Should Adults Fix Self-Taught Typing? How to Decide and What to Do

Before the details, three points.

• 1. If nothing bothers you, there is no hurry

  One study found no difference in average speed between self-taught typists and those who had taken a course (Feit et al., 2016). A large online study found trained typists slightly faster on average (Dhakal et al., 2018). The research is split; “self-taught means slow” is not supported.

• 2. If you often type while watching a screen or document, that is a reason to change

  In Feit et al., self-taught typists spent a larger share of time looking at the keyboard (0.41 versus 0.20 for trained typists). If you often cannot take your eyes off the screen, this can be a reason. In Feit et al., using the same finger for the same key every time was linked to speed more than the number of fingers was.

• 3. If you change, keep practice separate from work

  I found no study of how speed changes while a typist is changing technique. Keep typing at work the way you do now, and try the new technique only during practice time. This is my own view, not a research result.

Below: the research, a way to decide, and how to proceed.

You sometimes see the claim that self-taught typing always hits a ceiling. Checking two studies, that was too strong.

Read together: self-taught typists can be fast, and on average course-takers were slightly faster. The gap is about 5 WPM, small next to the spread between individuals (standard deviation about 20 WPM). Dhakal et al. note that differences in who took part may explain why the small and large studies differ.

Both studies had people type English or similar text. Neither examined Japanese romaji input, so we do not know whether the same holds there.

Feit et al. analysed fast typists’ movements and named three factors linked to speed. This is an analysis within 30 people, not an experiment showing that doing these makes you faster.

• Press the same letter with the same finger every time

  What mattered was whether the key-to-finger mapping was consistent, not the number of fingers. You do not need ten fingers; stick to the fingers you chose.

• Move the next finger early

  Typists whose next finger had already started moving while the previous key was pressed tended to be faster.

• Keep the whole hand still

  Slower typists moved their hands more overall; faster typists kept their hand position steady.

A WPM number alone cannot decide this. Ask the four questions below. I give no cut-off number, because neither research nor any public standard draws a line saying “below this speed, retrain.”

• 1. Does speed or awkwardness actually bother you?

  Do emails or documents take too long, or does it hurt deadlines? If not, the reason to change is weak. You can estimate the time with the calculation in How fast do you need to type for work?.

• 2. Do you often type while watching a screen or document?

  Taking notes while watching a shared screen in a meeting, or entering data from a paper document. Self-taught typists looked at the keyboard more (0.41 versus 0.20). If this is common for you, changing is worth considering.

• 3. Is your finger use the same every time?

  If you press the same letter with different fingers on different days, speed may be harder to build (typists who used the same finger tended to be faster). Filming your hands with a phone and watching it back will show you.

• 4. Do you type a lot each day?

  If you type little, the time saved by getting faster is small. The more you type, the more a speed difference adds up.

If nothing bothers you and you can type while looking at the screen, your current way is fine. For where your speed sits, see Average WPM and benchmarks; for who benefits from typing without looking down, see Is touch typing necessary?.

If you decide to change, here is a way to proceed. The order is my own view; no study shows that this order works better.

1. 01.Measure your current speed and accuracy. Play Speed Trial a few times and note the WPM and accuracy on the result screen (the words differ each time, so look at the middle of several runs)
2. 02.Decide which finger takes which key. You do not need ten fingers; just decide to press the same key with the same finger every time
3. 03.Widen the set of keys you can type without looking, a little at a time. Start with the home row
4. 04.Keep practice and work separate. Practice briefly at a fixed time; type at work the way you do now
5. 05.Every few weeks, measure again under the same conditions. See from the numbers whether you are improving or stuck, and decide whether to continue

For details: finger assignments are in the home row position diagram, and practice without looking is in how to learn touch typing.

I cannot promise how long it takes. In a 1978 study, beginners needed on average roughly 35–50 hours to learn the whole keyboard (72 postal workers; the figure differs by group and the table is hard to read, so treat it as approximate). Feit et al. also cite the literature saying that reaching the speeds reported for touch typists takes hundreds of hours of training. Both concern people learning from scratch; whether they apply directly to someone who already types in their own way is unknown.

