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  1. #1

    Can you type -- correctly? -- and how'd you learn?

    And if not, how do you type?

    Just wondering.

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Nov 2012
    Yes, 80 WPM, 7th grade typing course.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Mar 2007
    Location
    Back in Vegas... again.
    Funny you should ask, because it's been a point of interest lately. I'm curious to see what others have to say.

    I took a half-year (or was it full year?) typing class in high school, which was a lifetime ago. I can still type fairly well, but being in law school now, I notice all the youngins, shall we say, blow me out of the water with their speed. I'm looking for ways to speed up my typing (and accuracy, some, but that's fairly ok) for exam purposes, but don't want to relearn how to type from scratch since I'm getting by fairly well at the moment.

    Interested in hearing others' thoughts.

    Edit: I type about 50-60 wpm.

  4. #4
    Quote Originally Posted by jay View Post
    Yes, 80 WPM, 7th grade typing course.
    Was that a full-year course? I've never heard of it given so young. And that's some serious speed -- maybe learning so well at a younger age helped?

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    Location
    Ashburn, VA
    Quote Originally Posted by jay View Post
    Yes, 80 WPM, 7th grade typing course.
    Quote Originally Posted by Reilly View Post
    Was that a full-year course? I've never heard of it given so young. And that's some serious speed -- maybe learning so well at a younger age helped?
    It was the same for me - I signed up for "Keyboarding" as an elective in 7th grade and learned to type quite well and fast there. It was only a half-year class though.

    However, this was right before having PC's in one's home and needing to type on them became commonplace, so it seems like 7th grade would it would be pretty late today. Especially since I see 2 year old's playing around with iPad's, hah.


    Unfortunately, I made an attempt to switch to Dvorak style keyboard at the beginning of college - this lasted about 2 years until I finally got sick of being unable to use any other keyboard besides my own (or having to go through a long process to change someone else's and then put it back when I was done). While it is certainly easier on your finger joints, it was just too much of a hassle to deal with in the end. And the really sad part is, when I switched back to normal QWERTY, my accuracy and WPM were much lower than they had been before the change.

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    Location
    Walnut Creek, California
    As a 14 year-old boy I was sent to a summer class at a business school. I learned on office-style upright manual Remingtons and Smith-Coronas. They had steep keyboards. I was OK for a long time after that. But when I got to law school and decided to type my notes, my accuracy diminished as the keyboard flattened out on my portable Olivetti. I later went back to an electric portable Smith-Corona, but my feel was gone.

    With flat computer keyboards and extra keys, I am now all over the place--not very fast and not very accurate. I don't need to hunt, but I only peck with about five fingers. I often hit the right key, but not hard enough to register. (On the manuals, you knew instantly when it didn't strike and avoided continuing.) Hooray for spell check. I was much better at 14. Almost sixty years later, I'm glad I'm retired and don't need to make a living by typing. (But I did a lot of rough drafts as an author of legal works; nice to have secretaries who could proof-read.)

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Nov 2007
    Location
    Raleigh, NC
    Quote Originally Posted by Reilly View Post
    Was that a full-year course? I've never heard of it given so young. And that's some serious speed -- maybe learning so well at a younger age helped?
    I'm pretty sure I took my typing course in 6th grade at Lowe's Grove (would have been...1999 I think), but I was a pretty proficient typer (I know that isn't a word but I will not refer to myself as a typist or whatever it is supposed to be) before that. I fell in love with the computer my mom got when I was 5, and as far as I was concerned all those stupid typing games were just as good as any other video game.

    Edit: This piqued my curiosity...just found a random online site for testing typing speed and clocked in at 81 wpm...I suspect that when I'm typing something that isn't gibberish it might be a tad better. The other guys in my office (all fifty somethings) are constantly complaining about how fast I type when I'm working...all the key clacking is distracting apparently! On the flip side of that, although I don't care what people do in general, it is borderline unbearable for me to help someone with a computer issue when they are doing the two finger poke to type everything in.
    Last edited by Acymetric; 06-16-2014 at 01:27 AM.

