Can you type?

[timbicile]

Am I the only hunt and peck left? I took typing in high school it didn't take to me.

I know where the letters are but no way could I do it without looking.

Can non-typing kids survive?

[ivylass]

Oh, hell yes. I do it all day at work what with answering all the e-mails.

[threnody]

Yes, when I was studying Literature at University, my mother forced me to do an office course just in case my degree couldn't get me a job. I used to clock at 100 words a minute, but I've timed myself at 50 over the last couple of years.

[timbicile]

I am envious but I can type like 20 words a minute- if the words are short.

[GreyCloud9]

I took typing in high-school, and I failed. Somehow I picked it up chatting and posting on-line the last ten years. I may not have ended up with any speed in high-school, but I memorized the finger placement, and the key placement. That is all I needed to get better.

[The Wench]

At one point I was up to 70 or so wpm. Now down to 57 wpm.

[3acres]

Dad signed me up to take typing at summer school at the high school along with my older sister. I wasn't old enough, just going from 5th to 6th grade, but my parents were persuasive and got me in. My sister made sure I behaved and I made sure she didn't get lost on the way home (brilliant, but she had no sense of direction). Oh joy. I had to sit on a phone book to reach the keyboard. This was what, 1966 I think, so we were pounding away on manual typewriters in 90 degree plus temperatures, with 70 to 90% humidity. Years later, it ended up getting me my first job despite a recession, because they wanted a male clerk when all that new-fangled EEO stuff started rolling in. At my best, I could slam out nearly 90 wpm on a manual Remington-Rand; I'd had to do 75 wpm to pass the employment test.

[Falcon]

Last time I took an official test, I was at 70 wpm.

[lifeboat]

on.

[Uthrecht]

Yep, I'm a touch typist. Although I can get discombobulated by different computer keyboards. To some degree it's the size of the keys, but mostly it's where things like the enter, delete and backspace keys are. Definitely, if I go from a full keyboard to a laptop keyboard, my typing speed tanks for a bit.

[timbicile]

My kids can type faster with there thumbs on text .

[Islander]

I never learned t type. I used to be pretty g d at h&p but I’m sl wing d w in my ld age. I seem t be missing all the ‘s. Y u w uld be surprised h w many ‘s there are in a simple c nversati n.

[Uthrecht]

You just need the right person to help you find your O.

[Islander]

I thought it was the G that was hard to find.

[timbicile]

Consecutive lighthouse post are not allowed. Moderation.

[Islander]

You, take your ego somewhere else!

[Uthrecht]

Give a baby fine motor coordination and they start getting all uppity on you.

[timbicile]

My ego is gone, seemed stalkerish. I refuse to be studip.

[Azhure]

Yup, when I did an 'official' test about 5 years ago I was 70 wpm. I was taught to touch type at school but usually needed to look at my fingers on the keys to hit the write ones. I then started working in a call centre and had to get the case notes in fast before picking up the next call so started touch typing properly and got pretty quick at it.

[Lazlo]

I just took a 3 minute test at typingtest.com and scored 59 WPM at 97% accuracy. I've never taken an official test.

I'm self-taught at touch typing.

ETA: This was on a MacBook Pro.

[Azhure]

Originally Posted by Azhure

[...] to hit the write ones [...]

Gah how did I manage that. RIGHT ones. Guess I had writing on the brain.

[Jay Tea]

I can't touch type, but i'm fairly proficient with my self taught technique which simply relies on a hand/eye zonal system which allows me to type from brain as fast and as accurate as any touch typer i've seen.

My methods don't allow me to type as fast from script however, too much cognition, and if anybody is leaning over my shoulder I end up typing like a sea cucumber.

[Promethea]

No. I suck at proofreading my own inevitable errors too, thus making it look as if all my posts are composed by me mashing my fists on the keyboard.
I nearly alway have to go back and edit my posts afterwards and I STILL often miss something.

[Sinfai]

I can type quite quickly when I'm alone but can't touch type so copying anything from script is a long and laborious task.
I loathe being watched when I'm typing. Crippling performance anxiety reduces me to the hunt and peck method and an apparent inability to recognise letters on the keyboard. I'm even worse if I'm on messenger with anyone other than my daughter.

[Uthrecht]

Originally Posted by Jay Tea

if anybody is leaning over my shoulder I end up typing like a sea cucumber.

If this is true, the next step is to find out if they can take dictation. Heck, even 5 wpm would be acceptable.

[Falcon]

Originally Posted by Sinfai

I loathe being watched when I'm typing. Crippling performance anxiety reduces me to the hunt and peck method and an apparent inability to recognise letters on the keyboard. I'm even worse if I'm on messenger with anyone other than my daughter.

I don't mind being watched, but if someone says, "Wow, you type really fast!" I suddenly can't remember how to type at all. It's like I lose connection between my brain and my fingers the second they say that, and I have to stop thinking about typing in order to start typing again.

The test Lazlo linked to drove me insane. If you type fast, you are NOT looking at the word you are typing--you're reading ahead. So the test distracted me and slowed me down by highlighting the word I was on. It kept pulling my eye backwards and greatly reduced my speed and accuracy.

[Solfy]

I average 85-90wpm, with a high of 115 (Typeracing). I took typing in high school because driver's ed was only half the year and it was either typing or study hall.

I played piano for four years before taking typing, and my teacher was somewhat senile. The first week we did the home row. I was very very fast (for a high school beginner). He said, "Did you take this class before?" Yes, because it's my life's ambition to take typing twice in high school. I told him I played piano. He said that was probably why I was so fast.

The next day we added a couple of letters. I was very very fast. The teacher said, "Did you take this class before?" Lather, rinse, repeat.

