One of the biggest factors that will impact your casper score is your typing speed. Your typing speed is important as
it allows you to get across more information in a shorter period of time. You might think that all the time that you
need to spend increasing your typing speed for this test is a waste of time. However, as a professional or student who
uses a keyboard, typing faster can immensely boost your productivity. The average typing speed is around 40 WPM. This is
quite a problem for the casper test especially if you are aiming to score in the 4th quartile. So what speed should you
aim for to get a 4th quartile on the casper test?
In order to score in the 4th quartile it is safe to aim for a raw speed of 100 WPM on typing speed tests and 70 WPM
when you respond to casper questions. When responding to questions your speed will be lower as you are also thinking
thus hindering your speed.
These numbers are ballpark estimates of some students that score in the 4th quartile and not strict cut offs. Of Course
there are a few individuals that score in the 4th quartile with lower typing speeds as they compensate for this through
how well they word their responses. You will be more likely to get a great score with a higher typing speed.
How much and how often should you practice typing? You cannot increase your typing speed drastically in one day.
Typing speed progress is not linear and requires spaced practice over many days. If you are a slow typer it is a good
idea to start practicing your typing at least 1 year ahead. The higher your typing speed the better. You should practice
10-20 minutes a day if you are 1 year away from your test. You might be seeing this video for the first time and have
your test in a few months. You might think that it's over. But don't worry, you can still improve over a few months if
you dedicate more than 20 minutes a day to increase your typing speed. For example, you can practice 1-1.5 hours split
into 10-20 minute blocks throughout the day if you are in a time crunch. Also note that Practicing typing for a big
chunk of time per session can be counter productive as it can lead to fatigue and thoughtless practice.
The good thing about typing is that it is an activity which is passive and not cognitively heavy. Therefore you can
place it between your study blocks, after waking up or before going to bed.
Here are a few websites where you can start practicing typing and measuring your speed:
10 Fast Fingers
Monkey type
typingtest.com
keybr
Speed Typing Online
Key Hero
Nitro type
Type racer
All of these websites have their own unique features. Try them out and see which ones are a good fit for you. We
recommend using different websites from time to time so that you do not get used to the website and can see your real
improvement over time. Before focusing on speed, focus on accuracy and typing without looking at the keyboard. Treat
typing speed as a game and measure your progress everyday. Because what gets measured gets done.
Now the question is what technique should you use?
People typically start typing using the “hunt and peck method”. They scan the keyboard and look at the letter they
require and click it. This method is much slower compared to another method called touch typing where the typer uses
appropriate hand placement and memory to click the letter they are looking for. This method has been shown to be faster
compared to the previous method statistically in research and makes more sense as the typer neglects the time scanning
for the keyboard each time.
So don’t look at the keyboard as you are practicing and try remembering the position of keys on the keyboard. At the
beginning focus on accuracy rather than speed. This will enable your mind to memorize the position of the different
letters of the keyboard and enable you to type faster over time. Although it is stated that minor spelling does not
impact the grade you receive in the casper test, you still have to ensure that you are typing your answers with accuracy
to ensure that the reader can comprehend what you are saying. As you are memorizing the position of different letters
relative to your finger, you might be tempted to use only a few of your fingers to type. Be aware that not using all
fingers will place you at a disadvantage later down the road and stop you from reaching record high speeds.
One method of hand placement that is commonly used is the “home row”. For this method, you start off by placing your
fingers while resting you on the home row keys which are ASDFGHJKL;. You will then use the appropriate finger to press
the nearest button. There are many websites online that teach you how to type with all fingers and walk you through
appropriate hand placements such as:
Typing.com
Typingclub
typing-lessons.org
Once you get proficient at typing words with proper hand placement you should start learning about different keyboard
shortcuts that can come handy. For example control plus backspace deletes an entire word to the left on windows.This can
be useful for quickly deleting the words you have misspelled. Also, use the same keyboard that you practice typing to
write the test. This will ensure that you are optimizing for maximum typing speed on test day. Start practicing today
and you will see for yourself how much you can improve over time.