Improving Typing Skills

[yvemun]

Hello
I hope you can help me.  I  just wanted to get a poll from all you skilled admins out there.  I am desperately trying to improve my typing speed by at least 20wpm, but seem to have reached a plateau.  What is the average speed of you experienced people out there (even the young kids these days are over 100wpm!!!)?  Have you any tips/techniques/anecdotes as to how to break through that speed barrier?

Any ideas/suggestions would be most welcome (and would encourage me as I am obsessing a bit about it at the moment).  Every agency I go to seems to want speeds of 90wpm or more.  Help!

[jadegrniiz]

I happened to notice you are a newcomer to DD, and first wanted to welcome you to our little community on the web!  

As for your question, I know in my area the baseline for executive level admins is 65wpm, and that's about where my skillset is.

Something that helped me tremendously was message board posting. Granted, I've been an internet message board junkie for a couple years.... but frequently posting things on message boards has taken me from a hunt and peck while looking at your hands (30wpm) to full focus on the screen in front of me, and no need to look at my hands at all (and 65wpm).

Some suggestions are to practice at home, by typing out all your correspondance to friends, making to-do and grocery  lists on the computer and etc.

If nothing else, just practice, practice, practice

Jadegrniiz
Peer Moderator

[nickless]

Welcome to our community!!!

Something that helped me lots was to type the same things again and again. Eventually, you're not thinking any more about what you're typing. You will see the word, and your fingers will do the rest automatically; e.g.:

I
I like
I like to
I like to post
I like to post messages
I like to post messages on
I like to post messages on Deskdemon.

I think you'll understand what I mean.

Annegret

[Jackie G]

Welcome to DD from me too!

I don't know how you improve your speed other than practice.  I didn't learn to type until the second last year at school as it hadn't been a subject on offer until then.  But I got a clerical job in the summer holidays and so my speed was way ahead of everyone else in the class as a result, and that was because I'd not only spent the summer keeping up my skills, but in some cases, having been asked to type a police report for court that same day (that same hour sometimes!) I learned to type fast because of short deadlines!

When I stopped using a manual typewriter my speed was probably around 80-85 wpm.

Last timed in an agency fairly recently (for fun) at 120 wpm with 100% accuracy.

Last timed in an online test was 134 wpm but I found myself waiting for the test so the speed was probably a lot higher.

practise
practise
practise!

Jackie
www.iqps.org
Peer Moderator

[yvemun]

Thank you all for the warm welcome.  I must say I spent 2 hours surfing the forum - most useful! I'm just sorry I did not discover this site earlier!!

Just to get a little bit "technical" on this -  I plan to practice at home by instaling a few typing  programs on my computer (as I have a low-typing role currently).  However, most of them propose 1) rythmic typing and 2) typing b with the left hand and 3) the whole bottom row shifts one key-finger along!.  I am manual typewriter trained and I type "b" with my right hand and must be the noisiest typist around as I still "bang" the keys (oh, that stiff manual machine my dad owned!!). Does typing the new way make it any easier/faster? I have somewhat confused myself by trying to change to the new way a while back (this hasn't helped my accuracy!).  Also, some typing programs have lefthand/righthand exercises which frustrates even more.  I also read somewhere recently that someone can reach their "typing speed limit".  I would hate to think it's below 100wpm for me :-(.  I am prepared to put the hours in the hope that it will be worth it.

Any encouragement/view welcome.

yvemun

[Jackie G]

I too am manual trained - I type 'b' with my left hand tho!

I really think that you should just carry on with the way you know - I can't imagine going and learning a new way of typing now! - and see if you can build your speed.

Take articles from the newspaper, or magazines, or a book and type them out once, timing yourself.  Then do it again and race yourself and see how you get on.  If you think you can do it faster, have another go;  and so on, and I think you will find that your speed should increase.

