Using ChatGPT to make typing tests
By ozzycallooh - updated: 9 months, 1 week ago - 1 message
Howdy folks. Found this site not too long ago and I figured I share a use I've gotten out of ChatGPT recently - creating typing test passages.
You can go a naïve route and ask it to ramble on a particular topic of your choice for some specified duration, really anything will work so long as you get enough content out of it. Your mileage may vary. But, I'll share my prompts and strategy for getting passages that are generally good. I like a two-step process, subject generation and then passage generation. First, I use a variant of the following prompt:
=== prompt 1 start ===
Generate a list of 20 topics that an 8th grader might write a report on for school. Include topics from history, science, sociology, anthropology, and music.
=== prompt 1 end ==
This usually produces a variety of interesting topics, and changing around the grade level and class subjects can help direct it to a topic you enjoy or work with on a regular. Then, in a separate chat, you can incorporate this subject into a prompt like this:
=== prompt 2 start ===
I want you to act as a typing coach. Your goal is to help me improve my typing skills.
Write a five-paragraph passage that will be used as a typing test. The test should:
- Try to use every letter of the alphabet at least once.
- Use varied word lengths throughout the passage.
The subject of the passage should be the following:
Construction of the Golden Gate bridge.
Format with ```text at the beginning and ``` at the end, like this:
```text
(Put the content of the typing test here)
```
=== prompt 2 end ===
You will, of course, want to change the length and duration to suit your fancy. It will almost always generate some fluff before/after the typing test, which is why I include a formatting instruction to easily copy the passage into a proper typing test generator like this site (hint: ChatGPT responds using Markdown).
As a general tip for writing prompts, try to include all of the following: a role for ChatGPT ("a typing coach"), a role for you ("a student"), a sub-prompt/subject ("Golden Gate Bridge"), a formatting instruction ("as a list"), a formatting example. Make adjustments to your prompt one at a time, and keep them small.
Generally, I've found the strength of LLMs like ChatGPT is acting like a brainstorming tool and a sort of text filter. If you tend to get passages that have really easy words, tell it to rewrite a passage to use more varied word choice. Struggling with a specific letter? Ask it to use as many Ps and Qs as possible! It's very easy to get it to tailor a passage to suit your needs as a typist.
