For a 12-year-old, an average typing speed is around 30-40 Words Per Minute (WPM) as a beginner, but this can vary significantly, with many students in upper primary/early secondary years reaching 40-50 WPM or more with practice, aiming for high accuracy (90-95%). Speeds of 70 WPM are excellent, while 100+ WPM is very advanced, showing significant skill development.
As a guide, beginners between the ages of 6 to 11 years old typically type at a rate of 15 wpm, beginners between the ages of 12 to 16 years old at a rate of 30 wpm, and intermediate typists at a rate of 40 wpm.
A good reading speed by age is about 60-120 WPM for ages 6 to 9, 120-180 for ages 9 to 12, and 170-200 WPM for ages 12 to 14.
The top 1% of typists generally achieve speeds well over 100 WPM (Words Per Minute), with speeds of 140-160 WPM or more often considered in that elite category, far above the average of around 40 WPM, with record holders pushing past 200-300 WPM on QWERTY or specialized keyboards, showcasing incredible skill.
If it's 105 WPM average on long quotes with complicated words and punctuation, then yes, it's very good. I would say there's not many 12 year olds in the world who can type that speed. If it's 105 WPM on something like Nitro Type, then that's very impressive but not as impressive. Still very good.
Well, according to Rocket, in order to climb from 200 WPM all the way up to 304.76 (his current record), he mostly relied on two free online typing platforms. “All my practice is on these two websites, Monkeytype and Typeracer,” he explains.
Ronald Carver, a professor of education research and psychology, claims that the fastest college graduate readers can read only about 600 words per minute, at most twice as fast as their slowest counterparts, and suggests that Kennedy's claimed reading speed was more a measure of how fast he could skim a piece of text.
As of 2019, the average typing speed on a mobile phone was 36.2 wpm with 2.3% uncorrected errors—there were significant correlations with age, level of English proficiency, and number of fingers used to type. Some typists have sustained speeds over 300 wpm for a 15-second typing test with simple English words.
Yes, 500 WPM is very difficult to achieve but it is certainly possible.
In 2024, the competitive typing world was shocked by a teenager known online as “MythicalRocket.” This young champion set a new official world record with an incredible typing speed of 305 WPM, far surpassing the average person's pace of 40 WPM—over seven times faster!
Most seventh graders type with a typing speed of about 40 to 50 wpm, depending on the gender of the student. This isn't necessarily because one gender of student is better at typing than the other, it simply seems to be the trend found in research studies concerning typing students.
Yes, 200 WPM (Words Per Minute) is possible, but it's an extremely high and rare speed achieved by only the most dedicated and naturally gifted typists, often requiring years of focused practice, sometimes on alternative keyboard layouts like Colemak, to master techniques beyond standard touch-typing. While most professionals aim for 40-80 WPM, reaching 200 WPM places someone among the world's elite typists, with a few exceptional individuals even exceeding it.
Fast readers often have a words per minute (WPM) rate much higher than the average reading rate of 238 WPM. They are auditory readers and can typically read at 400 WPM or higher, with exceptional visual readers reaching 1,000 WPM or more, though this beyond-normal fast reading is rare and requires extensive training.
What is the average typing speed? The average typing speed is around 40 words per minute (wpm). If you want to be very productive, you should aim for a typing speed of 65 to 70 words per minute.
In fact, if one extrapolates from the choice re- action time (RT) findings that adults in their 60s require about 100 ms more time per key- stroke response than adults in their 20s, typists in their 60s may be expected to type at a rate of only 40 wpm compared with 60 wpm for typists in their 20s.
The top 1% of typists generally achieve speeds well over 100 WPM (Words Per Minute), with speeds of 140-160 WPM or more often considered in that elite category, far above the average of around 40 WPM, with record holders pushing past 200-300 WPM on QWERTY or specialized keyboards, showcasing incredible skill.
A 500-word essay should take 2 hours or less. Slow writers can add an hour or two to record completion.
Typing skills were assessed by calculating the net words per minute (WPM). Typing skills were categorized as follows: (1) fewer than 26 net WPM as very slow; (2) 26 to 35 net WPM as slow; (3) 35 to 45 net WPM as intermediate; and (4) greater than 45 net WPM as fast.
Average typing speeds
A slow typing speed is below 20 WPM. An average typing speed is around 40 WPM, 80 WPM is considered excellent, and 120 WPM is quite advanced. If you type 20 WPM, you can type 1,200 words in an hour. If you type 40 WPM, you can type 2,400 words in an hour.
If typing skills are important enough to a role that an employer requires you to pass a typing test, chances are they're looking for an average WPM of at least 60. Above 70 WPM is considered advanced, and only 1% of typists score above 100 WPM.
While 60 WPM may work for administrative roles, high-volume, time-sensitive positions demand much higher speeds. Accuracy remains a constant across all roles, often expected above 95%. Recommended typing speed benchmarks by role: Customer Support (Live Chat): 65–80 WPM with 98% typing test WPM accuracy.
Reading Speed: John F. Kennedy could read 1,200 words a minute. In 1954-1955 he attended meetings at the Foundation for Better Reading in Baltimore.
According to a 2018 article in Popular Science, “Carter boasted he could read 2,000 words a minute with 95 percent comprehension.” An advertisement for a speed-reading class in Australia claims that Carter read three thousand wpm and Kennedy five thousand (the reading equivalent of “Saul hath slain his thousands, and ...
If you're a casual or slow reader, you'll need about 1.5 hours to read 50 pages. At an average pace, expect just over an hour of focused reading. If you're trained in speed reading, 50 pages could take under 30 minutes.