Understanding the Analysis of your Current Typing
Hi there!
If you have measured your current typing style (for instance, ahead of a StarTouch training event) you will probably have been sent a graph & some statistics relating to your current typing style.
Something a bit like this:
If you haven’t received anything like this, please feel free to email info@startouch.co.uk to ask for it.
These notes
Read these notes (especially ahead of any training, if you’re due to attend) to find out…
. Why measuring your current typing style is useful
(it will also be useful to measure your new skill practice later, after any training you do)
. What main information the online app records (and how)
. What to look for in your any graph/stats you have been sent
. Possible further insights about how you reacted to using the app
As you read, you can pick up various implications (in blue) about the Learning experience and Practice Path you have ahead of you as a course participant!
Why measure?
Many people think their typing is (insert your own choice of words here: “average”; “really slow”; “fast but error prone”; “accurate but laborious” etc…)
But very few people actually know how they type – in absolute, objective and quantitative (numerical) terms.
So it can be very interesting to see clear, hard facts; a measurement of your current typing style.
It is certainly useful to have a ‘stake in the ground’ if you’re participating in a programme soon – a benchmark for comparing your ‘before’ situation with the ‘after’!
What will the app have measured?
Some benefits of touch typing (good posture, relaxation, mental focus, confidence) are easy for a person to perceive, but very hard for a computer to measure.
However, what a computer can measure (and the StarTouch Tracker does) are two ‘metrics’ which are more obvious and just as important.
Speed and Accuracy
Speed – recorded as ‘wpm’ (words per minute)
The app times each separate ‘burst’ of typing you do in the text box – from when you start until when you press the Enter key (or click the ‘Stop Timer’ button, but pressing Enter is quicker!).
Your new skill will start much slower than your current style. Through repeated, accurate & frequent practice (and only through such practice!) you will build speed and in due course approach, match & later almost certainly exceed your current speed.
“Accuracy” – as a percentage of your typing activity (%)
The app doesn’t know what you’re typing – so it can’t know whether you’ve typed it right or wrong! But it monitors all the editing you do… and it assumes this was you noticing & fixing wrong keystrokes. This, combined with any obvious typos in your eventual text is calculated as an estimated “Accuracy” score.
However accurate you are at the moment, the StarTouch training will, as you start to build your new skill, help you to aim really high. 100% accurate! Or very, very close.
Why aim for 100%? …because mistakes don’t only slow you down; they can also distract & frustrate you. Also, scores that would sound good for exams (80%, 90%) just aren’t good enough for a physical skill you need to depend upon. Imagine “keeping your car on the road” only 95% of the time?! Surely most of us would aim for 100% in that context? We want the same reliability for your typing. Absolute minimal waste of time and effort on errors!
Review your own results
In the graph/stats you were sent, check the numbers in the “Grand Total” of the statistics table:
If your current Average Accuracy is recorded as:
99% or 100%? Great stuff! This is the level of quality you’ll be transferring to your new typing style.
90-98%? That’s pretty good. But not good enough for us. We’ll get you to aim EVEN HIGHER!
Less than 90%? Stand by to learn how to adopt a very different outlook: one which proclaims “Accuracy is KING!”
The StarTouch training will help you learn how to aim for the best without putting yourself under undue pressure. It’ll show you ways to ‘shrug off’ errors & redouble your focus to be Right. Next. Time. But in a cool, calm, collected way!
If your current average SPEED is:
50 wpm or more?
This is very respectable. Way faster than most non-touch-typists. And faster even than some touch typists. But that doesn’t mean that in due course, you might not get well beyond your current average. Touch typists can often reach speeds of 60, 70 or 80 wpm – or even more. And remember: you may reap other benefits* even before you exceed your current speed.
35-50 wpm?
Generally around, or a little higher than, the speeds of most non-touch-typists. But lower than the sort of speeds that many touch typists can reach. What if you could raise your average typing speed by another 50-70%??? And remember: you may reap other benefits* even before you exceed your current speed.
25-35 wpm?
