gizmobench

Typing Test with Stories

A typing test that gives you story passages instead of a word list: short pieces of narrative prose with commas, full stops, capitals and proper nouns, written for this site so there is nothing to attribute and nothing to license. Six passages ship with the page and they are drawn in a shuffled order, so a sixty second run takes you through three of them. The name of each passage on screen is shown under the test.

The clock starts on your first keystroke and runs for the duration shown. Backspace corrects. Press Escape to restart.
Run
Duration
Passage
Working
Net wpm
Accuracy

Short narrative passages written for this site, with ordinary punctuation and paragraph rhythm.

A clock counts down from the duration you pick and the score appears when it reaches zero.

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

Where do the passages come from?
They were written for this page. They are not extracts from published books, so there is no copyright question, and they were written to type well: ordinary punctuation, no dashes, no ellipses, no characters a standard keyboard does not have. Each one runs between 60 and 120 words and has a title, which appears under the test so you can tell which one you are on.
Why is typing prose harder than typing word lists?
Because of the shift key and the punctuation. A list of common words trains your fingers on the letters and nothing else, and most people's accuracy drops noticeably the first time they meet capitals, commas and full stops at speed. Prose is also less predictable: you cannot guess the next word from the last one, so you have to read ahead, which is what typing at work actually feels like.
How many passages are there, and do they repeat?
Six. They are drawn from a shuffled bag and the bag is refilled only when it runs out, so nothing repeats until everything else has been used. A five minute run needs about 1,200 words, which is more than the six passages hold, so a long run will come back round to one you have already seen.
Can I switch to something else?
Yes. The Passage control under the test offers common words, quotes, stories, code and numbers, and the Run control switches between a timed test, untimed practice and a ten sentence run. Whatever you pick is remembered in this browser for next time.
Is the scoring the same as the ordinary typing test?
Identical. Net words per minute with one word off for every error still standing, gross beside it, accuracy on first-try keystrokes, and consistency from second-by-second sampling. Punctuation counts as characters like anything else, so a passage with more commas in it is not scored differently.

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.