How does it work?
Our test uses a text comprised of 20 random english words. The aim is to type out the text as fast as you can. As soon as you start typing a timer will start and will run until you type the last character of the text.
Typing speed is measured in Words Per Minute (WPM). However, since there is a large amount of variability in the length of words, there is a need for a standardized or average length “word”. This is usually defined as a string of 5 characters (including spaces and punctuation).
Example:
“A cat” => Although this is actually 2 words, in the context of our typing speed test it would be considered 1 word because there are 5 characters.
“Punishment” => This would be considered 2 words because there are 10 characters.
Gross WPM
The Gross Words Per Minute result is simply represents the number of “words”typed in the time between the first keystroke and the last keystroke.
Correction coefficient and Net WPM
The correction coefficient measures the closeness of the transcribed text to the reference text. It represents the proportion of correct characters in the transcribed text. It is used to apply a penalty for incorrectly typed characters resulting in a Net WPM.
A text in which all characters were typed incorrectly (and not corrected) would yield a Correction coefficient of 0, and a text in which there are no errors would yield an Correction coefficient of 1. Note that the coefficient does not take into account corrected errors (incorrectly typed characters which were corrected) only uncorrected errors. This makes sense as we only want to apply a penalty for errors that are left uncorrected. When you make a mistake and correct it the process of deleting and retyping slows you down and can be considered a penalty in itself, therefore there is no need to apply a penalty in this case.
Error rate and Accuracy
The Error rate represents the proportion of correct entries out of the total number of entries. It can also be interpreted as the probability of making a mistake on the next entry. The Accuracy is simply the complement of the Error rate.
