How to measure typing speed over time? - General

erw
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01-Aug-2011 23:45:58#1 How to measure typing speed over time?

Ok, besides using the same typing test each time, what other things should be observed?

Sometimes when I'm taking a test I make a lot of errors, stop and try again a few minutes or hours later. Somehow I feel this is "cheating" and skewing the results. But on the other hand, I could also take a test while being very sleepy or drunk and get a low score and it would not bring anything interesting other than to measure my performance in that particular state. So I guess it's important to know the purpose of the measurement. I came to think about this while testing for my Experiences thread, so that is the purpose.

But should that be about best speed or just "typical speed"? The max speed is maybe not that interesting since it could be a lucky text and also just a speed you can't typically reach. For example, my typeracer max is 92, but I still rarely go over 85. Typical speed on the other hand is not easy to measure, at least for me because I start getting competitive. Then I can get the feeling that "I won't complete this text because the excessive punctuation slowed me down" or "I don't feel like including this result in the mean because it is low". If I get a good score while measuring for my progress graph, I might feel like not doing more measurements that day because it would lower the mean for that day. While the latter is not "cheating" compared to excluding scores from the mean, it doesn't feel scientific at all.

What is a good way to go about this?

http://hi-games.net/typing-test/watch?u=4610

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Tony_VN
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02-Aug-2011 03:16:54#2 Re: How to measure typing speed over time?

I recommend Typing Tutor 7. This program has fixed-time test with randomized texts, including quotation marks and ().

The average speed will be calculated, much lower than your Typeracer or hi-games.net. You will feel that there's lots of room for improvement :-)

My fastest typing records http://hi-games.net/profile/4314
My switching experience https://forum.colemak.com/viewtopic.php?id=970

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DreymaR
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02-Aug-2011 08:44:08#3 Re: How to measure typing speed over time?

Best speed is irrelevant for all practical purposes, but the brain is geared towards such measures so everybody will care about it. :)

If you make lots of errors and take a test later, that's not so bad. You have learned that you shouldn't type when too tired. Keep in mind that you shouldn't make too many errors because that's bad for your learning I think. Also a reason to not obsess on max speed in my opinion because if you chase that too aggressively you'll easily end up making more errors than you should and those may be hard to get rid of later.

I try not to get down by "excessive punctuation" and such - it's good practice. Ryan Heise said that punctuation didn't slow him down, which means that he's learned it well enough and that's certainly possible! So you should love the training it gives you instead of hating it. It'll improve your flow a lot when you learn it well.

I am reminded of an old saying from my Diablo2 days: "Play it hardcore, lose like it's softcore." :)

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erw
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02-Aug-2011 20:46:14#4 Re: How to measure typing speed over time?

All valid points but they don't answer my question :-)

http://hi-games.net/typing-test/watch?u=4610

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DreymaR
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03-Aug-2011 08:57:51#5 Re: How to measure typing speed over time?

Ah, so you want the teaspoon version? :)

- Use average speed over relevant timeframes (such as 2 or 5 minutes), not best speeds
- Use punctuation and the like because it's realistic to meet such challenges in real typing.
- If it makes your graphs bumpy, live with that (or smooth them a bit).
- You can discard any particularly bad tests if you feel that you weren't in typing shape (but be realistic)
(Not paying heed to top speeds will help with this anyway)
- Using the same test each time is a tricky track: You train that test and you will get better at that particular test.
The training for that test will be mixed up with your actual typing progress. You wouldn't repeat the same IQ test...

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erw
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04-Aug-2011 03:03:57#6 Re: How to measure typing speed over time?

Yes, what I meant by using the same test was to use for example hi-games each time, not the exact same text :-)

I think the official page/wiki said something like that was a good idea but I can't seem to find it anymore.

I guess it's a good idea to decide beforehand how many times to take the (two or five minute) test for each "test session". For example at least three times and then use the average or the median. Yeah, I guess maybe the median is best if you take at least five two minute tests.

http://hi-games.net/typing-test/watch?u=4610

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DreymaR
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04-Aug-2011 08:08:37#7 Re: How to measure typing speed over time?

Sounds workable, if you have the time for it. Good practice, to boot! :)

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nimbostratue
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21-Aug-2011 15:30:55#8 Re: How to measure typing speed over time?

I do not know if you already know this, but you can take a test on hi-games which can be long in time as much as you wont for example I took a 50 minutes test, where I could only see 2 people at the top score list, with sean wrona being the first at a speed of 174 WPM which is only 1WPM less than his 5 minutes test.