You’re around, or a little below, the average speed for most non-touch-typists. You stand to see a huge benefit from cranking up your speed to even modest touch typing speeds like 40 or 50 wpm. And, once you’re doing it the right way, you may find the speed limit’s been abolished and you could accelerate further!
Meanwhile: you may reap other benefits* even before you exceed your current speed.
Less than 25%?
You are in the BEST POSITION EVER!!! Life is good. ☺ Embedding touch typing as a new habit will of course take time and effort.
BUT… for you, the new way is likely to overtake the old speed much sooner than for those who are currently faster. Which means you can fully switch to touch typing before too long! And all the while: there are other benefits* you’ll be reaping as you build your speed.
The slower you currently type, the sooner your new skill is likely to match and exceed your old skill.
The faster you are currently, the more patience you’ll need as you embed your new style: it will take a noticeable period of time until your new skill gets up to 30, 40, 50 wpm or more. Though not as long as you might fear (if you build the skill the right way – the way StarTouch trains you to!)
Other benefits
* Everyone who implements touch typing will probably notice, and appreciate, other benefits much sooner than speed (speed is likely to be the last thing to establish itself).
For instance, long before you achieve high speed, you may be hooked on the advantages of high accuracy, for instance – not to mention the “hard to measure” benefits: good posture, relaxed mind, and mental focus on the content, recipients & purpose of your typing, rather than the process of pressing keys with fingers!
Additional insights?
At StarTouch we don’t like talking about “testing” your typing – because using our app isn’t a “test”. You don’t pass or fail. You don’t have to meet a set standard etc… So it’s not a “test”.
It just measures how things are. Like when scientists make observations & measurements. It’s simply a way of gathering data about something.
However… people often find they perceive it as a test. And the app can show a ‘performance profile’ that may somewhat reflect your reaction to perceived ‘test’ conditions.
It can be interesting to see a reflection of how you performed when doing some measured typing…
The profiles are shown by two straight ‘trend lines’ across the graph: Accuracy in blue, Speed in green.
A performance ‘profile’ will NOT be visible IF your graph… has a single green column, like this:
Your graph will look like this if you only did one ‘burst’ of typing (even if it consisted of several sentences) like this:
“This morning I got up at 7:50 and then went downstairs and had a cup of tea and watched the news. I looked at my emial form work adn aswered a few of these. I preared to travel to see a mother on a vist at about 10am. It was in Winnersh which was not too far b and quite straightforward but got a bit lost anyway.”
You WILL see a ‘profile’ (to compare with those below) IF your graph… has multiple vertical green columns, like this:
This happens if you did multiple SEPARATE bits of typing, pressing Enter between each sentence, like this:
“I went to work today.”
“The weather putside is brilliant.”
“I have lots of work to do.”
“The tiver runs through the east og the forest.”
“Bill and Ben are Flower Pot Men”
Again, remember: this is not a “test”. So there’s no right or wrong profile, necessarily.
Nor is recording a profile necessary before your training.
Some common profiles (for you to compare yours to) include:
“Settling
Down”
Both trend lines rising: Accuracy & Speed generally improve during
the ‘test’ – maybe the sign of someone who ‘gets into their stride’ or
‘settles down to the task at hand’ as they keep going?
“No Change”
Trend lines generally fairly horizontal: consistent Accuracy & Speed
throughout – perhaps someone who is unaffected by any sense of
pressure and not unduly influenced by how their performance
goes?
“Falling
Apart”
Accuracy & Speed trend lines both decline as the ‘test’ continues –
perhaps this is someone who feels the ‘pressure’ building as they
proceed and may be adversely affected by making errors – it all
‘gets to them’ a bit as they continue?
“Slow Down
to Get it
Right”
Speed trend declines – a bit or a lot – but Accuracy trend
improves – maybe this is someone who goes more carefully
in order to improve on past slips?
An additional benefit of the StarTouch training MAY be some great hints and tips on how to manage
pressure – and perform ‘slicker’ and more consistently.
I hope you find this interesting.
I’m looking forward to meeting you at the Training.
Jonathan Stevens – Principal Trainer