A typing test built for speed
Press Start test and a passage of about 55 words appears. The clock starts on your first key and stops at the last character, so the whole run is a short sprint. Live WPM and accuracy are shown as you go.
Why speed and accuracy trade off
The score is WPM multiplied by accuracy. That one rule shapes how you should type. Push your hands faster than they can manage and two things happen: you hit wrong keys, and you spend time on Backspace. Both pull the score down.
Take a typist at 70 raw WPM with 90 percent accuracy. The score is 63. The same person easing off to 66 raw WPM at 98 percent accuracy scores about 65. The hands are slower and the score is higher.
A 2018 study by Aalto University and the University of Cambridge, with 168,000 volunteers, saw the same pattern at scale. The fastest typists made fewer errors. They did not type recklessly and tidy up afterwards.
How to pace a run
- Start just below full speed. The first line sets your rhythm. Open flat out and the first mistake tends to arrive early.
- Keep an even beat. Steady keystrokes beat bursts and stalls. If you race through easy words and stop dead on hard ones, slow the easy ones down.
- Read ahead. Look at the next word while your fingers finish the current one, so there is no pause between words.
- Watch the red. When a mistake is highlighted, fix it at once and ease your pace for the next few words.
Rollover typing
The same study noticed that fast typists overlap their keystrokes. They press the next key before fully releasing the previous one. The researchers called this rollover typing.
You do not learn rollover by forcing it. It appears when common letter pairs such as th, er and in become single movements instead of two separate presses. Repetition builds that, which is why regular short sessions work better than an occasional long one.
Where to go next
Compare your score with the bands on the main typing test page, or read about what counts as a good typing speed. If you want a fixed time limit instead of a fixed passage, try the 1 minute typing test.