Speed Typing Tests
I began learning to type was when I was still in elementary around early 90’s I suppose. Back then I use a, now ancient, piece of device called a typewriter. For a child the keys on that contraption is somewhat hard, but I still learned to use it properly. I didn’t have a typing lesson and that I didn’t follow the rules of alignment in typing. That is, each specific keys (letters/characters) on the keyboard have a designated finger for it. But hey even if I only use 6 or 7 fingers max while typing I still get the job done.
Fast forward to the early 2000’s. After I graduated from college, I applied for so many jobs. Each of my applications are different and somewhat not related to each other, aside from the fact that I’m a computer science graduate and I’m more into programming. In one occasion, a “call center” company called me for an interview. Back then call centers were still new and not the in-thing. Anyway, they gave us a lot of tests during the interview and one of that is the speed typing test.
It was run on a dos/linux like interface. The style of the test was if you got a wrong letter it won’t input on the screen so you don’t need to use backspace. And only one sentence are shown each batch of typing. I didn’t knew that back then as I’m used to pressing backspace every time I know I made a mistake in my input. After the test, the score I got was the minimum required to pass the test, it was 35 WPM (words per minute). Passing means getting 35-40 WPM. I passed, but eventually I turned down the offer coz the work is at night shift.
Today. I tried the typing test again. I already tried this a couple of months back when I was still at the office. I remember Bheng, tried this over and over to get a high score. Haha.
I took the test 5 times to get my average. My scores, 59-58-70-65-62 gets an average of 62.8. Not bad considering my scores are fluctuating, I wonder why. That’s pretty far when I started applying for a job more than 4 years ago. Anyhow, these tests only measures a couple of seconds to a minute. So if you are typing a lot of words for long periods, your WPM may change and fluctuate eventually.
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