#How to Type Faster

Now if you already know what your rate of words per minute WPM and want to improve, but don’t know where to start, then keep reading.

There are five WPM levels and they all need different areas of training. Learning what to practice and how you can practice your typing will let you increase your WPM much quicker.

For reference, 40 WPM is the world’s average typing speed. Anyone who’s in this WPM threshold is most likely looking at their keyboard while they type and don’t type with all of their fingers. To improve in this category, you’ll want to master the keyboard layout and prioritize learning how to type without looking at the keyboard.

How to level up: No-look typing is an essential skill that you need to master before expecting to increase your WPM to the next level.

70 WPM is the average typing speed for professional typists. This WPM level is more about speed than accuracy. Now that you’re familiar with the keyboard enough to type comfortably without looking, ramping up the speed is the next step. You can practice this by quickly typing out one word at a time.

How to level up: Don’t think about typing a sentence, but think about typing one word as quickly as you can. Visualize the keyboard and train your fingers to immediately type out one letter after the other in quick succession. You can pause for a second between every word so that you can focus on the keys you’re about to press quickly.

If you can type this fast, then congratulations on typing much faster than most people. To increase your typing speed at this level, you’ll need to understand how to read and think differently when you practice typing. Normally, people read a word, type it out, and then continue. Typists who are nearing the 100 WPM holy grail read the next word while typing out the previous one.

How to level up: Essentially, you should be building the confidence to continue reading to the next word even though you’re still typing out the previous word. This removes the subtle pause between words where your hands do nothing because your brain is still checking if you typed out the word correctly. At this level, you should already be reading the next word as you type, relying on your confidence that you’ll get the word right.

For those of you who have already made it this far, you’re in one of the highest tiers of typing speeds. Typists at this point are either fast but make mistakes, or are slower than they could yet remain accurate.

How to level up: You need to polish either your speed or accuracy to reach past 110 WPM. If you’re a fast typist but still make mistakes as you type, try to type at a comfortable pace without any mistakes. Get a perfect score twice at your comfortable pace and then go for a quicker pace while maintaining accuracy on your third try.

On the other hand, if accuracy is your strong point, then you’ll need to brute force your way to type faster. Don’t be afraid to make mistakes. You’ll settle into the pacing and speed without a hitch anyway.

Typists at this level are just monsters. If you’re already hitting a steady 120 WPM, you should pat yourself on the back. Typists who still want to improve here can only do so through a couple of ways.

• Continue practicing more and increasing your speed slowly.
• Invest in a better keyboard.
• Make sure your typing posture and position is ideal.

Although a lot of typing enthusiasts will recommend that you type with your left hand on ASDF and right hand on JKL; (also called the “home row” keys)—it’s not that simple.

If you’re already a fast typist and just want to continue improving, you don’t have to change your finger alignment. You can easily hit 100 to 120 WPM on non-conventional finger alignments, and even 130 to 140 WPM if you practice hard enough.

However, for those of you who are still slow and are struggling to hit 50 WPM, then learning the ropes to proper finger alignments will be good for you.

Just keep in mind that typing can be fun. Even if you aren’t using the traditional home row, you can still type incredibly quickly. For reference, my left fingers are usually on the AERH keys and my right fingers stay at MO[ and I type at a comfortable 130 WPM on the monkeytype keyboarding website.

Learning to type fast is a geeky skill that has prompted the online community to create several websites for practice. There are a lot of websites out there, and some differ in their approach to developing your skills. Here are the three main types of practice websites that you can use:

• Pure typing – doesn’t require punctuations and capitalizations. You just type word after word in lowercase.
• Sentence typing – involves sentences from books, movies, and song lyrics. These are complete with punctuations and capitalizations.
• Corrective typing – lets you type out jumbled words that don’t exist, helping you to correct your typing one letter at a time.

These three types of practice websites have their pros and cons, but it’s ultimately up to you. Although learning to type faster is important, it’s easier to practice when you think of typing as a game. It’s all about pressing buttons accurately and quickly, then a score will show you how well you did at the end.

Here are three standard practice websites that you should try.