To start, keep your fingers positioned over the home row keys (left hand over the A, S, D, and F keys, and the right hand over the J, K, L, and keys), with your thumbs hovering over the space bar. When practicing your typing skills, it’s important to use proper hand placement. This is much more efficient than hunt-and-peck the average person types at an average of 40 words per minute, but a person who relies on the touch-type method can exceed 75 words per minute, allowing them to complete their work much more quickly and with minimal errors.Īs you prepare to enter the workforce, here are some pointers to improve your own typing skills: 1.) Use the correct starting position The preferred typing method is known as touch-type, or typing without looking at the screen. Mobile technology, such as tablets and smartphones, have also increased reliance on hunt-and-peck strategies. However, without proper training and practice, many individuals resort to hunt-and-peck typing, or looking down at the keyboard to select the right keys one-by-one.

Some schools have stopped teaching typing altogether, assuming students already possess the skills necessary to be successful in the modern workplace, according to an article in MIT’s Technology Review. In today’s technology-driven world, students and young adults become familiar with computers at an early age.

Accuracy is equally as important as speed, as a simple typo could result in a system-wide error. Information technology professionals, for example, must be efficient typists in order to write code for computer and software programs. Most, if not all, careers involve some computer-based work and require strong typing skills.

Typing master online practice test