Seeking Typing Tips
Hi Fellow Typeracers!
We all enjoy racing here on Typeracer (or else we wouldn’t be here), but our goal at Typeracer is to be more than just a game. That is, we hope that Typeracer can also be a valuable tool and resource for helping people achieve their goal of learning to type faster. For some, typing fast is a skill that might help them at work. For others, typing fast is just fun!
But regardless of the reason, this is something that many users here on Typeracer are hoping to do (the rest of us just want to have fun!), and Typeracer gets asked all the time–whether it be via email, or comments here on the blog, or questions on the forum–what the best way is to improve one’s typing speed. As much as we would like to just say “play Typeracer more!”, we know that for a lot of people, this is not a satisfactory answer–and really it shouldn’t be.
So, we are setting out to take more steps to not only make Typeracer more fun, but more useful. One of our first tasks is to publish an official typing tutorial, to be freely available here on Typeracer.
Since Typeracer is one of the largest communities of typists on the Internet, and some of our users are truly talented–the best among the best–we think it would be great if we get the input of our users. (Some of the old-timers who have already participated in countless similar discussions over the years are probably tired of this topic by now. Sorry!) Whether you type 25wpm or 125wpm, we want to know both what has helped you and what hasn’t.
Here are a few of my personal favorites:
1) While racing, scroll down and don’t look at your car or your opponents’ cars, since these can be highly distracting. (Admittedly, this only helps improve your speed in competitive situations!)
2) Consciously slow down when you are about to type a complicated or obscure word. This will help you avoid mistakes and thus improve speed.
3) Find your weaknesses. For example, if you often make mistakes when you type the letter “x”, you could consider doing some simple exercises (like spending a few minutes everyday typing words containing “x”).
4) Switch your keyboard 🙂 Personally, my favorite is the Dvorak, and although I honestly don’t recommend it to everybody, I do love it.
5) When you want to type quickly, sit at a table or desk, never with your laptop in your lap.
I know some people might disagree with some of these suggestions, and I hope we can get some good debate going on here and in the forum. Every comment we get will help us improve the Typeracer Typing Tutorial which we are in the process of developing!
What helps you?
David Pritts (valikor)
Typeracer Moderator
I’m at 49 wpm, and the internet seems to think that folks in my range usually need to work on their accuracy. So I’m trying to finish 2 races a day in Instant Death Practice Mode (right now it takes me many races to finish two). It seems to help–my rhythm is improving, and when I come across a hard word, I slow down and get it right. My speed hasn’t fallen off too much because while the actual hitting-letters rate is lower, so far the lack of mistakes is making up for it. And I’m finding that accurate typing is less stressful!
cristobalagua
June 22, 2013
Hi Chris,
I’d agree that it would be good to work on your accuracy. Instant death mode might be a good way to do that, as you mentioned, as long as you have patience! I agree with what you said about slowing down for difficult words. For me, at least, there are some words that I cannot type quickly. When I get to one, I must slow down. Sometimes the difference in speed will be substantial, and I’ll need to type it very slowly, but as you mentioned, the total speed increases, due to decreased errors.
davidtyperacer
July 18, 2013
1. Ergonomics. Being comfortable and typing at the same speed i would be slouched over on a laptop or something, i would be typing faster in the comfortable chair.
2. Not rushing. Getting “85 wpm” and staying 100% acc i will type 10 wpm faster than typing “100 wpm” while thinking im typing 1– wpm but while makging mistakes.
Jaered
June 24, 2013
my improvement graph rising and came down in between 45 to 55 word /m . what to do to improve speed
Angana Bhattacharya
June 24, 2013
Hi Angana,
Sorry for the slow reply. What do you think is slowing you down? Are you making too many mistakes? If so, what kinds of mistakes do you make? Or do you type accurately and just want to gain a little more speed?
David Pritts (valikor)
Typeracer Administrator
davidtyperacer
July 18, 2013
Nice!!!!!
Palwinder Singh
June 24, 2013
I have went from around ~65 to ~75/80 at the moment and I would say that that is mainly up to my mechanical keyboard, something which if you really are into typing, I would suggest as an essential!
Thanks, Matt.
Matthew
June 29, 2013
Matthew: When you switched keyboards, you gained 10-15wpm?
David Pritts (valikor)
Typeracer Administrator
davidtyperacer
July 18, 2013
Yes, it was pretty impressive, I never thought that I could hit such a high amount of words per minute at such a young age, but apparently I could. I would however say that something that is slowing me down would be that I don’t traditionally touch type, it’s more that I know in my head where the keys are that I want to press and my hands glide around the keyboard. Perhaps if I learned the traditional method, I could solidly hit around 100 words per minute.
Matthew
July 18, 2013
Hey I love this blog but want other ways to type faster. My fastest is only 45 WPM and I only recently joined can you help me with other tips?
Anonymous
August 29, 2013
Hi Anonymous,
Once the Typeracer typing tutorial is completed, you’ll be able to find all of our typing tips in one place. It should be done in a couple weeks!
David
davidtyperacer
August 31, 2013