Little girl can type 119wpm

This little girl can type 119 wpm. It's not just a skill, it's a hobby. She started playing on the computer at age 4 and spends her weekends typing. Her goal right now? "I'd like to get to at least 200(wpm)."

While this may sound strange, I can understand the allure of the type test — when I was in middle school, I used to procrastinate from studying by taking type tests on my super old Apple machine. It's really not that different from any other addictive game — most of us now associate it with work, but back then I was constantly trying to beat myself in speed and accuracy. By the way, if you're curious to know how fast you're typing, you can take a one-minute typing test here.

[via Mashable]

• [apoxia]

  Net Speed: 65 WPM
  Accuracy: 92%
  Gross Speed: 70 WPM

  I believe that I type substantially faster when typing self-generated text – such as writing an email or an article, or a blog comment. I spend almost none of my time copying text onto my computer. I wonder of the validity of these automated tests to actually tell me what my typing speed is in a day-to-day typing context. Either way, it’s fast enough for me and I can touch type which is also very useful.

• [Cactaur]

  Hello carpal tunnel!

• [Anonymous]

  I teach computer class for 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders. I type about 70 WPM but don’t really do much typing other than casual these days. I think I was a little bit faster in high school but not much. Anyway, in the 7 years I’ve been in that classroom the fastest kid I’ve had was 42 WPM with little to no errors. When each kids finishes their lessons for the year I challenge them to a typing race at typingtest.com. I’ve yet to lose! Yes, I need 8, 9, and 10 year olds to make me feel like I’ve done something with my life. Thanks guys and gals.

• [Anonymous]

  My friends and co-workers said I type too loud on clicky keyboards. They complained about it!! :(

• [Anonymous]

  dvorak? please, if u want to type, get a querty, thats real typing.. and of course shes using querty, no school has dvorak, and if they do its not a real school!

• [deejayqueue]

  First off, I don’t like typing tests because they aren’t representative of the different kinds of typing that there are. If I had to rank, I’d say from fastest to slowest:

  1. Thought-to-hands stuff, typing letters to family, IM conversations, emails, etc.

  2. Oral dictation

  3. Retyping printed hard copy

  4. Typing hand-written copy

  When you have to read what you’re typing for the first time, you can’t concentrate on speed as much as when you’re typing what’s already in your mind or a phrase or paragraph you already know. It makes it all the more difficult when you have to decipher someone else’s handwriting on top of all that.

  All that said, I scored a 71 gross with 92% accuracy. I’d consider that a “not too shabby.”

  Bonus: I was always told that QWERTY was developed to keep the oft typed letters on alternating hands, or at least far enough apart that they wouldn’t bind in the typewriter carriage. Not necessarily to slow typists down, but to make it easier on the machines.

  • [xaxa]

    70wpm on a netbook using Dvorak. On my nice keyboard it’d probably be about 85.
    (I made some mistakes, but all were because I typed British style punctuation rather than US style (or rather, “U.S. style”).

    I don’t type using Dvorak for speed, but for comfort. My fingers move a lot less.

    @deejayqueue
    Making this up as I go along, try touch typing “watery pumpkin juice deserves junking” on a Qwerty keyboard. Now try coming up with something that obscene on a Dvorak layout and tell me which layout was optimised for, well, anything.
    (FWIW, the Qwerty keys that produce “watery pumpkin juice deserves junking” when the layout is Dvorak are “,akdot rfmrvgl cfgid hd;do.d; cflvglu”, which is much nicer to type)

• [Talia]

  98 wpm, 100% accuracy. ( I scored identicaly three times I took it. I think I can do better, but its late..).

  I too used mavis beacon when I was young, but I’m pretty sure it was getting addicted to MUDding during my college years that honed my speed.

• [jtegnell]

  Torley:

  If it means anything, I’ve been playing string instruments since early childhood, and, playing straight-ahead jazz bass, I’ve got technical facility I rarely see in others on that instrument.

  Meanwhile, I type with thumbs and index fingers only and have to look at the keyboard while I’m typing.