Jackie
www.iqps.org
Peer Moderator

[bethalize]

When I wanted to break the 60wpm barrier I had to go back to the beginning and learn to type properly, using the "home" row and learning the position of all the letters. I used a free version of Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing, but if I want to put in some practice these days I go to www.popcap.com and use their Typer Shark game - it's much more fun!

I'm self-taught and it took a long time for me to stop looking at the keyboard, which is why going back and learning the layout helped a lot. I'm still very undisciplined - I never use my thumbs for the space bar and my index fingers cross over quite a lot. I can do 90wpm with a following wind!

Copy typing requires you to look ahead and see what is coming or to be able to be very accurate and not look at the screen. I prefer to look ahead, get a sentence in my mind and watch the screen for mistakes.

Bethalize
Peer Moderator

[elkiedee]

I would have thought that if you're manual typewriter trained your speed and accuracy should be pretty good to start with. Am I right in guessing you're trying to increase from 70 to 90? It seems a bit odd to me, I'd guess my own speed at 70 to 80 but that's slowed down by my inability to hit the right keys first time, and I probably would be 20 wpm faster if I didn't have to correct so much. I haven't tested since 1998.

The best thing is probably practice. Mavis Beacon is quite cheap, particularly if you can pick up an old release (I have something like v2, 8 and 15.

However, in most jobs I'm doubtful that it makes so much difference to your effficiency at work whether your speed is 60+ or 90+ wpm - I think over that point other things take up as much time as your typing, even in a high typing content role. What type of job are you going for?

I would also practise typing on a computer keyboard with as little effort as required to hit the keys, as those fractions of a second saved might add up. They do feel very different even from electronic typewriter keyboards.

If you're testing in an agency, make sure you ask for a few minutes playing with the keyboard to get a feel for it before the proper test. And if a keyboard seems really hard to use to you, it's probably the keyboard, not you.

Luci

[countrigal]

Welcome to DD.  I too don't quite follow the rules when typing, but I have made my own way and have gotten very good at it.  (I tend not to shift with the proper finger/hand when typing caps, for the most part.)  The first time since my typing class in high school, some 15 years ago, I was really nervous about my speed.  I really felt that I wouldn't get their minimum and would not be able to temp through them.  Imagine my surprise when I came in well above their minimum and was around 80+ wpm.  In high school I barely squeaked by with 45 wpm.  But these years working in offices and on computers paid off.

Definitely practise.  Get a computer with an easy-touch keyboard to get you out of the habit of "striking" the keys and you'll find you pick up a little time.  The keyboard allows you to just touch the key to get the result so you can move a bit faster.  And you might try typing from dictation.  Read a story onto a tape, and then type it from there.  That will get you focused on the screen and get you to where you type words with little or no thought, adding to your speed.  That will aid you in typing from script, because then you can basically read it in your head and type it as you go.  At least that's what I've done and it seems to help.

Good luck and let us know what, if anything, helps break the 90wpm barrier.

CountriGal
Peer Moderator

[lioness]

With all the two-finger typists out there, fast ones, surely there's really no right or wrong way to type any more. When we were in school, we were taught how to type "properly," but everyone ends up doing whatever works best for them. From the time I took typing in junior high school, I've used my left hand for the space bar because it's never felt right using the "correct" hand, even though I'm right-handed. And when it comes to numbers, fugghedaboutit. After many years of typing, my fingers automatically know when they've made a mistake.

The only way to improve your speed is to practice. You can find a page in a book and set a 5-minute timer for yourself. It's very easy to do, and best of all, it's free. Whichever method you try, good luck--you'll get there!

Lioness, Queen of the Jungle

[yvemun]

Thanks to all for your support and advice, I will put these ideas into practice and let you know whether I improve rapidly or not.

Elkiedee, I am trying to get into the legal secretarial (doing Company/Commercial Law short cse at the moment).  No go at the agencies if you don't have a "reasonable" typing speed (with no experience, like me :-(( ), so I want to get up to speed (no puns intended) and then tackle them head on!  Will let you know.

