English · Typing test
English typing test
Type a passage for 1 to 15 minutes. You get net and gross WPM, word accuracy and a list of every mistake, with capitalisation and punctuation counted as exam evaluators count them.
Settings English · 5 min · Practice
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01 · What counts as a mistake
Six cases, with the words that cause them.
| Counts as | Passage | You typed | Why |
|---|---|---|---|
| Full mistake | the quick brown fox | the brown fox | A word was left out. |
| Full mistake | a sapling grew | a sappling grew | A letter was repeated in the spelling. |
| Half mistake | I hope so | Ihope so | No space between two words. |
| Half mistake | English is fun | english is fun | Wrong capital letter. |
| Half mistake | Yes, we can. | Yes we can. | A comma was left out. |
| Half mistake | I hope you win | hope I you win | Two words swapped. |
Examples follow SSC Eastern Region’s evaluation guidelines. These cases are tested in the scoring code.
02 · Practising
Accuracy first, then speed.
Week one: one minute
Use 1-minute tests in Practice mode and watch the red letters. Slow down until a test has no mistakes, then repeat. Net speed rises faster from fewer mistakes than from faster hands.
Week two: five minutes
Move to 5 minutes. Rhythm matters more than bursts. Read two words ahead so your eyes are never waiting for your fingers.
Then: exam style
Switch to Exam style with the length your exam uses, and decide your Backspace policy in advance. Review the mistake list, not only the speed.
03 · Scoring
Every number, and where it comes from.
Speed
- Word
- Five key depressions. This ratio is how exam speeds are quoted: 35 w.p.m. is 10,500 key depressions an hour and 30 w.p.m. is 9,000.
- Gross WPM
- Key depressions ÷ 5 ÷ minutes typed. Backspace presses are not counted as typing. Generic definition.
- Net WPM
- Gross WPM minus weighted mistakes per minute (a full mistake counts 1, a half mistake ½). A common generic definition; none of the exam notices we read publishes a net-speed formula, so treat it as an estimate.
Accuracy
- Error percentage
- (full mistakes + half mistakes ÷ 2) × 100 ÷ words of the passage you reached. This is the formula SSC publishes for stenography evaluation; the typing notices we read give the mistake classes but no formula, so we apply the same one.
- Word accuracy
- 100 minus the error percentage. This is the headline accuracy.
- Character accuracy
- Letters you typed correctly out of letters typed, as an edit distance on grapheme clusters, so a conjunct or a letter with its matra counts as one unit.
Full mistakes (1 each)
- Omitting a word or figure
- Replacing a word with a wrong one
- Adding a word that is not in the passage
- A spelling error (a letter repeated, added, left out or swapped)
- Repeating a word
- An incomplete word
Half mistakes (½ each)
- Spacing errors: two words run together, or a space inside a word
- Wrong capitalisation
- Punctuation omitted, added or changed
- Two words swapped (transposition)
The mistake classes follow SSC Eastern Region’s Revised Guidelines for Evaluation of Typing Test/DEST Scripts. The SSC CHSL 2023 candidate instructions and some coaching summaries list a repeated letter in a spelling as a half mistake; the evaluation guidelines call it a full mistake, and we follow the guidelines. Other recruiters count differently. We do not score paragraph-indent mistakes, because the test box has no Tab-indent rule.
04 · FAQ
Questions about this page
Does capitalisation matter?
In English tests it does: a wrong capital or small letter is a half mistake in SSC’s evaluation guidelines. The guidelines say this does not apply to Hindi scripts, so the Hindi tests ignore case.
How many spaces after a full stop?
The SSC evaluation document says one space only after a punctuation mark. Extra spaces are a spacing error (half mistake). The passages here use a single space everywhere.
What is a good speed?
It depends on the exam. The SSC CHSL 2023 Tier II notice, as reported by a coaching site, asked for 35 w.p.m. in English for LDC and DEO posts. Check the current notification; we will not give a number that may be out of date.
Which keyboard layout is used?
English (US). The SSC CHSL 2023 Tier II typing instructions say candidates for English typing must choose English (US) only.
Can I turn off Backspace?
Yes, in the settings above. The SSC CHSL 2023 instructions allow Backspace to correct a word, so it is on by default. Some tests do not allow it, so practise both ways.