Choose what to practise
- Story typing test — Original prose passages.
- English typing test — Office sentences.
- Number typing test — Amounts, dates, KPH.
- Data entry test — Structured records.
- Alphanumeric data entry test — Letters and numbers, KPH.
- 10 key test — Numeric keypad, KPH.
- KPH typing test — Keystrokes per hour.
- Clerical typing test — Civil service format.
- 1 minute test — A quick check.
- 2 minute test — Everyday benchmark.
- 5 minute test — Job-assessment length.
- 10 minute test — Endurance.
Which one should you use?
Start with a one minute test to get a number, then move to two minutes for a figure you can rely on. A one-minute score measures your opening burst and tends to flatter you.
Practise on prose if you write emails and reports, and on numbers or records if your work is data entry. The formulas behind every score are in how typing scores work.
Building a practice week that works
Most people practise by repeating the test they are already best at, which feels productive and changes very little. A week that actually moves a number looks different, and it does not need to be long — fifteen minutes on four days beats an hour once.
- Start each session with a throwaway run. A first attempt from cold sits several WPM below your third. Warm up, then let the next one count.
- Spend most of the session on the material you avoid. If numbers are your weakness, prose practice is recreation rather than training.
- Do one run at a length that is uncomfortable. If you always take one minute, take three. Stamina is a separate skill from speed and only improves under load.
- Finish with a clean run rather than a fast one. Ending on a careless result rehearses carelessness.
Keep the keyboard and the duration the same across a week so the results mean something together. The progress tracker explains how to read the trend that produces, and why a three WPM jump between two runs is not yet a jump.
Which practice matches which goal
The modes are not difficulty levels, and working through them in order is not a plan. They train different things, so the useful question is what you are preparing for:
- Writing emails and reports — prose or office English. Reading ahead across a sentence is the skill, and word lists never teach it.
- A data entry or clerical job — alphanumeric records if the work mixes text and numbers, the numeric keypad if it does not. Being quick at one says nothing about the other.
- A civil service or clerk typist exam — the clerical test, at five minutes, because that is the format announcements specify.
- Learning the keyboard at all — any mode in No Time, where the timer stops being the thing you are fighting.
Preparing for a job or exam instead?
Most of these pages are for general practice. If you are preparing for an employment assessment, start from the format you will actually sit:
- Office or clerical typing — the clerical typing test for civil service and clerk typist exams, or the 5 minute test for the length most private employers use.
- Data entry — the alphanumeric test for letters and numbers together, the 10-key test for the numeric keypad. They are separate skills with separate minimums.
- A named assessment — the Prove It data entry test page explains what that family of tests reports and which module to practise.
A verifiable certificate records a result you can show a private employer. It is an unproctored practice record, so check before relying on it for a civil service application — most agencies require an approved provider.