it as bragging, likely because that speed is ridiculous to you. It's simply because your frame of reference is different.
I know that overall, I'm a good typist, but people like Wrona or ChanmanX are the ones I consider insane & amazing. They leave me in the dust and type something like 50% faster than I do.
That said, I know I don't use a proper typing style. I don't particularly care to fix it because, when I do try to use a proper typing style, I lose about 50-60wpm. That drop in speed feels kind of like the same way you feel when you're in a 50km/h zone after just getting off the highway. As you said, after a certain point, more speed becomes kind of pointless so I've never felt the need to go back and fix my technique to improve at something that will be pretty useless.
As for the ergonomics of it all, if I felt that my typing technique was causing me issues, the first thing I would do is look into getting one of those keyboards that are split down the middle so that your wrists are at a better angle. I feel that that's going to have a much larger effect than trying to change which finger I use for which key. It would also force me to relearn a bit since I often use the wrong finger for the keys in the middle (TYGHVBN) in the interest of avoiding the use of the same finger twice in a row for different keys.
edit: for what it's worth, I tried 10 fast fingers to compare it to typeracer... 10 fast finger, over 20 tests, I average 11wpm more. The words they put up are generally easier and you don't have to worry about punctuation and pretty much the only capitalized word I saw was "Indian". That skews the results upwards, I find.
I do novel in a month contests (NanoWrimo) where the objective is to write a novel (approx 50k words) in a month. Typing tests give me an accuracy of about 95% at 60wpm or 35wpm at 100% but when I don't really worry about punctuation or accuracy I get it up to about 90-100 wpm sustained for over an hour. During this time I'm usually typing with 5-7 fingers (2-3 left and 3-4 right) depending on posture.
On April 17 2014 03:19 o29 wrote: This is an interesting topic to me. Until recently I thought I typed with all 8 of my fingers, but I had an epiphany when I realized that I only use about 4, and most of the time, only 3. I use my left hand middle finger, my left pointer finger, and my right pointer finger. My left ring finger is only used for Q, A, and Z, so a lot of the time I'm only really using 3 fingers to type. This seems terribly inefficient. I type around 70-80 WPM casually and can go up to 80-90 if I'm trying to type quickly. I tried to take the test in the OP but it wouldn't load properly on my work computer.
It's good to see that others also have strange and inefficient typing habbits as I thought I was the only one. It would probably be tremendously helpful to my WPM if I actually learned to use all fingers, but I'm not sure it's worth the headache that I'd have to go through to relearn how to type.
And as someone else mentioned, I also have the strange habit of only using the right shift key.
The next logical question is whether or not you keep your fingers on the proper home keys. I remember back when we were forced to "learn" typing in high school, the teacher would walk around and scrutinize everyone's hand position. We'd all have to scramble and put our fingers back on the home row -- shortly before reverting back to our old bad habits as he'd walk away. I have my own default hand position for my left hand, usually with my pinky on control, but my right hand moves around the keyboard so much that a default position for it isn't very beneficial.
Using proper technique usually your left pinky is only used for Q,A,Z, and that's what you do with your ring finger, and as such I definitely would consider that typing with 4 fingers. The below is the proper form that you should use when typing:
This seems bad. Type "As she is a citizen of Zimbabwe, I question the Queen of England's right to the throne!" Point being, having your pinkies in control of modifier keys and the buttons they modify is impossible. Try alt+0169
Apparently I "type with 6 fingers" meaning that pinkies are modifiers / backspace / return, and thumb is space.
Stranger still is that for the WPM test, I'll routinely get ~70 wpm on "normal" paragraphs, but drop to 60 wpm in obnoxious paragraphs that force me to spell out Massachusetts or Declaration of Independence or other irritating proper nouns I'll never have typed before. Bring on the Saskatchewan and Inuktitut and Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump!
On April 16 2014 14:25 Shellshock wrote: I got 102 wpm with a few mistakes. use 8 fingers. Learned to type quickly originally from playing FPS without a mic and then got faster as I started LRing I suppose. I think just having a task to complete just builds up the speed over time. When I would just use the computer for whatever I wouldn't really improve my typing speed. I still trip up pretty badly on things like quotes and numbers. I can usually hit letters on the first try going quickly as possible but I'll transpose some letters every few words. I do feel like I could probably type faster though since I still make mistakes.
Does anyone ever use the left shift btw? I notice that I exclusively use the right shift button
Do you guys transpose letters a lot? Maybe I am just thinking too far ahead or something so I mess up. Might just be that my right hand is quicker than my left because it's usually a right handed letter that gets placed too early.
I have 90 WPM on 8 fingers. I didn't get faster by LR'ing, I actually have no idea how I have 90 WPM considering I used to make a lot of mistakes when typing and I didn't really practicing. I thought I was really fast compared to the average, guess not ^_-.
Also I only use the right shift button, never the left shift.
On April 17 2014 06:56 Staboteur wrote: Apparently I type with 6.
Stranger still is that for the WPM test, I'll routinely get ~70 wpm on "normal" paragraphs, but drop to 60 wpm in obnoxious paragraphs that force me to spell out Massachusetts or Declaration of Independence or other irritating proper nouns I'll never have typed before. Bring on the Saskatchewan and Inuktitut and Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump!
Haha amen, Alberta here, so I feel you. It is very noticeable that the test is designed for US students/citizen, so many things about Presidents and laws in the US, and about all their states, but still some interesting tidbits of information in there.
I also fluctuate as low as 65-70 on the really dumb paragraphs, but on the better ones I can go as high as 110wpm once in a while. Goes to show how large the standard deviation for typing is.
On April 17 2014 06:55 LoLAdriankat wrote: I'd like to see someone type with 8 fingers with fingers as long and hands as big as mine. It's incredibly uncomfortable for me.
Obviously I don't know how big your hands are, but I have pretty large hands by my standards and type with 8 fingers just fine. It's probably a hand positioning thing.
On April 16 2014 14:25 Shellshock wrote: I got 102 wpm with a few mistakes. use 8 fingers. Learned to type quickly originally from playing FPS without a mic and then got faster as I started LRing I suppose. I think just having a task to complete just builds up the speed over time. When I would just use the computer for whatever I wouldn't really improve my typing speed. I still trip up pretty badly on things like quotes and numbers. I can usually hit letters on the first try going quickly as possible but I'll transpose some letters every few words. I do feel like I could probably type faster though since I still make mistakes.
