So I get some grief for using the Dvorak keyboard layout but the numbers don’t lie.
On this powertyping page I have consistently come back to take the small “Frequent Words 1” typing test. For a while my speed plateaued at about 60wpm which is what I think I could have attained in QWERTY and after a while of not checking I came back yesterday and again today (to make sure yesterday wasn’t a fluke) and I can report the following numbers.
your typing rate is : 79 wpm
words typed : 57
mistakes made : 8
which is 10.9 mistakes per minute
I have always maintained this level (or more) of mistakes which means I am hammering as quick as I can in a speed run and worrying little about absolute accuracy. This time, however, I noticed that it reported 8 mistakes and I only made 4. I counted them up afterwards and must report that the tool is flawed somehow. So, my error rate is 1/2 of what is reported.
I am quite sure that I couldn’t have attained that level in QWERTY, and now that I know yesterday was no fluke I am ‘gunnin’ for 80+. When I test myself on the other, more natural sentences I get around 55+ WPM with about the same number of mistakes so 79 is by no means my actual typing speed (for a letter) but it would be accurate for short chats, twitters, and other such information-like offal. It also serves as a good comparison of my progress (getting faster, my numbers today, still typing, still more numbers) since this test is the same one that I have been taking since I switched.
In case you didn’t know I have made this switch and are curious if I can still type ‘normally’? In short…No.
I am completely QWERTY illiterate these days (except for my name and my password) and when absolutely forced to type in QWERTY I am a single finger, hunt n peck (SFHAP) typist. Luckily, being forced in this way only happens at kiosks where keyboard configuration is not possible, and usually those keyboards are touch screen anyway…this makes us all SFHAP typists.
blief 
Congratulations, Blief! Good for you for exploring the DVORAK method. He invented it because he claimed that a good typist could type faster using his method. And as far as your “illiteracy” on QWERTY is concerned: so what!? It’s too bad they still “allow” QWERTY to be used in schools anymore — for the past 30 or more years when electric typwriters and then computer keyboards made it obsolete.
Guess they were biased toward us old f–, er I mean — folks.
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I need to check my speed too. I know I’m doing better these days, but I haven’t taken the test in months.
That QWERTY illiteracy is profound! (By the way, where is “QWERTY” on this keyboard? It’s not under “PYF) I can only type my name and password in QWERTY and am a single-fingered hunt and peck typist (SFHPT) for anything else. I laugh every time I’m stuck doing that.
Monya is taking a keyboarding skills test soon. I’m wondering if I were asked to do that, how would I fare? Not well, I’m certain, unless they allow me to switch the keyboard to Dvorak.
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I see my comment didn’t get posted correctly. Here it is without the shift key: ‘,.pyf
I guess there are some special characters in the upper case version of that.
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