The Gettysburg Address

This text as typing material

Length

30 words

Characters

176

At 40 WPM

53 s

Shift presses

2

Punctuation marks

4

176 characters count as 35 exam words, so 40 WPM finishes it in about 53 seconds and 60 WPM in 35. It asks for 2 capitals and 4 punctuation marks (commas, periods), which is where a test of common words never takes you. The longest word is “proposition”, and the less common letters Q, V all appear.

More openings

• Henry David Thoreau · 1854

  Walden

• Jane Austen · 1813

  Pride and Prejudice

• Robert Louis Stevenson · 1883

  Treasure Island

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.