The same 1978 study found that, for the same total time, spreading practice out was more efficient than massing it (one 1-hour session a day was the most efficient group; two 2-hour sessions a day the least). See how much daily typing practice you need for how to split it.

What it can say. Salthouse (1984) studied skilled typists aged 19–72 who typed 17–104 net WPM. Older typists were slower at tapping and at choice reactions, yet not slower at typing. The researcher interprets this as older typists compensating by looking further ahead in the text.

What it cannot say. That study is about people who were already skilled. For adults learning to type, or retraining their technique, I found no study showing how much they improve by age. Participants in Feit et al. were 30 people aged 20–55, and in Dhakal et al. the mean age was 24.5; neither shows the effect of retraining by age.

Typing Musou’s records are the same. We do not know players’ ages, so I cannot write about improvement by age. That means I cannot say “you will improve at any age” or “you are too old.”

You can use Typing Musou’s Speed Trial. It runs 60 seconds under the same conditions for everyone (Samurai, no stars, no special moves), and the result shows WPM and accuracy. WPM here is correctly typed romaji keystrokes ÷ 5 ÷ minutes, not the number of Japanese characters. The words differ each time, so look at the middle of several runs rather than one number.

The game’s WPM does not include conversion or the time spent thinking of sentences, so it is not the same as your speed at work. Use it to track your own progress on one yardstick. To work out the speed your job needs, see How fast do you need to type for work?.

• Q. I do my job fine with my own way of typing. Am I losing out by not changing?

  If nothing bothers you, there is no hurry. In research, some people with no course topped 70 WPM. If you often type while watching a screen, though, spending less time looking at the keyboard is an advantage.

• Q. I type with just my index fingers. Do I have to switch to touch typing?

  In research, some people using 1–2 fingers per hand exceeded 70 WPM. I set out who benefits, by conditions, in Is touch typing necessary?.

• Q. Will I get slower while I change?

  I found no study that checked this. Keeping practice separate from work limits the effect on your job.

• Q. Is it too late in my 40s or 50s?

  No study I found measured the effect by age, so I cannot say it is or is not too late. There is research (Salthouse 1984) in which older skilled typists were not slower at typing than younger ones. Try it for a few weeks, measure again under the same conditions, and decide.

• Q. My WPM is in the 20s or 30s. Where do I start?

  The order of practice is in how to get faster at typing, and causes of plateaus are in why your typing isn't getting faster.

Decide whether to change by what bothers you, not by a speed number. The research shows that self-taught typists can be fast, that course-takers were slightly faster on average, and that self-taught typists looked at the keyboard more. “Always hits a ceiling” is not supported.

If you change, keep practice apart from work and measure again every few weeks under the same conditions. The first step is to measure your speed now.

The studies cited in this article. The URLs are the papers' DOIs, which lead to the publishers' pages (checked October 18, 2026). Typing Musou details are as of the same date.

1. Feit, A. M., Weir, D., & Oulasvirta, A. (2016). How We Type: Movement Strategies and Performance in Everyday Typing. CHI 2016. — 30 participants. No significant speed difference by course; share of time looking at the keyboard 0.41 versus 0.20
2. Dhakal, V., Feit, A. M., Kristensson, P. O., & Oulasvirta, A. (2018). Observations on Typing from 136 Million Keystrokes. CHI 2018. — 168,960 participants. With a typing course 54.35 WPM, without 49.00 WPM (d = 0.27). Correlation between number of fingers and speed 0.38
3. Salthouse, T. A. (1984). Effects of age and skill in typing. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 113(3), 345–371. — Skilled typists aged 19–72 who typed 17–104 net WPM
4. Baddeley, A. D., & Longman, D. J. A. (1978). The influence of length and frequency of training session on the rate of learning to type. Ergonomics, 21(8), 627–635. — 72 postal workers in four groups. Average hours to learn the whole keyboard (approximate) and the efficiency of spread-out practice