Once again, thanks to all for the advice.

xxxY

[JessW]

Yvemun

If you are serious about doing legal stuff then i would recommend you check out some legal web sites, download a few cases (dispute resolution is my bayliwick (sp?) and are very good with all the technical terminology to help you do the copy typing to get your speed up in that area too.

I test at a bout 60wpm but can type from anywhere between 2 wpm on a bad day to 76wpm and this does not necessarily mean that I am slow.  What specifically do you want from faster speeds in the legal sector and which area of the law?  This must be considered too as there are firms out ther who will take you on at about 50wpm with no legal experience because they want to train a 'virgin' in that area and not somebody with their own hangups, previous 'I always did it that way there' hangups etc.

Also, remember speed comes with confidence.

Jess

Edited by jwaddington on 30/07/03 03:53 PM.

[topcat]

Has anyone any preference regarding programmes / software for improving typing skills?

I am a PA, and improving my typing speed would really improve my work rate. I still use two fingers, have a hunch when I type an incorrect letter, but am frutrated with my lack of speed (approx 50 WPM).

Mavis Beacon and Kaz seem the best, and I would need to practise at night at home. Kaz is shouting out to me at the moment, as it claims 90 minutes learning (obviously more practise required to increase speed) while Mavis seems a bit complicated, and I prefer simplicity, not too many games, programmes within programmes etc.

Has anyone used Kaz before, if so, was it any good, or did you just end up using Mavis Beacon?

Please let me know - all comments appreciated!

Pussycat!

[elkiedee]

Getting into legal

The most useful thing you can get is relevant experience. I did a short legal secretaries' course but my real break was a job covering maternity leave in the legal dept of a local Council. I was working for the Deputy Head of Law and sharing an office with the Head's PA, so we used to get telephone calls about anything and everything and that was really confidence building too, you get to feel that you can deal with things that are thrown at you.

I don't know where you are and private practice here has much less maternity leave than the public sector, but even so.... the advantage of the council is that equal ops recruitment procedures mean they have to take into account things which will help you, and the temporary job plus a wage which was better than what I had been getting but not at a legal secretarial level cut down the competition, though even so I was offered the job over two other candidates considered appointable (both of whom were subsequently employed in the dept to cover other jobs and maternity leave).

Then I had a boss who wrote pages and pages which I could only read if I never took my eyes off, forcing me to be much stricter about touch typing and that helped push my speed.

After 9 months, some agencies didn't want to know but once one booked me for my knowledge of an obscure wp package, they were able to keep me busy at £11 an hour with only one down day, compared to £7-£8.50 an hour before as a non-legal temp (this was 1998). I think it would have been even better if I'd stayed temping there for a time, as I was offered another maternity leave cover post soon after I started temping but had to chase my reference for several weeks from the council (I'd been shown a previous version so I knew it was worth chasing).

Luci

[lems]

yvemun

I've been reading all the posts and see that you would like to do legal company/commercial - unfortunately this is probably the one area that most law first require the highest typing speed (usually 75/80 wpm minimum) and most as you have found require experience.

I've been a legal secretary (and latterly PA) for more than 18 years.  Competition for jobs is fierce mainly because the salaries on offer can be very high - for example I work in the City of London and earn in excess of £40,000 pa.  Even the more junior roles can pay between £20,000/25,000.

I don't know what area you live in but first and foremost you are doing the right thing - trying to get your speeds up.  If you can do some kind of legal secretarial course - I think ILEX (Institute of Legal Executives) do several levels and there are bound to be others who offer them.  Because the agencies get so many who want to be a legal secretary they can be choosy.  I have a friend who is a recruitment consultant in a legal secretarial agency and one of the things she looks for in a person who has no experience as such is that they can demonstrate a genuine interest in this area.  Doing a course would help demonstrate this.

So get typing and good luck!!!

Lems