Age has nothing to do with it. 20~40 minutes a couple times a week is not enough. You should do at least 15 minutes every day. I assume you learned proper technique, and aren't just going about it all willy-nilly, right? Either way, you might want to try some typing tutor software. The free version of "Typing Master 10" is pretty good.

Age doesn't matter? Cool dude. I'll take your advice and practice more often. I just downloaded Typing Master. It seems pretty invasive compared to online stuff. Keylogger and everything. I'll give it shot though.

Thank you for taking your time to respond. Cheers!

Practicing more is fine, but you should also try to find other things which involve typing such as writing, (typing) games, instant messaging, etc. In my opinion, casual usage is the best way to get better at typing. Try not to measure your entire typing ability by your average WPM, for example, but rather how your consistency improves in practical typing scenarios. Also, don't feel like you have to type a certain way (every key does not have to have a 1:1 relationship with a specific finger). If you type enough, you'll just instinctively know where the keys are and which finger is best.

Cheers and good luck.

Thank you lytewerk for your thoughtful comment!

Regrettably, I do not have any activities that would involve writing.
I write code but that is a totally different animal: you write a couple lines, pause to think, copy/paste, look something up, run/debug, etc. In addition, source code editors have advanced autocomplete and autoformat features. The point being it is far from a regular typing experience.

On the other hand, writing this reply right now is a great exercise, lol. Sometimes I write emails or documents and that does help slightly, but emails are usually too short to qualify as a good practice session and the need for docs is infrequent.

What typing games do you play/recommend?

You've mentioned that every key does not have to have a 1:1 relationship with a specific finger. Let's take "b" as an example. I force myself to use just one hand (left) for "b" thinking that this would better translate into muscle memory. Should I try using both hands for it, or am I missing your point completely?

Yeah, it's not necessarily that "b" has to be pressed by either hand, but I just meant that you can learn to type faster without following a specific method. I'm really just reflecting on my own experience. When I was in elementary school and couldn't type, I remember the computers had a typing lesson game, and it taught us to use specific fingers on specific keys, home row method, etc. I learned how to type fast by just talking to people a lot, but I think my typing style is pretty unusual. I actually use my right pointer finger for the space bar, so I don't use my thumbs at all. Then again, other people may benefit from having a method to follow. My muscle memory for typing is just from typing my own way, so I do other weird things like use my left hand for "y".

As far as typing games, there are plenty to choose from online. Typing of the dead is the only legitimately fun video game which involves typing that I know of. TypeRacer (website) is really popular, because it's competitive and simple, and I think lots of people have cited substantial improvement from playing it. The quotes on TypeRacer are generally more challenging than the ones on this website, so don't be discouraged if your WPM seems slower initially in case you try it. That, or it calculates WPM differently.

One to two months at the most is enough to achieve your desired goal. Just be PATIENT. Focus on your goal. And one last thing, I did not type the word " patient " in capital for nothing.

However unorthodox your typing technique is, your speed is very impressive - it must be working!

Thank you. I appreciate the encouragement. I'll keep on keeping on.

Cheers!

That's the spirit. During my self training I lost my patience more times than I can count and that costed me TIME as penalty. So PATIENCE is the key. ALL THE BEST!!!

yes. Anybody can learn to type! :)

If you're truly determined to improve your speed, you should spend at least 10 minutes each day practicing. Of course, it may take longer or shorter (weeks to years) for you to reach your goal, but you will get there! I have been typing for 6 years now, and I found that I only improved 13 wpm per year. And my results always fluctuate! So don't give up, it'll take time, but you'll get there!

iambad: I am in a similar situation as you are (re-learning touch typing as a long-time developer) so I feel your pain. I did come across one link that could be helpful to you: typing.io

This is a typing practice tool targeted specifically at developers so you will get more practice with the keys used more for programming, and less for communicating. Good luck!

You're just slow.

I'm 31 and until recently had never touch typed in my life or even knew what it was. About 6 months to a year ago I started practicing 10 minutes every day. No more no less. I used several websites (ratatype, typing tutor, typing.com, maybe some others) I just went through their teaching modules, 10 minutes at a time each day. There was no pressure or stress because I was just doing my 10 minutes. If I see improvement, great. If not, who cares. Just as long as I do the 10 minutes. I can now currently type at about 60-70 wpm most of the time, so it worked for me. Hope that helps.