  But that’s me.

• [thermidorthelobster]

  My oh my, aren’t we anti-Dvorak today.

  I can touch type on both Qwerty (for about 20 years) and Dvorak (for about 6 years). I’m much faster on Dvorak; about 90wpm compared to about 60. However, I’m also a good deal more accurate on Dvorak. If the girl switches to Dvorak I’d put money on her speeding up, but as she already types at 120wpm it’s not going to make a huge difference.

  As for whether she will find a school or business that uses Dvorak, well that’s totally irrelevant. I use a normal Qwerty keyboard layout and just switch the O/S keyboard layout to Dvorak – works fine on both Mac and Windows. In fact with a double-keypress I can switch between the two. Lack of availability of Dvorak is a total fallacy – you can use it on almost any machine going.

• [mdh]

  I’ll bet she could reset a loom in no time flat.

• [JJR1971]

  I learned to type playing a bootlegged copy of Ultima III on my Apple II+ as a kid…because the game assigned a function to *every single key*; I played it so much I learned where all the keys were on my QWERTY keyboard.

  Thanks Lord British! ;-)

• [InsertFingerHere]

  What exactly is the benefit of this skill .. I mean, being 150wpm versus 120wpm. I can see you getting a job as a typist somewhere, but do you become CEO or Senior Typist ?

  To be clear… Is this a skill Black Ops would recruit you for ?

• [MrScience]

  98wpm for me as well. +1 to the MUDding causing excellent typing skills.

  What’s interesting is that I was QWERTY until about 7 years ago (well after my MUD days). Dropped from 90wpm to 6 learning Dvorak the hard way (touch typing and no keyboard layouts). Took me 18 months to work back up to 90, and ended up with a 10% gain. Nothing substantial, but by wrists have felt better. YMMV.

• [Anonymous]

  typingtest.com told me I can save 1 minute per year by learning to touch type… I’d say I’m willing to make that sacrifice. For the time being I don’t have to spell out the names of astronauts I’ve never heard of and don’t type often and produce weird punctuation like “‘Cory, Doctorow,.’” etc.

  I’m pretty sure when I’m typing from my head (not dictating or reciting gibberish) I’m around 80-90wpm. Dvorak, on an IBM Model M. I’m fairly convinced that test is skewed

• [berpi]

  Yes, but can she type 119wpm of source code??

• [unklstuart]

  OL Raight, 37 WPM at 97%. Now I’m going to line down.

• [Anonymous]

  um… im 12 and can type 121 with one error.

• [Yreka]

  If you’ve been learning for a while, it’s not too hard. At my school, we learned to touch type by the end of 1st grade. 60 WPM by 3rd grade. Was up to about 110 WPM in 5th grade as she is right now with about the same number of errors as she has. If you start typing early, it’s pretty easy to get to.

• [Anonymous]

  hi, wonderful me on 25-30 w.p.m. mohsinpall from pakistan

• [js7a]

  But is her typing worth reading?

• [Anonymous]

  It’s not a gift, it’s a skill. Like any other skill if you are half way compentent and practice a lot, you will get better/faster. Ultimately it’s a data entry job waiting to happen.

• [Anonymous]

  Get her away from the computer and put a musical instrument in her hands.

• [Anonymous]

  Don’t forget that typing games have as much appeal as solitaire or bejewelled. My SO learned how to no-look touch-type playing them.

  I hunt and peck, of course. As a coder, it’s all you need.

• [Zadaz]

  Really? I mean I’m sure she’s a great person, but 119 WPM wasn’t enough to get you in to Honnors Society when I was in school. (I cleared 120 wpm and never made it into NHS, graduated exact middle of my class.)

  I mean good for her and all, but good for my 3 month old who made a really nice cohesive poop, too.

• [bassplayinben]

  give that girl an accordion!

