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    Surprisingly rapid typing speed gains

    • Started by zubari
    • 8 Replies:
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    • Registered: 09-May-2007
    • Posts: 17

    I started learning Colemak on Tuesday, May 1.
    By Saturday, May 5, I completed all 12 colemak lessons on ktouch set to 96%/130cpm.
    At this point in time, I was able to type at about 20 wpm.

    Since then, my typing speed has been increasing significantly every day.
    5/6 - approx. 25wpm
    5/8 - approx. 37wpm
    5/9 - approx. 51wpm(!)
    * tested using http://labs.jphantom.com/wpm/ and http://www.freetypinggame.net/free-typing-test.asp

    I attribute this to spending a lot of time at a keyboard every day, and playing words for practice.

    And now for some background.
    I stumbled upon Colemak a few weeks ago while trying out dvorak - which was a not-so-pleasant experience. I decided to give colemak a trial last week due in part to the suppose ease-of-acquisition of the layout, and in part to the rather fortuitious timing of Golden Week (a week long block of public holidays in Japan).

    Although using a JIS keyboard posed a few early problems, I managed to set up colemak fairly easily on both Mac OS X and Linux. I have also been typing Japanese using colemak for Japanese input, but this hasn't been too good due to the poor placement of K and J. I will probably switch to one of the many alternative romaji based keyboard layouts after colemak gets comfortable.
    # I don't plan on using kana input, as the JIS kana layout is actually also rather poor. I also don't like how kana input layouts (including the tens of alternate layouts) end up either using 4 rows, or overuse the shift key.

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    • From: Viken, Norway
    • Registered: 13-Dec-2006
    • Posts: 5,360

    Nice! I suggest you find the post on Colemak speed in the General forum and make (and update?) a post with your findings there.

    I also suggest that you use the test from TypingMaster at http://www.typingtest.com/ because that seems to be the most commonly used test here and quite realistic (a bit hard on you since if you press Space you can no longer Backspace that word, but that encourages discipline which is good I think). I use a 3 minute test myself.

    *** 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: 17-Nov-2006
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    Very nice typing speeds. As DreymaR has said, I think you should post your speeds in the General section as well to give everyone a better grasp on its importance.

    As for kana input, I can already see that it's not the best way to type in Japanese, but I still prefer kana input over romaji input. Plus, fortunately or unfortunately, I don't type in Japanese that often for it to matter.

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    • From: Viken, Norway
    • Registered: 13-Dec-2006
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    I've been thinking that the "Acquired speed" topic really belongs here in the Experiences forum. Maybe Shai could move it over here for us?

    *** 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: 09-May-2007
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    DreymaR said:

    I also suggest that you use the test from TypingMaster at http://www.typingtest.com/ because that seems to be the most commonly used test here and quite realistic (a bit hard on you since if you press Space you can no longer Backspace that word, but that encourages discipline which is good I think). I use a 3 minute test myself.

    Thanks for the suggestion. However, for the sake of consistency in tracking relative improvement, I will continue to quote numbers from http://labs.jphantom.com/wpm/ . TypingMaster is unrealistically unforgiving, although I don't mind using it for comparisons.

    I must also admit that the test I use is not very accurate - it displays both cpm and wpm in the results, with 1wpm varying in value between 4.3 and 4.8 cpm! All up, it probably over estimates speeds by about 15% if using the standard 5 characters per word.

    At any rate, on day 18, I am managing between 300-400 cpm (60-80wpm), with peaks of 85 wpm on the aformentioned test.

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    • From: Houston, Texas
    • Registered: 03-Jan-2007
    • Posts: 358

    I wish there were a typing test that would give you a graph of instantaneous typing speed so I could see what I am peaking at.  It's frustrating to be cruising along and then make a mistake and in the attempt to correct it my fingers spatz out and I take so long to recover that I end up with 35-40 WPM rating.

    anyway awesome stats.

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    • From: NYC
    • Registered: 02-Feb-2007
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    keyboard samurai said:

    I wish there were a typing test that would give you a graph of instantaneous typing speed so I could see what I am peaking at.  It's frustrating to be cruising along and then make a mistake and in the attempt to correct it my fingers spatz out and I take so long to recover that I end up with 35-40 WPM rating.

    anyway awesome stats.

    true...but the problem with the peak typing speed is that when you actually type, you do make mistakes which you have to fix and you don't type at your peak speed but at your average speed during your typing span. Thus, the most accurate speed is the average.

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    • From: Houston, Texas
    • Registered: 03-Jan-2007
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    I understand but it would make me feel better. :-)

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    • From: Viken, Norway
    • Registered: 13-Dec-2006
    • Posts: 5,360

    Would you rather be among the best devils in Hell, or among the lesser angels in Heaven?  ;)

    To me, peak speeds are pretty much useless. I can of course devise a test that gives me a "typing speed" to match Ms. Blackburn more or less, but what's the point? I'd only be lulling myself into false confidence and produce results that don't compare to anything interesting really. The thing I like with the TypingMaster test is that it seems to report something related to how fast I can actually type a long text. And that's what I need to do in real life, not excel at the arstneioarstneioarstneio race track.

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

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