A typing practice plan
Learning in the right order is far quicker than typing at random. Six stages, from the home row to speed work, with a marker at each one telling you when to move on.
Three rules that apply throughout
- Do not look down. Slow with your eyes on the screen beats fast with them on your hands.
- Accuracy before speed. Only push the pace once you can hold above 95% where you are.
- Regular beats intense. Fifteen minutes a day outperforms two hours at the weekend.
The six stages
The home row
Start with F and J, add D and K, then S and L, then A and the semicolon. The only goal here is typing without looking.
95% accuracy on asdf jkl;
Top and bottom rows
Reach up for E I R U then Q W T Y O P, then down for N M V B and C X Z. After every reach, the finger returns home.
Simple words without looking down
Capitals, punctuation and numbers
Shift is pressed with the opposite hand to the letter. Then punctuation and the number row, both routinely skipped and both constantly needed in real work.
A full sentence with punctuation
Vietnamese accents
Only if you need it. The vowels ă â ê ô ơ ư and the letter đ first, then one tone mark at a time, then long syllables where both appear together.
Accented Vietnamese without thinking
Common words and sentences
Move from typing characters to typing whole words as single movements. This is where speed starts climbing noticeably.
Around 35–45 wpm
Accuracy, then speed
Drill the keys you actually miss, then push the pace. Test once a week to see where you are.
Above 95% at a comfortable speed
How long it takes
At fifteen minutes a day, most people get through stages one to three in about three weeks. If you are learning Vietnamese accents, add another few weeks. Fifty words per minute usually takes several months of steady practice.
Treat those numbers loosely. Whether you keep going daily matters far more than how long any one session lasts.
Read next
- How to learn touch typing — hand position and finger assignment.
- Typing speed test — what the numbers mean and how to improve them.
- Typing Vietnamese accents — the order to learn vowels and tones in.
- Vietnamese Telex guide — the complete key table.