• [dnafrequency]

  I took six years of typing class. The reason I took typing wasn’t because I really really wanted to learn to type but it was because typing class was the only chance that I had to touch a computer in school. The typing lessons were usually some work followed by games like ‘type-fast-enough-to-make-your-race-car-finish-first.’ Later on in high school we had 128k dsl spread across a compuer lab of about 30 Pentiums running Win 3.1. I learned to copy/paste all of my typing work across the network from the fastest guy in class. Then, I was able to work on cool stuff with my spare time… like learning HTML.

• [dainel]

  120 wpm is very fast, but doesn’t fall into the gifted range. Just someone who has practices a lot. I suspect plenty of people who knows how to touch type, and types a lot (programmers, webmasters, etc) easily fall in the 90-120wpm range. The more you “practice” the faster you get.

  I can tell how fast someone can type by simply looking at their fingers. Put your hand, palm down, flat on the table. On people who touch type a lot, their index finger is rotated slightly. The more you type, the worse the rotation.

• [Anonymous]

  wow really amazing to hear. i did 80 wpm 5 times and i have won prizes for that also but 119 means really awesome and i was typing right from my age 13 and now i am 21. sure she will reach 200 wpm very soon.

• [KeithIrwin]

  Or if you want to have fun practicing your typing, you should try Typing of the Dead.

• [tp1024]

  This is *not* a gift at all.

  The point is, she is working on her skill all the time and that’s why she is as good as she is. But calling that a “gift” just goes to proof that her teacher is a moron.

• [pkunko]

  One word, DVORAK!

  • [AsteriskCGY]

    That’s what I would like to know. Is she using dvorak or qwerty.

• [Church]

  Wow. I’m really impressed with that test. It’s the first one I’ve seen that doesn’t get in your way (dinging you for wrong letters, or not letting you continue and then backup.)

  @tp1024 The desire is the larger part of the ‘gift.’

• [Sork]

  I thought they said a hundred ninetee which would make it close to her goal at 200.

• [Anonymous]

  Best test I have seen so far is RankMyTyping.com

• [Torley]

  Highly inspiring! I feel I may be too ingrained in my habits to switch from hunt-and-seeking with two fingers and a thumb, but I heart hearing about stuff like this — especially because typing skills are essential in this day and age of keyboards. Sure, different forms and feels (like touch screens) may exist, but the basics are the same.

  Something I’ve wondered about a long time: what’s the correlation between playing a musical instrument and typing velocity? I know for me, progress in one area has boosted the other, but what are other people’s experiences? If there are any comprehensive studies on this, I’d like to peruse.

• [Anonymous]

  wow.. on a QUERTY keyboard? Thats impressive.. When I have a kid I’m gonna teach them DVORAK & klingon as 1st languages, so they’ll not only be faster than this girl, they’ll also be handy enough with a bat’leth to defend themselves from kids who bully them for being such a nerd..

• [maxoid]

  She ought to copy-type E.B. White’s “The Elements of Style”, learn a thing or two about writing well while she’s training herself to type even faster.

  I used to type out song lyrics in real-time, to hone my skill. Been a while, but I’d reckon trying to keep up with someone like Gift of Gab/Blackalicious is a decent lifetime goal.

• [LeavingHalfway]

  Anon #22 … weirdest troll I’ve seen in a while.

• [Anonymous]

  That’s really-really scary. I hope she takes time out to stretch her forearms.

  I used to type that fast when I was younger (for 10 hours a day), until one morning I woke up and my arms felt like i’d fallen asleep on them. The joints in my fingers felt like bone was scraping on bone. The feeling didn’t go away for days, and eventually I ended up being diagnosed with tendinitus in both arms and spent years in therapy.

  I lost feeling in the ends of my fingers, and my arms hurt so bad I opened doors with my feet or elbows.

  Girl, take care of your self, typing at those speeds is likely running a 3 minute mile. Hourly. You need to take care of your arms and hands like a professional athlete, because if you keep that up you will most likely end up in a lot of pain later on.

• [Anonymous]

  Wonder if N.S.A. recruiters get to her yet?

• [Anonymous]

  she type faster than me im in the 6TH grade and only type 23words per minute keep doing what u do because i still have to look at the keyboard some times. :} amazing!!!!!! awsome!!!!! go girl!!!!!!!