Does anyone ever use the left shift btw? I notice that I exclusively use the right shift button
Do you guys transpose letters a lot? Maybe I am just thinking too far ahead or something so I mess up. Might just be that my right hand is quicker than my left because it's usually a right handed letter that gets placed too early.
I have 90 WPM on 8 fingers. I didn't get faster by LR'ing, I actually have no idea how I have 90 WPM considering I used to make a lot of mistakes when typing and I didn't really practicing. I thought I was really fast compared to the average, guess not ^_-.
Also I only use the right shift button, never the left shift.
I just did a typing speed test that gives you the percentile, and I typed at 93wpm, and I was in the 97.24% percentile. So you're probably top 3%, so that is very good and not just average S;
It's really hard to get accurate data on this is the issue. Because specific demographics will do these tests more likely. And many people do this test more than once, who are the people who do the test more than once. So it's very difficult to get a mean typing speed of the population given information received by the Typing Speed Test websites.
On April 17 2014 07:08 slam wrote: Can you post a decent resolution video of you typing at 90wpm (or +) with 5 fingers by any chance? I'm actually quite curious.
I'll do it with 4 (;
Link me a test you'd like me to do? Or is the first one in the op alright? I don't have a webcam, so it'll take a while for me to post because I have to make my camera setup, but I'll figure something out.
On April 17 2014 07:08 slam wrote: Can you post a decent resolution video of you typing at 90wpm (or +) with 5 fingers by any chance? I'm actually quite curious.
I'll do it with 4 (;
Link me a test you'd like me to do? Or is the first one in the op alright? I don't have a webcam, so it'll take a while for me to post because I have to make my camera setup, but I'll figure something out.
Any test is fine, doesn't even have to be a test. I just wanna see someone type faster than me (80wpm on the tests) with only 4 fingers haha.
On April 17 2014 07:07 crms wrote: I'm typing this sentence to figure out how many figures i type with. I will conclude that after much studying that I use all 8* fingers.
Interesting.
*edit: thumbs don't count as fingers, so it's only 8, sorry. ~_~
Are your pinkies actually hitting characters, or just modifier keys?
I edited it in to my post above, but I'll mention again here - Having your pinkies in control of characters in addition to modifier keys seems foolish, because it means you've gotta leftshift for !QAZ and do really messed up stuff if you wanna alt+0169 (copyright symbol) and other seemingly unnatural cross-keyboard action. I can see how it MIGHT be faster if you're really interested in training yourself up to 120+ wpm, but then again you're probably as well off learning DVORAK.
I use all my fingers except for my right thumb to type with. I have yet to find a need for my right thumb unless I am holding shift down with my left hand, then I will sometimes use my right thumb just because it is more convenient.
On April 17 2014 07:07 crms wrote: I'm typing this sentence to figure out how many figures i type with. I will conclude that after much studying that I use all 8* fingers.
Interesting.
*edit: thumbs don't count as fingers, so it's only 8, sorry. ~_~
Are your pinkies actually hitting characters, or just modifier keys?
My right pinky is almost exclusively used for modifiers, buy my left pinky will select characters.
On April 17 2014 07:07 crms wrote: I'm typing this sentence to figure out how many figures i type with. I will conclude that after much studying that I use all 8* fingers.
Interesting.
*edit: thumbs don't count as fingers, so it's only 8, sorry. ~_~
Are your pinkies actually hitting characters, or just modifier keys?
My right pinky is almost exclusively used for modifiers, buy my left pinky will select characters.
Tend to agree with this, although I do use my right pinky for the letter "p" and and backslash and stuff.
That 10fastfingers website kinda overrates your WPM, since it only has easy words and no special characters. I can get upto 140WPM on that site, but on more standard text, I average 100-110WPM.
On April 17 2014 07:08 slam wrote: Can you post a decent resolution video of you typing at 90wpm (or +) with 5 fingers by any chance? I'm actually quite curious.
The pressure was high, so I was definitely a bit shaky and a little nervous. Sorry if the view isn't the best. I didn't really have any way to suspend the camera anywhere, so I just did this.
So two videos of 93wpm and 96wpm took me 4 attempts in total, four fingers... If you are reaally curious I could go a few times and get a 105wpm+, I think in each of those attempts I had to backspace like 4-5 times (and backspace like 3-4 letters each time). But essentially that's how I type. I think people think accuracy is poor doing this, but I've been typing like this for more than 12 years, and I don't think I make too many mistakes (again this isn't the best example.)
My stupid camera is too good, and each one minute or whatever file takes up 200MB and it's on my other laptop, and since I never do this, I didn't want to figure out how to compress the file, and two, it takes a really long time to transfer to my computer.
Here's the first one, second one is still uploading to youtube, but will be viewable once it uploads:
On April 17 2014 08:27 IMoperator wrote: actually now i realize that i use 5 fingers not 8, strange. I use 3 on my left hand and 2 on my right, and I average around 120 wpm.
My fiance types in a similar way. After reading this thread, I'm convinced that it's from all the Starcraft.
On April 17 2014 08:27 IMoperator wrote: actually now i realize that i use 5 fingers not 8, strange. I use 3 on my left hand and 2 on my right, and I average around 120 wpm.
Exactly the same here (although I average 100-110 wpm). I don't use my ring finger on my right hand, but I do on my left hand. Also, my right hand travels way more distance when I type. My left hand basically stays still, but my right hand is much more all over the keyboard.
I learned to type quickly from chatting in the middle of Everquest and Quake when I was 11-14. Gotta go fast from the mouse to the keyboard in those games if you want to type, so I think I trained my right hand to be highly mobile in general while on the computer.
On April 17 2014 03:34 Diks wrote: I have a silly question : How much WPM can you pull with one finger only ?
I tried this and only got 24.6 WPM :/
I just spent 30 minutes trying to teach myself the "proper way" and I am typing at approximately 18-20 words per minute. It is completely driving me insane.
i decided to do a video of me typing with 5 fingers. it's funny how little i use my right hand compared to my left hand. also my fingers are really fat
I use 7 - 3 right(no thumb no pinky) hand and 4 four left(all exept pinky) altough im pretty slow 80/min, but its because u have dislexia so i often scramble the letters or make silly mistakes
On April 17 2014 03:34 Diks wrote: I have a silly question : How much WPM can you pull with one finger only ?
