To improve typing speed, learn touch typing so you don't look at the keys, practise accuracy before speed, and train 15 to 20 minutes a day rather than for long, rare sessions. Track your words per minute (WPM) and accuracy weekly. Most people can see clear gains in a few weeks of regular practice.
Step 1: measure your starting point
Take a one-minute test and write down your speed and accuracy. Our free typing speed test at /typing-test needs no account. Test on a normal keyboard, in your usual posture, and repeat it once so you don't judge yourself on a bad attempt. This is your baseline.
Step 2: fix posture and hand position
- Sit upright with your feet flat, and your forearms roughly level with the keyboard.
- Keep wrists relaxed and floating, not resting hard on the desk edge.
- Place your fingers on the home row: A S D F for the left hand, J K L ; for the right. The small bumps on F and J help you find the position without looking.
- Use the thumb for the space bar.
Step 3: learn which finger covers which keys
Each finger has an area. The left index finger covers F, R, T, G, V, B and the right index covers J, U, Y, H, N, M. The middle, ring and little fingers handle the columns outward. Learn the map slowly and always return to the home row. This is touch typing, and the habit of not looking at the keyboard is the biggest single gain for most people.
Step 4: accuracy first, then speed
Speed built on errors stalls, because you spend time correcting. Type at a speed where you make very few mistakes. When you reach about 95 per cent accuracy or higher on a text, nudge the pace up a little. Resist the urge to look down: if you must, cover your hands with a cloth or a box lid.
A 4-week plan
| Week | Daily practice (15 to 20 min) | Goal |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Home row and top row drills, slow typing without looking | Know where every letter is |
| 2 | Bottom row, common words and short sentences | Smooth, accurate typing at a comfortable pace |
| 3 | Full paragraphs, numbers and punctuation, 5 min of faster pushes | Raise speed while keeping accuracy high |
| 4 | Real-world text: your notes, essays, subject vocabulary, plus a timed 1 min test | Re-test and compare to your baseline |
Step 5: practise little and often
Motor skills improve with regular, focused practice and sleep between sessions. Fifteen minutes every day beats two hours on Sunday. Stop when your accuracy drops or your hands tense up, since practice with poor form can cement errors.
Step 6: practise on text you actually type
Generic drills use common words. If you are a student, you also type subject vocabulary: terms, names and formulas. Typing your own notes or lessons trains the exact words you will need in an essay or an online exam, and it doubles as revision. Just make sure you think about the meaning as you type.
Habits that slow people down
- Looking at the keyboard. It breaks rhythm and prevents speed.
- Using only a few fingers (hunt and peck). It may work for a while but caps your speed.
- Correcting every error immediately when you are doing speed practice. Try to keep going and fix the pattern later, unless the test needs a clean text.
- Tense shoulders and hammering keys. Light, even strokes are faster and less tiring.
How fast should you aim to be?
It depends on what you need. For notes and essays, 40 to 60 WPM at high accuracy is a comfortable target for many students. See our guide on what a good typing speed is for ranges. Do not chase a number at the cost of accuracy.
Tracking progress
Test once a week, not daily, and look at the trend. Plateaus are normal: speed often stalls for a week or two and then jumps. If you stall for long, check accuracy and technique.
Exercises worth doing
Home row only: type words such as flask, salad and glad until your fingers move without effort. Common words: type the 100 most common English words in different orders. Weak keys: note the letters you miss most and build short drills around them. Bursts: type a sentence at slightly above comfortable speed, then repeat at your normal speed, which often feels easier. Copy practice: retype a paragraph from your notes with your eyes on the page, not the keyboard.
Does the keyboard matter?
A little. Most people type faster on a keyboard they know well. Laptop keyboards, mechanical keyboards and thin keyboards feel different, so practise on the type you will use in an exam. Do not buy new equipment to fix a technique problem.
Can I improve on a phone?
Phone typing is a separate skill with its own habits. Touch typing applies to a physical keyboard. If your exams or coursework are on a computer, practise there.
Practice that doubles as study
Type to Study has a Type mode in which a lesson from your own course appears on an index card and you type over it, with words per minute and accuracy shown. It is not a touch-typing course, so learn the basic finger positions first, but it is a way to combine speed practice with revision. The free typing test at /typing-test will tell you where you start.