I have been testing other layouts and went back to dvorak 5 days ago. My best 5 minutes is 71 WPM, and I got 67 WPM on the 50 minutes test. Taking this test was devastating because my right shoulder started to ache since I am forced with dvorak to lift my right hand off the keyboard due to the layout design and due to the fact that if you placed you hand on the keyboard for long time you will get a bruise on the lower right edge of your palm. This is because H on QWRTY is replaced with d on Dvorak which is not enough to spread the wait evenly on the right hand palm as I think. I think I will perform better latter when I get some strength in my shoulder muscle with the hope that it will not get more damaged that it is already is :).

It would be interesting to see how Colemak users would perform on such a test, because I remember on mavis beacon typing tutor that when I did around a 17 minutes long test, my speed decrease to 57WPM and I was typing at 69 WPM for 5 minutes at hi-game at that time, but of course the difference is that at mavis becon the text was more difficult than hi-game and I did not know of the existing feature to take long tests until recently.

To take a fifty minutes test past
http://hi-games.net/typing-test,3000/

where 3000sec = 50minutes x 60 sec/minute
of course you can replace 3000 with as much second as you want. Try it out :)

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pafkata90
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21-Aug-2011 19:16:56#9 Re: How to measure typing speed over time?

I haven't typed anything in a while so I'm a bit out of shape but I tried your suggested 50 min test. The first 5 - 10 minutes I had around 72 wpm, then through the whole test - 74-75, and the last 10 minutes I was at 73-74.
I felt no discomfort at all with the layout. Maybe a little bit less responsiveness in my left pinky, since it's weaker than it should be. It felt a little bit like the time when I tried your left and right hand drills, nimbo. But that was just for a little while and then it got itself better. So it could have just been my posture at the moment.

Hi-games profile: http://hi-games.net/profile/4663
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nimbostratue
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21-Aug-2011 19:42:44#10 Re: How to measure typing speed over time?

pafkata90 said:

I haven't typed anything in a while so I'm a bit out of shape but I tried your suggested 50 min test. The first 5 - 10 minutes I had around 72 wpm, then through the whole test - 74-75, and the last 10 minutes I was at 73-74.
I felt no discomfort at all with the layout. Maybe a little bit less responsiveness in my left pinky, since it's weaker than it should be. It felt a little bit like the time when I tried your left and right hand drills, nimbo. But that was just for a little while and then it got itself better. So it could have just been my posture at the moment.

My friend is a Colemaker, he got 80WPM which is less 2 WPM than his five minutes test (82WPM). So I would conclude that a five minutes test is actually a good approximation of the average speed - 1 to 5 WPM. And I also would conclude that the average speed using Colemak Layout does not decrease much. I mean if Sean Wrona usig QWRTY has decreased 1 WPM then Colemak, which is much better, should perform better :).

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lucageorge
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21-Aug-2011 21:14:25#11 Re: How to measure typing speed over time?

How nimbostratue said, i took the 50 minutes test using Colemak and i managed 80 WPM.
I thought at the end i would be tired or something but was not the case.

Aniway it you want to track your progress over time you might do how i do :D , use regularly Typeracer.com ( Like 10-20 minutes a day ) and just see every month what is the average using the http://www.seanwrona.com/typeracer/import.
The thing it's that data remains there to check in the future and i'm sure it's one of the best methods to keep an eye on your progress over time in a dinamic way :D ( Race others ).

Check my progress , i started Colemak on january just : http://www.seanwrona.com/typeracer/prof … lucageorge and i'm using both , Qwerty and Colemak at the same time, i can now switch between them instant without any problem.

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Tony_VN
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22-Aug-2011 01:58:33#12 Re: How to measure typing speed over time?

Hmm you guys can test your typing posture and your durability from such Marathon typing.

I suppose you should increase test time gradually, 5 mins at a time. 50min test can put RSI injuries in your shoulder muscles.

My fastest typing records http://hi-games.net/profile/4314
My switching experience https://forum.colemak.com/viewtopic.php?id=970

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nimbostratue
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22-Aug-2011 12:05:55#13 Re: How to measure typing speed over time?

Tony_VN said:

Hmm you guys can test your typing posture and your durability from such Marathon typing.
I suppose you should increase test time gradually, 5 mins at a time. 50min test can put RSI injuries in your shoulder muscles.

I could not agree less and it is something I do not plan to do very often, it was just to test how the five minutes average differs from the fifty minutes, and I think it is enough to take 15 minutes to get a decent idea about your average. However, I would say that the test has actually improved my speed and I have advance to 72 WPM today on dvorak and that is 5WPM in the last five days, with amazing accuracy, and I can see that the test has paid for Pafkata90 as he has advanced yesterday also to 78 WPM :).

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