A Christmas Carol

This text as typing material

Length

34 words

Characters

195

At 40 WPM

59 s

Shift presses

4

Punctuation marks

8

195 characters count as 39 exam words, so 40 WPM finishes it in about 59 seconds and 60 WPM in 39. It asks for 4 capitals and 8 punctuation marks (colons, periods, commas), which is where a test of common words never takes you. The longest word is “undertaker”, and the less common letters K, V all appear.

More openings

• Charlotte Bronte · 1847

  Jane Eyre

• Charles Dickens · 1850

  David Copperfield

• Lewis Carroll · 1865

  Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

Keep going

• Typing test

  Gross and net WPM, accuracy and keystrokes per hour — the figures typing exams use.

• Typing lessons

  Fifteen short lessons, two new keys at a time, with the keyboard showing which finger goes where.

• Weak keys

  A drill built from the keys you miss most, worked out from your own tests.

• Times tables

  Each table with its patterns, a drill that returns to what you got wrong, and a 60-second speed test.