gizmobench

Practice Typing

Typing practice with nothing counting down. The page opens in the untimed mode: a long passage, your net speed and accuracy updating as you type, and no clock deciding when you have to stop. Press Finish when you want the full scorecard, or Escape at any point for a fresh passage. It is the same scoring as the timed test, worked over however long you actually spent.

No clock: type for as long as you like and press Finish to score the run. Backspace corrects. Press Escape to restart.
Run
Passage
Working
Net wpm
Accuracy

Three hundred of the most common English words, in random order.

No clock. Speed and accuracy update as you type, and you finish when you decide to.

Net and gross are both real, and they differ. Gross counts every character you typed at five characters a word, mistakes included. Net takes off one word for every mistake still standing when time runs out, which is the convention employment typing tests use. Both are shown here, so a number from this page will not surprise you when somebody else tests you. Nothing you type is uploaded: the passage is bundled with the page and the scoring runs in your browser.

Common questions

How is practice different from the timed test?
Nothing counts down and nothing ends the run for you. The timed test scores you over its clock whether or not you used all of it; practice is scored over the time you actually spent, from your first keystroke to the moment you press Finish. The header shows how long you have been going so the speed has a denominator, but it is a stopwatch, not a deadline.
How do I get my score?
Press Finish, in the row of controls under the passage. You get net and gross words per minute, accuracy, the split between mistakes you corrected and mistakes you left standing, and how steady your pace was second by second. Until then, net speed and accuracy update live in the header as you type.
How long is the practice passage?
Five minutes of typing at 240 words a minute, which is well past any recorded human speed, so it does not run out under anyone. If you do want a different one, press Escape or Restart and a fresh passage is drawn from the same source.
What should I practise on?
The Passage control offers five sources and they train different things. Common words build raw speed on the letters. Quotes and Stories add capitals, commas and full stops, which is where most people lose accuracy. Code gives you the brackets, quotes and semicolons prose never asks for. Numbers drill the number row and the keypad.
Does practice save my progress?
Your best net speed in practice mode is kept in this browser, alongside your bests at each timed duration, and it appears in the result panel after a run. It is on this device only and clearing site data removes it. Nothing you type is stored or uploaded at any point.
Does correcting mistakes hurt my score?
It costs time, not net speed. Backspace is not counted as a keystroke, so going back to fix a letter removes the error from the net penalty. It still counts against accuracy, because the wrong key was pressed, which is why the result shows errors made and errors left standing as separate figures.

Net WPM subtracts one word for every uncorrected error, the convention used by employer tests; gross WPM counts everything typed at five characters a word. Timing uses the browser clock and starts on your first keystroke, so the first second is never lost.