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Emacs user learning Colemak, slowly

  • Started by jfmcbrayer
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  • Registered: 15-Apr-2014
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Go me, I just broke 40 WPM (44WPM, 99.6% acc). I think it may have been a fluke, and I only have that kind of accuracy & speed on tests, not when typing out of my head.

(Second test this morning: 42 WPM, 99% acc. It seems to help to slow down and focus on accuracy).

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I've more or less just been typing casually for the speed tests.  Not really trying for speed nor accuracy.  Just typing naturally.  Unless otherwise noted.

I should really try to focus on accuracy here soon. Now that I'm in the 40wpm club, it's time to actually hone the skill.  That will be alot of training though heheh.

------------

AND BIG CONGRATS ON BREAKING 40!!!!
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Long weekend with no typing, so I'm a little rusty. Hopefully I'll improve quickly once I'm warmed up.

Colemak: 38.5WPM, 99.3%

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Took me several tries to get up above 40 WPM this morning, and my accuracy is not what I'm accustomed to.

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Back after a weekend. I tried to do some work on my wife's computer, under her login where I haven't set up Colemak, and found I couldn't comfortably do QWERTY without looking at the keys. Figured it was a good omen.

Colemak: 46 WPM, 98.9% acc.

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Test today was 46.8 WPM, 98.2% accuracy.

A lesson with some of the most common English words had me at 55 WPM and 99% accuracy, so that says something for my muscle memory.

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Back after a weekend of very little typing. Took it slow and steady on the typing speed test this morning, but got a good score anyway (prob. due to not having corrections slow me down).

Colemak: 47.1 WPM, 99.4% accuracy

My QWERTY typing has completely atrophied now, so I hope my Colemak gets up to original speed fairly quickly. I'm still having issues with same-finger errors, mirroring, and out of order keys if I try to type full speed.

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Today: 54.2 WPM, 98% accuracy.

I think that text was fairly easy, but not excessively so. I'm going to count it as breaking 50 WPM.

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I'm pretty consistently in the low 50's now.

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So, at 4.5 months in, I've finally broken 60 WPM. The last batch of tests has me averaging 63 WPM. I had a long plateau at 50-ish; my progress was basically linear up to then, then flat for a month.

On my tablet, I'm using MessageEase, on which I'm up to 27 WPM.

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you swine, its taken me 14 months to get to the same place!

good work..

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bph said:

you swine, its taken me 14 months to get to the same place!

good work..

Thanks! To be fair, my accuracy is not yet what I'm usd to.

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What I'm freaked out by are the people that can get up to 60 or 70 WPM within a week or two of switching.

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Periodic update!

72.6 WPM,  98.8% accuracy.

Improving slowly but surely, even if some days it doesn't feel like it.

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average or max?

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That was my first test today, which also happened to be my highest of the day. I've peaked a bit higher on easy paragraphs before, but this was an average paragraph, I felt like. All my tests today averaged 68 WPM, 98.2%.

Last edited by jfmcbrayer (05-Nov-2014 00:47:25)
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Today, 69.6 WPM, 98.9% acccuracy. So still in the same ~70 WPM ballpark.

My MessageEase speed has increased; I'm now up to 32WPM (best), with an average around 29 WPM. That's faster than I can SwiftKey, so I'm pleased in general, though I'd like to get to 40WPM, obviously.

For various reasons I've been typing a little QWERTY at home, so I feel like the atrophy of my QWERTY skills has slowed to a stop. A quick test gives me 34.7 WPM, 98.5%. I think getting my QWERTY back up to 40 WPM would not be hard.

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On an easy test, I just got 76 WPM, 99.1% accuracy. But on a hard test, I score down around 62WPM.

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Today's tests, the first in three months:

85.6 wpm, 99.6% acc
83.1 wpm, 98.3% acc

So clearly I've been gradually improving while I've not been testing myself.

QWERTY has been gradually improving, too; back up to 43.8 wpm, 99.4% acc.

No MessageEase tests currently.

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Visiting the forum after a very long time away. My Colemak desktop speed seems to have stabilized at 83 WPM, approximately.

For MessagEase, I have only recently switched back. Using it with one thumb tends to give me tendonitis. My two-thumb speed is up to 34WPM these days, though. I would be so glad to break 40WPM on *some* mobile input method...perhaps it will happen eventually.

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  • From: Viken, Norway
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Your "stable" desktop speed seems higher than mine – on normal text over some time I clock at 65–75 WPM on a good day, even after years of using Colemak. And I've managed 45 WPM on MessagEase so I'm sure you can do at least that well too. You're talking about test speed, not overall on MessagEase, right?

Last edited by DreymaR (16-Jul-2019 10:48:00)

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

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Yes, I'm talking about test speed in MessagEase. I'm using two things to test: the speed game in MessagEase game, and an Android app called "The Typist". They both give me similar estimates of typing speed, mostly ranging from 32WPM to 36WPM. My reported Colemak speed is an average of texts in Amphetype. On easy tests I peak up to 89WPM.

I hope I do improve on MessageEase. How many fingers do you use when typing in it?

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  • From: Viken, Norway
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I type with two thumbs, similar to how speed champion Cheng Wei does it – albeit much slower than him... ;-)

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

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Hmm. i use two thumbs, too, though I have to say that I'm not notably faster with two thumbs than with one. Do you make the keyboard rather large, or keep it rather small?

I do feel like I will start typing faster once I can do it looking at what I'm typing rather than at the keyboard, but I'm not there yet.

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  • From: Viken, Norway
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I use a fairly large phone (Galaxy Note 3) with a centered size 16 or so MessagEase board. On my pad I use two pads, one in each lower corner but I prefer the phone. I have my own version of the layout which you can see in the BigBag, based on Colemak similarity. I have no idea whether it'd be as fast at top levels as the standard layout, but I don't see why not either.

I just tried my hand at the World Game (the standard 160 character test text about piranhas) and got 35 s which I figure equals 55 WPM = (160C * 60 min/s)/(5 C/W * 35 s) = 1920/35 WPM. You can also press "See Tweet Screen" to see WPM although I think they always round it down. My best is 33.5 s = 57 WPM, but some other colemakers have speeds in the 60–70 WPM range!

I tend to look at the keyboard while typing, I must admit. In the test this doesn't matter as I know the test text by heart.

I just tried a larger keyboard size, going up from 16 to 20. It feels a bit more strained because of increased travel distance, but easier to hit the right keys. So find something that works for you. I haven't compared the two sizes properly, it's just an impression.

Last edited by DreymaR (18-Jul-2019 13:46:26)

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

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