Scoring Methodology

The definitions

An attempt is one character position you typed, right or wrong. A correct character matches the target at that position. Elapsed time runs from your first keystroke to the end of the test. Text you never reached when time expired counts as neither correct nor attempted.

The formulas

• Net WPM = (correct characters ÷ 5) ÷ minutes. Five characters make one standard word.
• Raw WPM = (all attempted characters ÷ 5) ÷ minutes — every keystroke, right or wrong.
• Accuracy = correct ÷ attempted × 100, measured on the final text (errors you fixed stop counting).
• CPM = correct characters ÷ minutes.
• Keys per second (KPS) = attempted characters ÷ elapsed seconds.
• Words right = words in the target that you completed with every character correct.
• Errors left = attempted characters that are still wrong when the test ends. Mistakes made counts every wrong keystroke during the test, including ones you later corrected.

The honesty rule

If uncorrected errors are more than your correct characters, Net WPM shows 0, with an explanation on the result. Typing fast and wrong is not fast typing, and a score that pretends otherwise would be lying to you.

Speed bands

• Under 20 WPM — beginner range.
• 20–39 WPM — below the commonly reported adult average of about 40 WPM.
• 40–59 WPM — solid, average-to-good; comfortable for most jobs.
• 60–79 WPM — fast.
• 80+ WPM — professional range.

Difficulty

Normal uses common everyday words and ordinary passages. Hard uses longer, less common words and more complex passages. Difficulty changes the Words and Sentences texts; Quotes, Numbers and Code keep their own character.

Fair-play rules

Pasting into the test is blocked (you can paste freely into the Custom Text setup box). If the tab or window is hidden mid-test, the attempt is invalidated and the reason is shown — scores are never silently changed.

Percentile

This site does not show a percentile yet. A percentile is only meaningful against a real, published dataset, and we will not invent one. When enough anonymous scores exist to publish an honest distribution — with its sample size and date — it will appear here first.