Here's a fun one: www.typingtest.com   You choose from about five different topics and then are presented with an essay to type. You also choose the length of the test: 1, 2, or 3 min. The first time I tried it and did abominably, I began to wonder if there is still a call for people to copy large pieces of information at top speed for eight hours a day. Mistakes are a whole lot easier to correct than way back when, and that's not even considering spell checkers. The old school method also dictated (no pun intended) that the typist look exclusively at the test and not at his/her work. I'm not sure that's the case anymore. Another thing that has definitely changed is the hard and fast rule that the wrists must NEVER rest on the typewriter. Try dangling your wrists off your laptop!

While I'm rattling on about boring typewriter trivia, did you know that on the "Qwerty" keyboard (I once knew someone with a hermit crab named Qwerty :)  ) , 'typewriter' is spelled with the keys on the top row, so salesmen could look impressive. Also, many people think that there must be a more efficient system than 'qwerty', and they are right. The qwerty system was designed to slow typists down--a faster method would have jammed the keyboard ad nauseum.

Anyway, this morning, on the Wizard of Oz passage, I scored 68 wpm, 97% accuracy (the program will let you backspace and correct mistakes if catch them before you are too far along), with a net speed of 66 wpm. Now I can die happy. After all, what else would you expect from G.W.H.S. #1 typing student of 1982?  Mr. Krumdick said so right in my year book. I'm not kidding. Sad isn't it?