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    What's your wpm (for Colemak and QWERTY)?

    • Started by Buddybenj
    • 6 Replies:
    • Reputation: 0
    • Registered: 10-Jan-2014
    • Posts: 7

    Sorry if this has been posted before...

    I just switched to Colemak. How does your Colemak wpm compare to your QWERTY wpm? Take the test here: http://hi-games.net/typing-test/

    P.S. I know Colemak is not just about speed, it also about comfort, I'm just wondering how your speed is.

    Last edited by Buddybenj (12-Jan-2014 07:10:49)
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    • From: Viken, Norway
    • Registered: 13-Dec-2006
    • Posts: 5,371

    Yes, there have been posts before. But pure speed topics aren't that popular overall. It takes a while to get your new speed and it's hard to say when it's "happened" as that's highly individual to say the least. Some gain better speed in less than three months, while others struggle for more than a year. Some switch by Tarmak to get a smooth transition, others have plenty of time and make the switch their main hobby project until they excel at it.

    I used to type ~50 WPM QWERTY. A year or so after switching to Dvorak, I made ~55 WPM with that. A year and a half or so after switching to Colemak (which was frustrating due to the previous Dvorak relearning!) I made ~60 WPM and was very happy. I think that the training itself was the main contributing factor to that progress, as typing became my hobby. That was in 2007, and now I type Colemak very comfortably in the 65–70 WPM range most of the time, with lucky bursts up to ~85 WPM I guess. I don't measure my speeds much anymore, but use Amphetype for some typing training while "reading" books.

    What affects my *real* typing the most, is probably the Extend mod which allows me to edit and move nearly as efficiently as in Vim, everywhere. In a real-life typing or coding(!) situation, movement and editing is often more important than raw text entry.

    Last edited by DreymaR (12-Jan-2014 12:54:23)

    *** Learn Colemak in 2–5 steps with Tarmak! ***
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    • From: Viken, Norway
    • Registered: 13-Dec-2006
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    Heh, that Golden_Hammer topic from 2007 stirs up some memories. I had just taken the plunge back then. TypingMaster and Typing Of The Dead ftw.

    *** Learn Colemak in 2–5 steps with Tarmak! ***
    *** Check out my Big Bag of Keyboard Tricks for Win/Linux/TMK... ***

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    • Registered: 10-Jan-2014
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    That's good to hear. Even though speed might not be the main goal of Colemak, it seems that Colemak is still better in terms of speed (faster) than QWERTY.

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    • From: Viken, Norway
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    There's no proof, but most of us believe it to be so. The problem, of course, is that attaining that speed will be a lot of work whereas QWERTY is "for free".

    *** Learn Colemak in 2–5 steps with Tarmak! ***
    *** Check out my Big Bag of Keyboard Tricks for Win/Linux/TMK... ***

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    • Registered: 08-Dec-2010
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    Rationally, with all most typed keys already under our fingers, Colemak typists' speeds will be a bit higher than their old Qwerty speeds.

    Mine is 5wpm higher.

    Last edited by Tony_VN (13-Jan-2014 02:32:54)
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    • Registered: 04-Apr-2013
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    I think you're confusing "better than linear" for "negligible". 

    It does lead to some interesting questions, however.  How many movements do typists actually execute in parallel?  Fast typists probably get their speed by executing many, but I hypothesize that the average typist would only execute around 2 on average, 3 at most.

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