typingtest : Free Typing Tests Online
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Take the FREE Typing Test and measure your Typing speed!
Type the exercise paragraph exactly as shown and click the TEST ME! button when finished. Your Typing speed and accuracy will be measured automatically by the server, and a performance evaluation will be displayed along with your typing speed.
you (or they) may also get an optional Typing Certificate with online typing speed verification and a professional Typing Certification document suitable for framing after the typing tests.
To get your Typing Certificate, take the Typing Test at least FIVE times, your five highest speeds will be averaged to determine your certified typing speed.
Once issued, your Typing Certification can be verified by others online (click here for an example). You will receive by postal mail a professional Certificate document suitable for framing, that contains your best typing speeds and your online verification Certificate ID. Certificate documents are delivered by US mail in 4 to 7 working days (most US locations, international delivery times vary).
- Security features on authentic original Learn2Type.com certification documents include:
- Crisp printed border in green (copies will appear smudged);
- Micro-print background to prevent erasure or alteration;
- Circular Learn2Type.com raised seal on the lower left.
After the invention of the manual typewriter, towards the end of the nineteenth century people began to develop typing skills. Many arguments raged over which method of typing and what size of keyboard should be used. One technique was touch-typing, which was learning where the letters were on the keyboard and using all fingers while looking at the paper. This involved operating a single keyboard.
The second was based around the double keyboard and involved using two or four fingers while still looking at the keys. A double keyboard has twice the amount of keys, with the capitals above and lowercase below. Both claimed to be the fastest way to type. This dispute was finally resolved when a Mr. McGurrin (an advocater of touch-typing) and a Mr. Tubb, had a competition using the two methods.
The challenge took place in Cincinnati in July 1888 and attracted worldwide attention. The winner was Mr. Gurin who beat Mr. Tubb with ease and at the same time introduced the method that would be used by typists in various forms from then on.
Though this argument had been settled it did not stop the competitions. Many typewriter manufacturers saw the potential of selling their products by creating typing challenges and the craze continued. However, one person and one type of machine prevailed. Charles. E. Smith continually won the speed-typing competition on an Underwood machine until the public lost interest and the contests stopped.
QWERTY refers to the most common form of layout of letters found on the keyboard of a typewriter or computer. The name refers to the first six letters at the top of the board. The initial idea and later development of this design came from one of the first pioneers of the typewriter, Christopher Sholes, who invented the first commercially successful machine. The original layout of letters was in an ABC format, but Sholes found this continually jammed his typewriters. To solve the problem, he asked his brother-in-law, a mathematician, to work out an arrangement that would for most of the time prevent the bars from clashing. Sholes later claimed that this was a highly 'scientific arrangement'. From this the QWERTY idea was evolved in 1873.
It has been argued that Sholes' intention in creating such a keyboard was not to produce a more efficient machine but to slow down the typist deliberately so that the flaws in his typewriter were never seen! Either way the QWERTY keyboard is still with us today. Attempts have been made to alter the design but none has been successful at winning over public opinion. Other designs have included one by Dr. August Dvorak, who attempted to simplify the keyboardand increase speed typing by 35%. However, like others before him, his ideas were not well received. He claimed changing the keyboard format was like proposing to "reverse the Ten Commandments and the Golden Rule, discard every moral principle, and ridicule motherhood"!
Those machines which adopted the accepted design, such as the Underwood,proved successful; those who tried to break with tradition, such as the Hammond typewriter, generally failed.
The job of the typist has always been dominated by women. The reason for this dates back to the 1880's when typewriters were beginning to appear in the workplace. This new source of employment was one that many men did not want to enter because the wages were low.
It was in America that the idea of employing women to type was first formed. In 1881 the Young Women’s Christian Association bought six typewriters and began a typing class for eight women. Within five years 60,000 were working throughout the United States.
As typing classes began to develop, some typewriting manufacturers' including Remington, began to set up their own schools. It was within these schools that the skill of shorthand began to be taught alongside the all-finger touch-typing technique. In some cases companies would train up women and then offer their skills when selling their machines to an office.
The evolution of women in the office has had impact on the development of women's rights in all areas of professional life. Before the advent of the typist most women were working in shops, factories or domestic service. Only if they had received a high level of education could women improve their prospects by pursuing nursing or teaching. With the development of the typist and typing-pools, women could take up a 'respectable’ job which did not demand such high levels of education.
The increasing number of women in the workplace cannot just be explained by the development of the typewriter. What the machine did do was establish a role that (or this, whichever) allowed further opportunities to grow. However, there was also a drawback to the rise of the typist. Many women began to be sterotyped as only able to carry out this level of work and had to struggle to improve their position.
Fun Historic Facts
1. One of the first times a typewriter was mentioned in a fictional book was in the Sherlock Holmes detective story 'A case of Identity' written in 1892. Holmes solved the mystery by identifying the impostor's typewriter.
2. Mark Twain, the American novelist, was the first known author to submit a typed manuscript. He was supposed to have typed his most famous story, 'Tom Sawyer', but it is more likely to have been 'Life on the Mississippi'. Twain’s typewriter was a Remington No.1, invented by Christopher Sholes and Carlos Glidden.
3. During World War One, secret writing machines were developed which wrote unintelligible text. This information could then be deciphered on the same type of machine. Many attempts were made to break the codes written by the secret writing machines.
4. During World War Two, the Japanese thought that like they had created the perfect secret writing machines, thinking their codes were unbreakable. However, the Americans did manage to break them, and Japanese war secrets were discovered.
5. The Science Museum's collection includes a Japanese typewriter ca. 1930, which has to accommodate thousands of characters. These characters are called ideograms, which are used instead of letters. One example within the collection includes several trays of ideograms, with each tray containing 2,380 separate ones. Each ideogram is placed within the typewriter and a print is made onto the paper.
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Typing Test