5 ms·

Back in the manual typewriter days, every typo subtracted 10 WPM from your score. (Source: my junior-high typing class.) It seems to me that 76% accuracy would

by cafard 5y ago

Back in the manual typewriter days, every typo subtracted 10 WPM from your score. (Source: my junior-high typing class.) It seems to me that 76% accuracy would put you into negative WPM by that reckoning.

bee_rider 5y ago
Since WPM is a rate, and total typos is an accumulated values, it seems that whether this would bring you negative is a function of the test length. Seem like it would make test scores not very portable.
- roelschroeven 5y ago
  The way it was explained to me years ago is that every error deducts an amount (probably 10, I don't remember exactly) from the running total of correct characters typed (WPM was calculated by dividing the number of characters by the time and by a fixed "average" word length (ISTR they used 6 (in Dutch)). So if you type 100 characters and 24 of them are incorrect, the counted total is 100 - 10*24 < 0, independent of the test length. This was in the time of typewriters; computerized text entry did exist but was certainly not ubiquitous. There was no real way to correct mistakes, so I can imagine typing correctly from the beginning was a bigger deal than it is now.
TehShrike 5y ago
I like TypeRacer's approach – your time includes the time it takes you to backspace to fix your mistakes and re-type it correctly.
- AQuantized 5y ago
  I don't think it's bad for 'competitive' typing but it's nothing like the real process where fixing mistakes at the end is almost a triviality instead of completely derailing your typing.
  - TehShrike 5y ago
    For most people, that involves relying on another service ("look to see what words have a red squiggly line under them"). It is not a good way to measure "typing speed".
- masklinn 5y ago
  That seems optimistic, odds are your typing flow will be interrupted as tou think about the mistake and go around to fix it, plus you likely only realise it a bit later and need either some movement or to remove entire words and retype them.

by cafard 5y ago

bee_rider 5y ago

Since WPM is a rate, and total typos is an accumulated values, it seems that whether this would bring you negative is a function of the test length. Seem like it would make test scores not very portable.

roelschroeven 5y ago
The way it was explained to me years ago is that every error deducts an amount (probably 10, I don't remember exactly) from the running total of correct characters typed (WPM was calculated by dividing the number of characters by the time and by a fixed "average" word length (ISTR they used 6 (in Dutch)). So if you type 100 characters and 24 of them are incorrect, the counted total is 100 - 10*24 < 0, independent of the test length. This was in the time of typewriters; computerized text entry did exist but was certainly not ubiquitous. There was no real way to correct mistakes, so I can imagine typing correctly from the beginning was a bigger deal than it is now.

TehShrike 5y ago

I like TypeRacer's approach – your time includes the time it takes you to backspace to fix your mistakes and re-type it correctly.

AQuantized 5y ago
I don't think it's bad for 'competitive' typing but it's nothing like the real process where fixing mistakes at the end is almost a triviality instead of completely derailing your typing.
- TehShrike 5y ago
  For most people, that involves relying on another service ("look to see what words have a red squiggly line under them"). It is not a good way to measure "typing speed".
masklinn 5y ago
That seems optimistic, odds are your typing flow will be interrupted as tou think about the mistake and go around to fix it, plus you likely only realise it a bit later and need either some movement or to remove entire words and retype them.