It's never too old to learn anything. If you set your mind to it, you can achieve more than you would think :)

You should put more time to practice. At least 30 minutes (without stopping in between) per day.

Good luck!

Here is a tip... Find calming piano music when you type. You'll find your fingers gliding over the keyboard.
Another... Try playing piano or virtual piano. (I Suggest Virtual so the keyboard is familiar to you)
Another... Start trying to just type words you think in your head while your eyes are closed. (This helps you find where the keys are)
Another... DON'T WORRY ABOUT ACCURACY! Everyone makes mistakes. A better place to start is speed and then build your speed to get accuracy. (if you get the negative speed just add it to the speed after the subtraction)
Finally you'll have memory of the keyboard while blindfolded!
Hope this helps!

~ notnegative

Hello my friend age doesn't count. many people are in your shoes.you are better than me in w.p.m.
don't loose your courage, just GO FOR IT!that's it no magic pill..practice makes perfection .

Age doesn't count. Look at me, i'm only fourteen, and I have a high score of 108 wpm on other typing sites. In only a few months I learned to type in complete darkness, and learned to multitask while typing as well. It depends on how determined you are to learn, and how much time you use TO learn. 30 minutes a day won't cut it. You need to spend around an hour or more beating your previous highest speed until you reach a average speed you think can suit you.


Honestly, no speed suits me, I just keep trying to go faster and faster.

"i'm only fourteen"

Duh, that's his point. Young people tend to have an easier and quicker time learning certain skills due to their more malleable brain wiring and lack of deeply ingrained habits. Not to mention having a fresher, more pain-free body. But like I said before, unless he has crippling arthritis or some other serious handicap, he can definitely improve his typing, even if he has a harder and longer time of it than you pesky kids.

"DON'T WORRY ABOUT ACCURACY! A better place to start is speed and then build your speed to get accuracy."

Pretty much every expert says the opposite: they say good accuracy will build into better speed. I'm more inclined to believe them over you, seeing as you only type 45 WPM with 88% accuracy, which is simply unacceptable.

I think it might be best to alternate between focusing on accuracy and focusing on speed. That is, focus on accuracy, but every now and then just go apeshit and try to push your speed limits while also trying to maintain a somewhat acceptable accuracy (about 92%).

Professional typists have an accuracy of about 97% or higher, by the way.

I'm close to your age, and an IT guy to boot. I learned to 'type' on an old manual back in the mid '80s, and have very slowly learned to touch type.

My suggestion is to learn the 'home row': a | s | d | f | g | h | j | k | l | ;

When you put your fingers on a | s | d | f | j | k | l | ; , your index fingers are on F and J - you should be able to feel 'bumps' on each of those keys. They are 'home' indicators for each hand, respectively.
Then, work on memorizing where the keys are on the top row. QWERTYUIOP. This should be relatively easy as a developer. Same with the bottom row, not quite as easy to learn.
As a developer, you should be familiar with the special characters, so they should be easy to incorporate.

Then, when you're working on your code, just focus on not looking at your fingers. Pay attention to the text on the screen instead of your fingers - you're going to be doing this anyway, to ensure no syntax errors, so just skip looking at your fingers. It's not like the speed loss is going to be significant enough to worry about. That's the part that has helped me the most - focusing on what is showing up on the screen instead of looking at my fingers. If I get an unwanted character, I'll just delete it, glance down to locate the correct one, then look back at the screen to continue the correction.

Hope this helps.

Once you actually have a fairly decent understanding of the layout, go straight to typing software that lets you type full words and sentences, and just take it steady. The occasional dabble in upper symbols/numbers is fine if you are so inclined. But the bulk of the learning takes place practising words and letter combinations that you would be using day to day.

Wow, typing.io is amazing. Thank you very much for the tip!

lol, yep, I suck.

That's impressive. What was your speed when you started six months ago?

Being in the zone surely helps. I love calming piano music. Some of my favorites:
https://www.amazon.…
https://www.amazon.…

I wish I started that early. With your focus and determination, you have a bright future ahead of you. Cheers!

I touch type fine, I just don't have good muscle memory to do it fast. Special characters do require a glance for me to produce a Shift-key combo and then return index fingers to F and J.

I'm not sure, I didn't even know the finger placements or anything so I wasn't really paying attention to time, just learning how to do it correctly.