AtlasFor teachersTyping test for students

For teachers · typing

A typing test for students, run with the whole class

Pupils type for one, two or five minutes on their own device and send you their words per minute by seat number. No accounts, no names, a CSV at the end.

Open your classes Quick class, no sign-in (reading speed)

The short answer

Set the typing speed test for your class: each pupil types one of our short passages for one, two or five minutes, sees their net words per minute and accuracy with the formula shown, and sends the speed to you by seat number. Phone and keyboard results are kept apart, and nobody is ranked.

A 20-minute typing lesson

  1. Before the lesson, create a class, add the typing speed test and print the join cards. Up to 3 sends per pupil is the default, so a warm-up and two real runs fit.
  2. Open the class for joining. Pupils scan their card, choose the typing test and type their PIN.
  3. Ask everyone to pick the same length (one minute suits a first go) and the same keyboard: “a physical keyboard” on laptops and desktops, “a phone or tablet screen keyboard” on touch screens.
  4. The clock starts at the first key. Pasting does not count, and a run interrupted by switching tabs is not counted.
  5. Each pupil reads their own result: net WPM counts only the characters that match the text, gross WPM counts everything typed, and accuracy is the correct keystrokes out of all the keystrokes that added a character, so a mistake that was fixed still counts against it.
  6. Pupils press Send to my teacher. Your board fills seat by seat; the teacher view shows each seat’s WPM, and the CSV keeps every send.

Reading the numbers

Net WPM is correct characters divided by five, per minute. A pupil who types fast but leaves mistakes will see a gap between gross and net speed, which is a better thing to talk about than anyone’s place in the room.

Volunteers in one large online study (2018) averaged about 52 WPM: 168,960 people, mostly on physical and laptop keyboards, a mean of 51.56 words per minute (standard deviation 20.2). Their figure counts uncorrected mistakes in, so compare it with your gross speed, not your net speed. Read the study. Children are not in that figure, so compare a pupil with their own earlier runs, not with it.

Good to know