I tried this and only got 24.6 WPM :/
I just spent 30 minutes trying to teach myself the "proper way" and I am typing at approximately 18-20 words per minute. It is completely driving me insane.
Only works if done correctly consistently. A good amount of it is muscle memory... or finger memory? o.O
On April 17 2014 03:34 Diks wrote: I have a silly question : How much WPM can you pull with one finger only ?
I tried this and only got 24.6 WPM :/
I just spent 30 minutes trying to teach myself the "proper way" and I am typing at approximately 18-20 words per minute. It is completely driving me insane.
Only works if done correctly consistently. A good amount of it is muscle memory... or finger memory? o.O
Yeah muscle memory is the correct term I believe. I think I will attempt to type like this all the time, and monitor my progress for the next two weeks to a month. If at that point I can type at a consistent 60 words per minute I shall stick with it.
Does anyone have a preferred site to learn from? Or do you guys think I will be okay if I simply keep my fingers on the home row and press the right letters with the right fingers?
On April 17 2014 09:10 IMoperator wrote: i decided to do a video of me typing with 5 fingers. it's funny how little i use my right hand compared to my left hand. also my fingers are really fat https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RvwjePW5O-E
I noticed the lack of shift, then noticed that you don't capitalize. Denied!
On April 17 2014 09:10 IMoperator wrote: i decided to do a video of me typing with 5 fingers. it's funny how little i use my right hand compared to my left hand. also my fingers are really fat https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RvwjePW5O-E
I noticed the lack of shift, then noticed that you don't capitalize. Denied!
the test has some words that require you to shift, i use right shift in order to capitalize lol.
On April 17 2014 09:10 IMoperator wrote: i decided to do a video of me typing with 5 fingers. it's funny how little i use my right hand compared to my left hand. also my fingers are really fat https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RvwjePW5O-E
I noticed the lack of shift, then noticed that you don't capitalize. Denied!
the test has some words that require you to shift, i use right shift in order to capitalize lol.
On April 17 2014 07:08 slam wrote: Can you post a decent resolution video of you typing at 90wpm (or +) with 5 fingers by any chance? I'm actually quite curious.
I'll do it with 4 (;
Link me a test you'd like me to do? Or is the first one in the op alright? I don't have a webcam, so it'll take a while for me to post because I have to make my camera setup, but I'll figure something out.
Any test is fine, doesn't even have to be a test. I just wanna see someone type faster than me (80wpm on the tests) with only 4 fingers haha.
I guess I only really use 4 fingers, I thought I used my left pinky more. Bad video 'cause I had to do it on my phone and couldn't figure out a good spot to set it up. But should be able to get the idea.
This is actually bringing back horrific memories of me busting my fucking ass to beat 140WPM vs a friend who kept on beating me by 1-2 WPM. I didn't really check her proof too hard and she basically was taking whatever I got and Photoshopping her score to always be one or two ahead of me. I used to be much more competitive than I am nowadays and I pretty much went full hermit for a day, only for her to confess she was just trying to piss me off
On April 17 2014 00:21 c0ldfusion wrote: After some Googling, I've come to the conclusion that either this thread is full of lies (gasp!) or you guys are all using Colemak / Dvorak and not QWERTY.
People type over 250 on QWERTY, google sean wrona, that guy is a beast.
I know it says how many fingers do you type LETTERS with etc, but since i use pinky's/thumbs for everything appropriate, i included them. I only use thumb, pinky and index finger on my right hand though.
120+ is a little low threshold, many people can type more than that, i was getting 140 on some typeracer tests at one point but didn't test recently, so voted that
Using Qwerty, i considered Dvorak a little but i really don't get the impression that i could just switch over and stuff like keybindings in games would be ok, so not worth time and effort to get speed from "great" to "amazing" when there is other stuff to focus on and the human race is not ready to adapt superior keyboard layouts yet
On April 17 2014 13:01 Cyro wrote: I know it says how many fingers do you type LETTERS with etc, but since i use pinky's/thumbs for everything appropriate, i included them. I only use thumb, pinky and index finger on my right hand though.
120+ is a little low threshold, many people can type more than that, i was getting 140 on some typeracer tests at one point but didn't test recently, so voted that
Using Qwerty, i considered Dvorak a little but i really don't get the impression that i could just switch over and stuff like keybindings in games would be ok, so not worth time and effort to get speed from "great" to "amazing" when there is other stuff to focus on and the human race is not ready to adapt superior keyboard layouts yet
120+ wpm is at least the top 1%... From my data about the top 0.15%-0.25%, and I felt like (and still feel like) that threshold is plenty. If I included 140+ or 160+, I think it would just become too much of a brag contest. Hence the options ^^
I type with 7 fingers, my left pinky only gets used for shift and tab. My WPM varies between 80 and 90, with accuracy usually around 98%. I've never received any kind of proper instruction in typing, so it's highly unlikely that I do it correctly.
On April 17 2014 00:21 c0ldfusion wrote: After some Googling, I've come to the conclusion that either this thread is full of lies (gasp!) or you guys are all using Colemak / Dvorak and not QWERTY.
People type over 250 on QWERTY, google sean wrona, that guy is a beast.
it's actually not that surprising that many of the people here can type that fast. this is a gaming forum for pete's sake and originally starcraft nonetheless. if you can average 150+ apm in starcraft I'd actually be more surprised if you couldn't average more than 100 wpm as well.
Waaaait.
If the average word requires, say, 4 keypresses, then isn't 100wpm the equivalent to ~400 apm? Obviously it's not directly comparable, because you don't type with your mouse, but still...
I type with 3 fingers. Both middle fingers, and my left thumb exclusively for the space bar. So 2 fingers if you don't count that. Oh and left pinky for shift.
95 wpm on the first link given. I know it's a suboptimal way to type, but it's nearly impossible to change by now and I'm not awfully slow so there's really no motivation to.
At first I didn't understand why there was no 10, but then I realized you weren't counting thumbs for space bars. So, 8 fingers 72 wpm.