• [mistersquid]

  More power to this girl to improve her hand-eye coordination. Her ability to type rapidly is one that will come in handy. Sometimes.

  But there really is no practical value to typing quickly anymore. Rapid typing is only a skill in a pre-electronic world. Right? (I touch type about 70 wpm.)

  There will rarely be a day anyone who works with computers will be called upon to do sustained 60 wpm typing ever. People do not compose words that quickly and if they do it probably isn’t worth reading.

  I suppose this would come in handy if you’re transcribing large chunks of longhand, in which case you are probably paying for your wage with a lifetime of ruined tendons.

• [noahpoah]

  I didn’t have any idea how impressive that was until I took the one-minute test linked to in the post and found out that I can type (while kind of drunk and tired) 63 words/minute. She can type almost twice as fast, and without PEDs!

• [Alan]

  52 wpm! Woo! All time best for me!

• [Anonymous]

  Google should employ her to digitalize books.

• [Anonymous]

  In the 60′s, I practiced typing and shorthand to my favorite music …generally, The Beatles. Shorthand soared to 180+ and typing at 115 wpm by the end of 7th grade. Music makes *such* a difference with memory tasks.

• [Anonymous]

  Ha! That was me at 9. And now I’m a transcriptionist (with some lovely joint problems in my wrists). According to that test, I average around 130 with 98% accuracy (QWERTY).

• [Eric Ragle]

  I remember doing the exact same thing this little is doing, only I was on an old Apple.

  My test results:

  Net Speed: 56 WPM
  (words/minute)
  Accuracy: 96%
  Gross Speed: 58 WPM
  (words/minute)

• [Lady Katey]

  I got 60 wpm on my first and 76 on the next two tries (different text each time.) :) So far, I win.

• [JStoneham]

  Net Speed: 137 WPM
  (words/minute)
  Accuracy: 97%
  Gross Speed: 143 WPM
  (words/minute)

  Dell XPS, QWERTY. I’ll be surprised if others here don’t beat me, but 200′s a seriously lofty goal.

• [Lauren O]

  That was totally me when we started learning typing in 4th grade. I had been playing Mavis Beacon for a year or two at that point. Of course, my impressive speed back then was probably, like, 70, or something else much less impressive than this girl. Now it’s about 100 (the linked test gave me 102 on my first run and 98 on my second).

  It’s partly just a generational thing. When you grow up around that technology your whole life, it’s going to be easier to use. My mom has remarked that she thinks it sounds like I’m just hitting the keyboard and typing random gibberish. I loved how the girl didn’t want to embarrass her mom by revealing she was a hunt-and-pecker, as if the vast majority of people her mom’s age didn’t type like that. I didn’t think I’d start to feel old at age 22, but now my little brother is using Internet acronyms I’ve never heard of and schoolchildren are kicking my ass at speed-typing. Kids these days!

• [Anonymous]

  Agreed QWERTY was invented to slow typists down.
  Something to do with the keys sticking on old typewriters.

  Also, from the video it does look like she is using QWERTY as I saw the G&H keys next to each other.

• [Morgan]

  I’m not trying to dismiss this girls supposed “gift,” but when I was ten years old, I went to the state typing contest for elementary students with a count of 127 wpm with zero errors. I’m not bragging either because it wasn’t that special. Nearly my entire school was like that once I got to high school, nearly all of my friends were doing the same. Now I’m 21 and can type in the 160′s. It is really not that big of a deal people. It’s just typing. Her teacher should not be telling the other students that she’s untouchable, she should be encouraging them all to get better because if the one girl can do it, they can too.

• [cratermoon]

  For everyone asking about Dvorak vs. QWERTY, no rigorous study has shown any speed gains for Dvorak. Cue anecdotal replies “But it’s faster for me…” in 3… 2…

  • [chenille]

    “It’s faster for world record setters like Blackburn” isn’t quite a rigorous study, but it isn’t quite an anecdote, either.

• [royaltrux]

  Reminds me of why I love Morse Code so much. Getting close to 25 wpm.