The type speed test is the most common and popular way to assess a person’s keyboarding skills. It measures their typing speed and accuracy using an actual piece of text and a given time frame to work with. It typically reports three scores, including their typing speed in WPM (words per minute), their typing accuracy, and their adjusted words per minute, which takes into account any errors they may have made during the test.
Typing speed tests are commonly used as part of the recruitment process for jobs that involve typing or data entry as a core function such as data clerk, transcription, or secretarial roles. A typical job role might require a minimum of 60WPM, but professional secretaries and typists often reach 100WPM or higher.
Most people are able to improve their typing speed over time, but it is important that they focus on both accuracy and speed. Practicing touch typing regularly, avoiding glances down at the keyboard and instead focusing on the ASDF hand placements, and developing muscle memory for typing certain types of commonly used letter parings is critical to improving speed without sacrificing accuracy.
Using our free online typing test is a good place to start for new candidates or employees, as it provides real-time results and valuable insights about their performance. Our typing tests also identify specific areas for improvement, such as their performance with digits, names, and other common foreign words, so that they can focus on practice and training to improve these key performance metrics. type speed test