(Although I found some of those speed tests really vary- one had some really old writing that had punctuation ever 2-3 words that slowed me down a lot- not used to typing quotes within quotes " ' ' " followed by colons and semi-colons, and exclamation points. (Aside from dialogue, when are is ! this ever used?) I also rarely use the numbers on top. If it's straight numbers, I use the number pad like an accountant.)
I was atrociously slow in high school, but I learned to type with all fingers, without looking and slowly picked up the pace in uni just by typing a lot of assignments and later on forums.
However, since playing BW, I've also picked up left-handed only typing as well- if I'm typing an easy login/password or something.
It's so weird. On my right hand I only use my index finger to type. My left hand I use four fingers however. Kind of weird. I do hit 100WPM however. What is a good way to actually start learning to type with 8 fingers?
On April 17 2014 07:08 slam wrote: Can you post a decent resolution video of you typing at 90wpm (or +) with 5 fingers by any chance? I'm actually quite curious.
The pressure was high, so I was definitely a bit shaky and a little nervous. Sorry if the view isn't the best. I didn't really have any way to suspend the camera anywhere, so I just did this.
So two videos of 93wpm and 96wpm took me 4 attempts in total, four fingers... If you are reaally curious I could go a few times and get a 105wpm+, I think in each of those attempts I had to backspace like 4-5 times (and backspace like 3-4 letters each time). But essentially that's how I type. I think people think accuracy is poor doing this, but I've been typing like this for more than 12 years, and I don't think I make too many mistakes (again this isn't the best example.)
My stupid camera is too good, and each one minute or whatever file takes up 200MB and it's on my other laptop, and since I never do this, I didn't want to figure out how to compress the file, and two, it takes a really long time to transfer to my computer.
Here's the first one, second one is still uploading to youtube, but will be viewable once it uploads: + Show Spoiler +
On April 17 2014 13:01 Cyro wrote: I know it says how many fingers do you type LETTERS with etc, but since i use pinky's/thumbs for everything appropriate, i included them. I only use thumb, pinky and index finger on my right hand though.
120+ is a little low threshold, many people can type more than that, i was getting 140 on some typeracer tests at one point but didn't test recently, so voted that
Using Qwerty, i considered Dvorak a little but i really don't get the impression that i could just switch over and stuff like keybindings in games would be ok, so not worth time and effort to get speed from "great" to "amazing" when there is other stuff to focus on and the human race is not ready to adapt superior keyboard layouts yet
120+ wpm is at least the top 1%... From my data about the top 0.15%-0.25%, and I felt like (and still feel like) that threshold is plenty. If I included 140+ or 160+, I think it would just become too much of a brag contest. Hence the options ^^
Yea i guess - think i hit 99.9'th percentile on here once - http://10fastfingers.com/typing-test/english - (with about 140, some of the more complex tests can slow down) but i'm average at best among my friends who can type well. There seems to be a massive amount of people who lack some basics skills and do not practice, so that if you have those basic skills, you are automatically top 10%+
Same thing with mouse TBH, set 800dpi on 1920x1080, 1:1, acceptable mouse, mousepad and posture and you automatically win - i don't get why more people don't do it, as it's much easier than reaching even platinum league was for me in sc2 (i went masters w/ practice)
The best I could get on these tests is 149. I'm averaging 125-135 I guess, depending on the number of strange characters and words I apparently don't know how to spell. haha
I use 7 fingers to type characters. My right pinky is resigned to its fate of shift/enter presser.
My father was a programmer and so we always had computers in my house, back in the DOS days. I taught myself to type before I could even read and had my dad write out what I had to type to get to certain games he had on the computer.
The way I type isn't terribly far off off from how you're supposed to do it and I honestly don't think it impacts my speed at all. At this point it's far too late to try to change as typing is engrained in my hands.
Fun Fact: Long ago, when I was in grade school I was the fastest student typist in the state, but my entry was disqualified from the competition because I didn't use the home row method (my teacher was adamant I do so, and I wouldn't switch) and a slower person won.
On April 17 2014 07:08 slam wrote: Can you post a decent resolution video of you typing at 90wpm (or +) with 5 fingers by any chance? I'm actually quite curious.
I'll do it with 4 (;
Link me a test you'd like me to do? Or is the first one in the op alright? I don't have a webcam, so it'll take a while for me to post because I have to make my camera setup, but I'll figure something out.
Any test is fine, doesn't even have to be a test. I just wanna see someone type faster than me (80wpm on the tests) with only 4 fingers haha.
I guess I only really use 4 fingers, I thought I used my left pinky more. Bad video 'cause I had to do it on my phone and couldn't figure out a good spot to set it up. But should be able to get the idea.
Wow, your typing style is exactly the same as mine. It looks like you use your left ring finger for QAZ, as do I, but otherwise only use your left and right index fingers, and your right middle finger. It results in a lot of moving around the keyboard, but being tall and having larger hands somewhat mitigates this. Your hands even look somewhat lanky like mine.
It's strange that we both independently established the same unorthodox typing habit.
60 wpm. I started to use 8 fingers a couple of months ago after having spent the last 20 years using only 4. I'd estimate that my left hand is at least twice as fast as my right hand and with a lot better accuracy. It's extremely frustrating but hopefully it'll get there in time.
I don't use my pinkies much aside from exclamation mark, so I put 6 fingers and I average 80/90 wpm. I tried to get used to use the pinkies but it's too hard after years not using them
10 fingers completely blind even for any special character, even when I move up to the F-keys, I hardly, like really I think it might just happen like 2 or 3 times in like 6 months literally when I look at my keyboard & even then I find myself being on the right key so.. and I use my pinkies a lot, my thumb ONLY for spacebar & alt.
On April 17 2014 07:08 slam wrote: Can you post a decent resolution video of you typing at 90wpm (or +) with 5 fingers by any chance? I'm actually quite curious.
I'll do it with 4 (;
Link me a test you'd like me to do? Or is the first one in the op alright? I don't have a webcam, so it'll take a while for me to post because I have to make my camera setup, but I'll figure something out.
Any test is fine, doesn't even have to be a test. I just wanna see someone type faster than me (80wpm on the tests) with only 4 fingers haha.
