Can you take a timed typing test in Type?

Yes, you can. In Type by Zaweba the practice passages have an optional time limit of 1 to 5 minutes for adults, which turns any passage into a timed typing test. When the time is up you get a results card with your net words per minute, accuracy, time, stars and the keys that caused your mistakes.

Type is a free, offline touch-typing tutor for children and adults. Timed tests are only one part of it, alongside 30 lessons, drills on weak keys and two games, but they are a handy way to see where you stand.

Setting up a test

Choose one of the 13 built-in practice passages. They are openings from public-domain books first published before 1900, such as Alice, Pride and Prejudice and Moby-Dick. Set the time limit you want, anywhere from 1 to 5 minutes, and start typing.

A one-minute test tells you your speed in short bursts. Three or five minutes show whether your accuracy holds up when your hands start to tire, which is closer to what real typing at work or school feels like. If you skip the limit, you simply type to the end of the passage.

While you type, live speed, accuracy and a clock run along with you. Some people like to watch them; others find it easier to ignore them and look only at the result.

Reading the result card

The headline number is net words per minute. Underneath are accuracy, time, stars and your mistakes, with the keys that caused them. Gross words per minute appears in the adult results detail for anyone who wants to compare the two.

The list of problem keys is the most useful part. A timed test is a snapshot, and the snapshot tells you which keys slowed you down under pressure. Those are the ones to work on.

How the score is worked out

Type uses the standard method, the one published by speedtypingonline.com and used by typing.com. A word is any five characters, spaces and punctuation included. Gross speed is typed entries divided by five, over minutes. Net speed takes the same figure, subtracts the uncorrected errors, and divides by minutes, never going below zero. So every error you leave unfixed costs a whole word.

Accuracy is correct entries over all typed entries, so a mistake you go back and fix still counts against it, and it is rounded down, which means 99.5 percent shows as 99. Time runs from your first keystroke to your last. The Help menu has a page called How speed is worked out if you want the full explanation inside the app.

Making a test mean something

One result on its own says little. Take the same length of test a few times a week and the Progress page will show the trend, with speed and accuracy graphs over your last 30 sessions and a list of recent sessions. The heatmap on that page shades every key by error rate, so you can see whether the slow keys in your tests are the same ones every time.

When they are, Smart drill is the answer. It picks your five weakest keys and builds practice around them, using only keys you have learnt. Ten minutes there between tests usually shows up in the next result.

Other ways to race the clock

If a fixed-length test feels dry, try the games. Ghost race sets you against a replay of your own best run on a short passage, and any finished run at 85 percent accuracy or better that beats the ghost becomes the new one. Falling words asks you to type each word before it lands, speeding up every 8 words, with three lives and a best score kept.

For children, kid mode hides the clocks by default and the time limit is for adults, so a young typist isn't pushed into racing before they are ready.

Pick a passage, set two minutes and see what you get. Type by Zaweba will show you the number and, more usefully, what to practise next.