In college I applied for a job doing transcription for the history department. They were thrilled with my typing skills and wanted me very badly, even dangling a good looking guy who would be my coworker as incentive. Unfortunately they wanted me to agree to 20hrs per week all year and with my schedule I couldn't promise that. I ended up tutoring, which probably looked better on job applications later in life anyway.

One day I was answering e-mails in a quiet computer lab with noisy keyboards. I was tapping away when the two guys in front of me turned around all bug-eyed and said, "Damn!" I like to freak out my coworkers by turning around to talk to them while still typing - my fingers can talk without me.

I'm kind of vain about my typing skills I guess. We've all got to be good at something, right? Now if only I could learn to spell. . .

[gommsn]

I'm able to hit the right key once I find it.

That pretty much sums up my typing skills. Probably why I lurk so much and don't participate more. If I want to answer a question or make a comment, by the time I compose a post, six other people have said exactly what I had in mind.

However, I'm fortunate, I guess, in that I can spell pretty much any word I hear, so I take a little solace in that. I was always the " how do you spell such and such" even in school.

For instance, I started this post yesterday.

[wring]

My mom forced me to take typing and notehand in high school. To this day am grateful for the typing, the notehand, not so much. Don't know how fast, but probably around the 55 wpm range. I routinely ask "how fast do you type" in interviews 'cause I want to avoid the hunt and peck folks (too much computer data entry etc. for any position I ever have).

Snookie is a hunt and peck- er. He's worn the letters off his keyboard at least 3 times that way.

[LurkMeister]

I never learned to touch-type but when I had to start typing papers in college I developed my own method. I don't have much co-ordination with my left hand but my right hand can move over the whole keyboard pretty quickly. Usually my left hand rests on the left side of the keyboard and works the shift and tab keys, occasionally hitting the nearby letter keys. I'm never checked my typing speed, so I have no idea how fast I type this way. Of course, it also depends on what I'm typing. If I'm writing a story I go in fits and starts depending on how the composing is going.

[Hi, Neighbor!]

Mavis Beacon, what.

[AHunter3]

Originally Posted by Solfy

I was tapping away when the two guys in front of me turned around all bug-eyed and said, "Damn!" I like to freak out my coworkers by turning around to talk to them while still typing - my fingers can talk without me.

I do that, too

On a good keyboard (my fave is an old-fashioned Apple Mac ADB "Extended Keyboard" or "Extended Keyboard II", the kind nicknamed "Saratoga") I can hit bursts of 120 WPM but I don't sustain that rate for long. Average is in the low 70s.

I can touch-type the FileMaker Pro ScriptMaker, which has really freaked some people out if they're accustomed to having to use the mouse to find and identify their selections in creating their scripts.

[Uthrecht]

Well, I just took a quick online test, and hit 75 wpm.

[welby]

72 wpm, but my accuracy was only 84%. The accuracy doesn't surprsie me at all, mainly because for the last few years I've been swapping characters or typing words too fast and mixing up the letters. I do it when I write by hand too, but have no idea why.

[Hi, Neighbor!]

Net Speed: 84 WPM

Accuracy: 97%

Gross Speed: 86 WPM

[Geobabe]

I'm a hunt-and-pecker. I go fairly quickly for my four-finger method, though not nearly as fast as touch typing. I get messed up sometimes, since I have to look at the keyboard, so if my cursor isn't where it's supposed to be, I might not notice for a bit.

[ivylass]

Originally Posted by Sinfai

I loathe being watched when I'm typing.

I don't loathe it, but I think it's kind of like the Heisenburg principle...when you know you're being watched, you behave differently.

[Underdog]

I can type without looking as long as I don't think about it. If I do, I start to screw up.

I took a Typing and Keyboarding class in high school, and I was just awful. Luckily, it was Pass/Fail because I bet I would have gotten a C-/D+ if we were assigned letter grades. I'm not sure when I learned to type, just years of repetition, I guess!

[hakuna matata]

I think I type okay for my age group and sex. When I was in high school a friend and I were going to take a class at the local community college. When we got there, they had cancelled the class. By the time we got back to the high school, everything was filled up..except the typing class. So we signed up for it. It was great, the only two boys in a class of twenty girls--what is not to like right?

Had a blast in the class as we were the teachers pets. But the end result was by the time the year finished. I could type and it has served me well these many years.

[EJsGirl]

I can't "type" as such, but I am a mad hunter-and-pecker! Fast, using several fingers, but I HAVE to look at the keyboard.

[einmon]

The online test says I have a speed of 67 WPM with a 97% accuracy. Although it's probably better in general, because the test featured a date, and I can't do numbers without hunt-and-peck, so my fingers come to a screeching halt.

Also, the test situation itself made me nervous, I can't really multitask, and thinking about the test itself and the fact that I am typing makes me lose my typing skills. I'm in awe of people like Solfy who can talk and type at the same time. If I turn around and say something, at least one word I said will make it onto the screen as well.

[Sinfai]

I took the test Lazlo posted and it confirmed how slow I am at copying text. I got 31 WPM with 100% accuracy.
Ever the optimist, I thought if I had another go I'd get a better score. Not so. I'm ashamed to report that in subsequent tests I couldn't score more than 29 and my accuracy plummeted to 86%.

[EJsGirl]

Huh-

Net Speed: 39 WPM (words/minute)
Accuracy: 88%
Gross Speed: 44 WPM (words/minute)

That kind of sucks... I'm slower than I thought.

But I guess it's pretty good for a non-typist!

[wring]

Net speed 54 wpm, 92% accuracy gross speed 59 wpm. About what I thought. though the accuracy is better than I'd have predicted.