I guess I only really use 4 fingers, I thought I used my left pinky more. Bad video 'cause I had to do it on my phone and couldn't figure out a good spot to set it up. But should be able to get the idea.
Wow, your typing style is exactly the same as mine. It looks like you use your left ring finger for QAZ, as do I, but otherwise only use your left and right index fingers, and your right middle finger. It results in a lot of moving around the keyboard, but being tall and having larger hands somewhat mitigates this. Your hands even look somewhat lanky like mine.
It's strange that we both independently established the same unorthodox typing habit.
I just watched this video and it's almost exactly like my typing style too. Wth? No typing classes or anything. Just learning on our own and 3 people come up with the same style? O__O
If I don't want my fingers to hurt, I don't go beyond ~75 wpm. I have no idea how you guys type at speeds above 100 wpm on _average_. You must all have much more comfortable keyboards than I do.
I'm around 90-100 wpm too with 8 fingers. But I have this weird habit where if i'm not paying attention, my left pinky would act out and capitalize a letter lol. All that speed comes from gaming with no mic ever lol.
Similar to you OP, I type with both of my index and middle fingers as well as my left ring finger. I do the majority of my typing with my middle fingers and use my indexes to hit keys right next to the ones I just used my middle finger on. I use my left ring finger in a "rocking" motion form the wrist to strike keys on the left extreme of the keyboard (from ~s to the tabs/caps keys). Very rarely I use my right ring finger or pinky to hit the middle return(enter) key usually i use my middle or index. If I'm typing quickly I shift to almost always using my right thumb on the spacebar, but for laid back pecking, its either one.
I never learned to type properly in school (they used to but a cardboard blind over our hands and tried to enforce that "home position" stuff) but I can easily type with accuracy without looking; I usually screw up letters' syntaxes (say, typing letetr instead of letter, due to the alternating finger patten) rather than being inaccurate on the board.
Ironically, in the real world, I learned to type very quickly on the numberpad (type by touch) at my job due to the extremely simple computer programs could be run 90% with just the numberpad, and I used it every day for five years.
I have no idea what my WPMs are or could be, but I know I can type considerably faster off hand when I'm agitated rather than actually trying hard to type fast.
I primarily use my two index fingers, but I will use my pinky on my left hand for shift, and my ring finger on that same hand for far reaching letters like A.
On April 18 2014 01:30 Lucumo wrote: 2 fingers, around 83 wpm. I'm faster in my native language though.
that just doesn't seem possible....
I know where all the keys are and I memorized so many words already(which makes it even faster), it's not a problem. Additionally, because of writing with just two fingers, I pretty much never make any mistakes. Also, having rather flat keys certainly helps.
/edit: And remember that using my middle finger for shift doesn't count.
Since I type 130 wpm I voted 8 without thinking, but if it's letters I actually only use 7. I just realized that I don't actually use my right pinky for typing letters. After some reflection though, I don't think this is bad form though, the only letter that might be good for the right pinky would be P, but it could just as easily be typed with the ring finger.
Do people usually always type a certain key with a certain finger? I'm looking at my hands right now, and I use like 3 or 4 fingers to press a specific key depending on what I'm typing. Like for the word 'specific', I have my left ring finger on s, middle finger on e, index finger on f, thumb on c, right index finger on i, and right ring finger on p. The only finger that I don't use for random words is my right pinky, but it gets apostrophe duty, so I guess I type with all ten fingers?
On April 21 2014 10:28 obesechicken13 wrote: Shouldn't you use a poll that correlates the user's fingers to their wpm directly?
I thought about it, but it's not very effective. Way too many polls for each category, and people tend to vote in more than one poll, or vote in the wrong poll, and it just wouldn't give a very accurate measure either.
Plus when I made the thread, I didn't expect this thread to get so big, and therefore I didn't expect 500 people to vote - thinking the sample size would be smaller. ^^
I honestly can't answer how many fingers I use because focusing on it changes it from how it would be if I just typed away.
Also that typing test is really hard because I have to type somebody else's words. When typing out this post I typed at least 4x faster than on that typing test, and with only one error vs 20 or so for the entire paragraph.
Pulling 81 wpm according to the first wpm test on google
I thought I typed with all eight of my fingers, but after doing the test, and trying out a little bit on my own, I found my right pinky is pretty idle, that little slacker. He's mostly camping shift and return, not much else
Seems like I'm in the 1% of 3 finger master race. Left pinky for ctrl, ring finger for shift, thumb for space and alt. Then the left index and middle finger for letters and the right index finger as well. I get 80-90 wpm.
I had actually no idea about how fast I type, so I made a profile at typeracer, completed 40 races and checked.
From that I got around 100 wpm and 96%ish accuracy. I'm surprised how many people actually have +120, considering that's pretty much what their live updated scoreboard consist of.
I have no idea how many fingers I use thought, since I have no idea how I'm supposed to notice that when typing is all muscle memory for now. But I would guess around 5~
The real kicker is that loads of people here claim 100+ WPM on _average_. If I really force myself to focus on typing I can hit over 90. But by then my fingers are quite tired and there is no way I can't keep this up for an extended period of time. ::Shrugs:: Maybe my techniques are all wrong.
In either case, this my normal typing speed of 70-80 WPM is certainly not a bottleneck of my writing productivity on the computer. Unless one spends a considerable amount of time taking dictation, I can't imagine this would be a practical limitation for anyone here.
Just scored 151 wpm on type racer. Speed really depends on the difficulty and length of text. On easier ones, I can reach 140-160 WPM. On more difficult texts, however, it can dip to 100 WPM.
I am a classically trained pianist - maybe that helps; also have around 300 APM on broodwar (maybe we should correlate APM with WPM)
As a developer me using 5 fingers (3 on right hand only 2 on my left) works just fine even if I am not super fast (60 WPM) but I do wish I typed using home row
7 finger typer (I don't use my right pinkie for letters), 93wpm average on typeracer over 50 races, highest score was 125.
I'm surprised more people here use 3 left fingers and 4 right fingers. My left hand is much more proficient at typing since it spends so much more time on the keyboard due to gaming, though especially hotkeys in Starcraft/DotA. Do you people play DotA/LoL with just 3 fingers as well?