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    Location
    Norfolk, VA
    I successfully completed Typing Class in the 9th grade with 35 wpm the benchmark on a manual typewriter. I made it - barely. Computers make it easy, I type away for a couple of paragraphs and then go back and fix my mistakes.
    Bob Green

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    Location
    I moved. Now 12 miles from Heaven, 13 from Hell
    Typing was a required class in 8th grade back in 1973-74. Proably the best class of junior high, at least one that I found extremely valuable.

    Got to about 70 WPM. When I was at Duke, I had some extra time after finals, and typed a paper for my cousin. Another guy in the dorm, now a corporate lawyer, complained that my typing talent was lost on an engineer. The next year, the IBM PC came out.

  10. #10
    Typing sophomore year in HS('87). I never got much over 40 WPM.

  11. #11
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    Location
    Greenville, SC
    High school typing class back in the day of electric typewriters. 80 wpm.

    I saved/made a good bit of money typing papers in college.

  12. #12
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    Location
    Cary, NC
    I had a typing class in high school. junior year I believe (Senior year was computer applications). I got up to between 80 and 100 wpm. I worked doing typesetting for the weekly newspaper during the summers after that so I had to be fast and accurate (typed up hand written columns and stories on an old mac classic with the 9 inch screen). I can't use one of the "ergonomic" keyboards because of learning on a typewriter. My form has slipped in the last 25 years, but I still go pretty good.
    Duke '96
    Cary, NC

  13. #13
    We learned in our 4th and 5th grade computer class (1996/97). I think my elementary school must have gotten some sort of grant because I remember friends who went to other schools not knowing how to type when we got to middle school because they didn't have full blown computer labs. I think they started doing the typing course in 2nd and 3rd grade after that. Yahoo had a game called Typer Shark that was popular in middle school if we ever got free reign of the computers for a class period which really improved my speed and accuracy.

  14. #14
    Join Date
    Jun 2008
    Location
    Asheville, NC
    Took a keyboarding class senior year in high school. The single best decision of my high school career. Saved so much time once I got to college. I got up to about 50-60 words a minute.

  15. #15
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    Location
    Seattle, WA
    I attempted to learn in elementary school with a computer program - Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing. It never stuck. I am able to use all my fingers when I'm typing (although the pinkies are reserved almost exclusively for the shift key), and I type often enough that my own method is pretty quick, but it's definitely not proper touch typing.
    Just be you. You is enough. - K, 4/5/10, 0:13.8 to play, 60-59 Duke.

    You're all jealous hypocrites. - Titus on Laettner

    You see those guys? Animals. They're animals. - SIU Coach Chris Lowery, on Duke

  16. #16
    I am a terrible typist. High school summer class where the teacher announced that eyebrows exist to stop sweat from dripping into eyes in the non-airconditioned room. It was truly embarrassing. The sweat and the horrible typing.
    Nothing incites bodily violence quicker than a Duke fan turning in your direction and saying 'scoreboard.'

  17. #17
    Join Date
    Nov 2012
    Quote Originally Posted by Reilly View Post
    Was that a full-year course? I've never heard of it given so young. And that's some serious speed -- maybe learning so well at a younger age helped?
    I seem to recall it was a semester. I think you're right that learning at such a young age helped to sear it into my brain.

    The speed has been acquired over the years. I'm a writer, so the faster I type, the more money I make!

  18. #18
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    Location
    Durham, NC
    Took typing in 9th grade on the old typewriters that you had to pound the hell out of to get it to type. Made for very strong pinkies. Practiced at home on my parents' IBM Selectric III and used the correction ribbon up erasing all the extra letters (from pounding the hell out of the keys). I am a pretty good typist, though I have no idea what my WPM score would be. Most of my typos look like I'm dyslexic, though it's really just from typing too fast. My handwriting now? That's another story. Used to be pristine, I would have it no other way. Now, it's pure chicken scratch that I can barely read. And I did not go to medical school.

  19. #19
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    Location
    St. Louis
    High school typing class. 40 years ago. I don't think we had the same alphabet then.

  20. #20
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    Location
    Brooklet, GA
    I took typing as a senior in high school, because those classes were absolutely loaded with freshman and sophomore girls. I spent the whole term trying to get a kiss from one of the frosh, and somehow picked up typing skills along the way.

    I use it everyday and I always say that I type 120 words per minute, but 40 of them are backspaces.
    Last edited by jacone21; 06-16-2014 at 05:26 PM. Reason: grammar

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