On April 22 2014 05:40 rudimentalfeelthelov wrote: I type only with my index fingers and left thumb for space button and I can write well above 100 words per minute.
If you classify "I" as a word for the purpose of "words per minute" then I believe you
Some people might not have realized —like me— that they don't type letters with their pinky fingers. Do all of you who said 8 fingers really use your pinky fingers for 1,q,a,z and p (and/or possibly others)?
It seems quite strange that people would use both their pinky fingers in typing. One pinky seems maybe reasonable, but both seems strange.
I'm thinking that many people didn't read the post entirely. I certainly use my pinky fingers but not for typing any letters.
On standard layout keyboards it seems kinda inefficient to use pinky fingers for typing letters; the letters A, and P are used too often, and pinky fingers are generally rather weak and always short. Maybe a different physical layout and/or key layout, but standard grid QWERTY doesn't look like it works well.
How do you guys type the word HELP? (or any word consisting of successive P's and L's) you type both (L&P) letters with the pinky? aside from seeming awkward, it seems slow and inefficient
I use my pinkies for all the letters you are supposed to, although I'm guilty of only using one shift button (left) and as such while "a" is done with my pinky, "A" is done with my ring finger.
PS qwerty sucks ass but thats how everybody learns and its too much work to completely relearn typing hell half the people in this thread don't even type properly in the first place such as yourself (not flaming, just fact). Me neither tbh.
And L is definitely a ring-finger button. Put ur hands on home row lol. The only letter your right pinky touches is "p" although it also does a ton of punctuation.
On April 22 2014 05:57 Xapti wrote: Some people might not have realized —like me— that they don't type letters with their pinky fingers. Do all of you who said 8 fingers really use your pinky fingers for 1,q,a,z and p (and/or possibly others)?
It seems quite strange that people would use both their pinky fingers in typing. One pinky seems maybe reasonable, but both seems strange.
I'm thinking that many people didn't read the post entirely. I certainly use my pinky fingers but not for typing any letters.
On standard layout keyboards it seems kinda inefficient to use pinky fingers for typing letters; the letters A, and P are used too often, and pinky fingers are generally rather weak and always short. Maybe a different physical layout and/or key layout, but standard grid QWERTY doesn't look like it works well.
How do you guys type the word HELP? (or any word consisting of successive P's and L's) you type both (L&P) letters with the pinky? aside from seeming awkward, it seems slow and inefficient
I did realize that I don't use my left pinky for 'q' or '1', but even typing "lazy", I use it for both the 'a' and the 'z'. As was pointed out, "help" definitely isn't awkward to type using your right pinky - it seems like it would be much more awkward to type without it to me. I think using a full-size (not laptop) keyboard makes a difference, since it would be harder to stretch other fingers to hit additional keys.
I sit anywhere from 130-150 depending on the day. I've been typing since I could read which was 3 years old. I remember in 3rd grade, we had those cool typing machines and I took that shit seriously. We were supposed to go home and practice with them, had 85-90 WPM then and have steadily improved.
I mostly attribute it to typing in Dota for almost 10 years now. I wasn't one for acronyms so I typed everything out, had to learn quickly.
On April 22 2014 06:52 VeryAverage wrote: I mostly attribute it to typing in Dota for almost 10 years now.
Didn't seem to help ixmike much
Quantity over quality. It took me awhile to get solid accuracy. When I type papers or really anything, I type it out as quickly as possible, trying to follow the flow of my thoughts and I just edit after, not worrying about things like spacing and perfect spelling until I actually submit it.
Trying out typeracer, started out poorly (105-115wpm) but then I realized I was reading faster than I could type and kept getting hung up on punctuation and uncommon characters (-, :, ;, etc.), changed it to one line at a time and it's going better.
I am quite surprised that most of the people in the polls use more fingers and have better speed than I do, considering that I sit in front of a keyboard for most of the day. Or it is just so much biased that only people who care about their typing voted in the poll and thus naturally it shows mainly the results of good typers.
The most interesting thing however about this topic is that it made me realize that I only use six fingers (plus thumb for space). Never really thought about that.
Huh, I just realized what a weird typing habit I have. On my right hand I tend to also use my middle finger for the keys my ring finger is supposed to hit and I use my ring finger to hit keys which my little finger is supposed to hit. My little finger I only use to hold down shift or press enter, both which happens a lot during coding.
2 fingers comfortably 100wpm. More like 110 if I don't make any mistakes. I also hit the keys very hard. I'm very inefficient but I think I'm fast, so I'm impressed that people are able to go a lot faster than me. I bet I'm faster than them if they only use 2 fingers
A small percentage of people are above 120 wpm on average, and a lot of people are lying on this quiz. The people who say they are 2 finger typing at 100 wpm are especially clueless on either what their actual speed is or what wpm actually means.
Also, the most important thing about typing quickly is knowing how to spell the words you are typing, not your finger speed itself (until you start reaching 150+ wpm, which is where the speed actually starts becoming difficult). For example try typing words in a language that you are not native too and you'll find your speed greatly diminished.
EDIT: Certified to type 136 WPM on type racer. Not too shabby.
On September 18 2014 21:29 Figgy wrote: A small percentage of people are above 120 wpm on average, and a lot of people are lying on this quiz. The people who say they are 2 finger typing at 100 wpm are especially clueless on either what their actual speed is or what wpm actually means.
I used the test given in the OP, which I thought we were agreeing to use as a standard, and I played multiple times. My top score is over 110 and my bottom score is over 90, I almost always get over 100. I use only two fingers except for space bar (thumb). Why are you upset?
On September 18 2014 21:29 Figgy wrote: A small percentage of people are above 120 wpm on average, and a lot of people are lying on this quiz. The people who say they are 2 finger typing at 100 wpm are especially clueless on either what their actual speed is or what wpm actually means.
I used the test given in the OP, which I thought we were agreeing to use as a standard, and I played multiple times. My top score is over 110 and my bottom score is over 90, I almost always get over 100. I use only two fingers except for space bar (thumb). Why are you upset?
I'm not upset, I just don't believe it. It's known to be quite difficult to properly type Caps properly with only 2 fingers and is rare for someone with such an inefficient style to be above 60wpm.
for example you'd have to be moving this fast on average with high accuracy:
Possible (obviously) but extremely inefficient for people who actually care about typing whatsoever.
On April 17 2014 13:01 Cyro wrote: I know it says how many fingers do you type LETTERS with etc, but since i use pinky's/thumbs for everything appropriate, i included them. I only use thumb, pinky and index finger on my right hand though.
120+ is a little low threshold, many people can type more than that, i was getting 140 on some typeracer tests at one point but didn't test recently, so voted that
Using Qwerty, i considered Dvorak a little but i really don't get the impression that i could just switch over and stuff like keybindings in games would be ok, so not worth time and effort to get speed from "great" to "amazing" when there is other stuff to focus on and the human race is not ready to adapt superior keyboard layouts yet
120+ wpm is at least the top 1%... From my data about the top 0.15%-0.25%, and I felt like (and still feel like) that threshold is plenty. If I included 140+ or 160+, I think it would just become too much of a brag contest. Hence the options ^^
Yea i guess - think i hit 99.9'th percentile on here once - http://10fastfingers.com/typing-test/english - (with about 140, some of the more complex tests can slow down) but i'm average at best among my friends who can type well. There seems to be a massive amount of people who lack some basics skills and do not practice, so that if you have those basic skills, you are automatically top 10%+
Same thing with mouse TBH, set 800dpi on 1920x1080, 1:1, acceptable mouse, mousepad and posture and you automatically win - i don't get why more people don't do it, as it's much easier than reaching even platinum league was for me in sc2 (i went masters w/ practice)
I hit 99.5 percentile doing ~120 wpm on my first try.
Obviously there is some survivor bias in this polling, but most people are outright lying imo or haven't even bothered to do the tests.
On September 18 2014 21:29 Figgy wrote: A small percentage of people are above 120 wpm on average, and a lot of people are lying on this quiz. The people who say they are 2 finger typing at 100 wpm are especially clueless on either what their actual speed is or what wpm actually means.
I used the test given in the OP, which I thought we were agreeing to use as a standard, and I played multiple times. My top score is over 110 and my bottom score is over 90, I almost always get over 100. I use only two fingers except for space bar (thumb). Why are you upset?
I'm not upset, I just don't believe it. It's known to be quite difficult to properly type Caps properly with only 2 fingers and is rare for someone with such an inefficient style to be above 60wpm.
Possible (obviously) but extremely inefficient for people who actually care about typing whatsoever.
I'm moving faster than that :p. My background is playing games with apm a lot faster than SC2, btw, and I use flat key keyboards because it's harder to move quickly over chunky keys.
6 fingers, 80 wpm, 97% percentile. I believe i would get wpm up to 90 if i could use my native language, there are some weird capital letters and we dont use ' at all here in Finland, its causing a lot of backtracking.
Also, i dont understand how people use pinkie fingers for typing, its tiring as hell and makes the back of my hands ache, had to use them when practicing typewriting but i dont use them anymore. (also, playing fps games for years with WASD kinda forced my index finger to the "D" button, meanwhile it would have been useful to learn typing while index finger is on F.)
5 fingers (I use ~95% of the time only 4 fingers) in use and ratatype.com says my speed is 49,6 WPM and accuraty 96%. Ofc I write finnish faster. At school I was taught to use 10 fingers but as I was typing slower than with 4 fingers so I didn't started to use it. Now I don't even remember how its done.
8. I only use one thumb(right, some use 2 and that would probably be better but my left thumb sucks). The most difficult thing to learn was to use the opposite shiftkey for a caps letter without slowing down at all(Gets me questions about how I'm able to type so fast while having proper caps). Why doesn't thumb count, by the way? I'd say that it's my most commonly used finger and my little sister and mother at least use index finger for space so it's not like everyone uses it.
WPM depends. If I am typing something in my head and I know what I'm going to type without needing to think about it like right now it's probably over 120, but in typing tests where I'm supposed to read and copy sentences on the fly it's rarely above 100 so which do you mean?
A good suggestion for learning how to type like this is to get a keyboard like mine, which has no marked keys. It's just completely black. This way, you had better learn to touch type or you're pretty much doomed. It's funny when my mother for example tried to use my keyboard once and said that "it's completely impossible, how am I supposed to be able to type with this?"
Using eight fingers and don't hit any letter keys with my thumbs for ~120-150 wpm on TypeRacer.
A few oddities: - Middle section of keys are pressed with inconsistent index fingers depending on the preceding letters. - Left-shift for all capitals. - Right-shift for punctuation and symbols though. - Left-shift for highlighting things too (as right hand on arrow set)
I use all 10 fingers. I can reach 120 WPM with a few errors, but if I want to be careful I usually average 100 WPM.
i'll use thumbs to hit from c to , usually
I only use thumbs to hit the space bar/shift/cmd(mac only). I guess it feels comfortable for your thumbs to hit the 'c' and comma keys, but that feels so weird for me.
All I know is I took a typing test at my state's government office (so that I could put it on my resume). I blew it out of the water, the lady giving the test was surprised. Maybe she thought I was a dumbass that didn't have quick & accurate typing speed.
it sounds strange but i learned to use my left index finger & pinkie finger from learning invoker & Shadowfiend. i believe a partial reason we may not utilize all our fingers is due to our vocabulary. the letter's Q & P don't appear as frequently in the words i utilize, so i have less experience using the fingers that would reach those letters. whereas my n key is broken (i'm copy pasting the n letter in every word) due to the fact the letter appears far more often for me.
I use between 6-8 fingers. 74wpm with about 96% accuracy but I only did the test once and don't bother typing much or practicing to become faster. Still, 74wpm isn't too bad so I guess I shouldn't complain haha.
Just started playing typeracer and and am floating above slightly above 80 wpm. This puts me at 93 percentile. Seems like TL trends to the higher side; guess it should be since I would have guessed that there was a correlation between APM and WPM.
6, with the occasional 7th (left pinky) if I'm typing on a laptop. I generally hover around 85 wpm, but can go higher if I'm writing a recap. Oddly, it doesn't really correlate with my apm. Before my wrist problems, I played with 350+ apm. (Now I play with about 110).
So when I made this thread... I told myself that I'm going to change my typing habits from my 4 finger typing to 8 finger typing, I have been typing normally, and have been doing so for the last 5-6 months, and today I took a speed typing test.
I scores 100+ wpm 20x in a row for a 1 minute test. I'm glad I made the switch! Feels nicer, less stress in fingers, healthier for the wrists... It feels good!
I suppose my end goal is to reach 120wpm, but for now, I'm quite happy with the progress I made, even though it took me atleast 3 months of pain to reach where I was at before.
On April 16 2014 13:30 sUgArMaNiAc wrote: I think Broodwar d*cked my typing, sometimes my index and middle finger run across the keyboard and I have to slow down and force myself to get back in line. Anyway type with all fingers usually and generally 110wpm. Something crazy I've noticed is my aunt types at ~150WPM average and other than that she isn't very computer literate.
You do realize that for prolonged lengths of time the world record typing speed is around 150wpm. Just so you're aware. People go throwing around 120wpm like it's nothing.
Guess what?
My aunt works for DuPont;
I am not so inclined to disbelieve him.
Especially if she is old; during the days of typewriters you had to pres hard
A computer makes it like "oh I can edit? Release the falcon" So...
Edit:
On September 27 2014 13:19 FiWiFaKi wrote: Hey guys.
So when I made this thread... I told myself that I'm going to change my typing habits from my 4 finger typing to 8 finger typing, I have been typing normally, and have been doing so for the last 5-6 months, and today I took a speed typing test.
I scores 100+ wpm 20x in a row for a 1 minute test. I'm glad I made the switch! Feels nicer, less stress in fingers, healthier for the wrists... It feels good!
I suppose my end goal is to reach 120wpm, but for now, I'm quite happy with the progress I made, even though it took me atleast 3 months of pain to reach where I was at before.
See so you already know the way of victory. Soon you will cross the threshold, and pass from thinking words and typing them to thinking sentences and WHAM it is onscreen
9 since it's rare that I use the right hand thumb for space for whatever reason but all the other fingers are involved in the typing business. little fingers only for shift/ctrl of the other hand... so not too much involvement for them either. I guess the index fingers see the most action having the middle of the keyboard but the other fingers have their own keys so... yeah... I learned the "correct" typing style at school and then I didn't quite use it but it sort of just started to become natural... weird how that works out really.
I'm really surprised by how many people type with less than 8 fingers (although I can understand 6). Did you guys not have to learn to touch type in school?
I have always been a 5 finger typist but recently have been trying to do the whole eight fingers on home row thing. It is slow going and my type speed, especially hitting keys with my pinky or ring fingers, is really bad. Do any of you know some good educational websites or software? I'd be especially interested if it helped you make the same transition I am trying to do.
My motivation is just the hope that answering emails could take up a little less time in my day. We will see.
I use 6 fingers to type overall, depending on if im using my keyboard or i typing on my laptop. my pinks dont do jack cuz they're just like my thumbs they're only responsibility is to hit those annoying backspaces and squiggly line thingy; and even then, most of the work is dont by my ring fingers lol.
my wpm is around 85-90 depending on the sentence and structure complexity. i do well if it's something i know or can flows well of the tongue but if its awkwardly phrased then i have some trouble (or maybe even struggle with the typing).
On October 05 2014 13:01 Urth wrote: I'm really surprised by how many people type with less than 8 fingers (although I can understand 6). Did you guys not have to learn to touch type in school?
Nope. It wasn't typing/basic computer classes weren't mandatory or even available in my school district. It's entirely possible that those same schools offer such classes now though, I seem to remember computer labs being somewhat of a new thing at my elementary school. (60 WPM) I type with 6 generally. I tried my hand at being better about typing and using more fingers, but when I did those exercises online, I felt like i was putting so much strain on my pinky finger. It also felt like I had 0 strength in those fingers so I went back to using my ring finger to get those keys... That being said I also have a hard time typing without looking at the keyboard, and typing words I generally don't use lowers my WPM by quite a bit. I should work on improving my speed but it's such a challenge D:
I use all of my fingers, well only one thumb for space bas but the rest are working all the time.
My wpm is about 60-70. So not that great, but I do not really type that much.
We had typing lessons in school where our hands were covered and we had to type blindly with all fingers and had speedtests on it. I was quicker back then.
8 fingers mostly, but I use thumbs for the spacebar. WPM is usually around 80ish.
I remember typing classes in middle school rofl. I didn't know the keyboard layout that well and used 2 fingers to peck away at it. Thank god for all that Brood War I played back then, it's what helped me to type faster back then imo.
Right hand i use my middle and index finer only for like 60+% of the keyboard including space bar and pinky for the shift.
Left hand i use most of the time my middle finger for around the r, ring for around the w and index for just the c and x, pinky for tab and 1 etc, thumb uses ctrl if necessary. My index finger is moslty curled up and rarelu used so mostly just yping with 2 fingers.
Left hand stays in one position with my wrist one the keyboard, right hand goes all around including mouse.
Sometimes i type with left hand only but its quite slow, cuz my left hand is quite slow compared to my right.
Anyways in total my left hand is mainly 2 but in total 5 and my right is mainly 2 but can got up till 3. So 4-8 fingers rly.
I never learned to type properly so this developed mostly form playing rts and i overuse mouse compared to keyboard there.
Edit: Tried that typing speed test, making mistakes there is brutal (i make many TT). Got only 52WPM with 98.2 accuracy. Using trackpad and arrows to correct mistakes takes a long time. Edit2: sitting behind a table with mouse it went up to 60.0 WPM with 96.2 accuracy.
I type with 6 fingers and I use my left pinky for caps lock, my right pinky for enter and my left thumb for space, so thats technically 9, I guess 6+3.
thumbs on keyboard, then over 99% of the rest of my typing is done with my two pointer fingers.
Not sure how fast, probably ~120. Been doing it this way for over 20 years and I don't see a reason to change.
I do think it held me back from reaching my full potential in brood war, though
edit: according to ratatype.com, which someone else mentioned, my wpm was 83 and my accuracy was 99%. I felt that the test did not reflect conventional typing speed however, what you had to type seemed purposefully difficult
yo, don't sweat it harris im typing at 49wpm. Aye those stupid you've can't bl'''s bs noone ever uses in german. i had to actually look on my keyboard to find em.
Anyway i couldn't crack 60wpm on either of those links
EPT
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