So I currently throughout all my life typed with two fingers - right and left pointer. And when I switch to the home base style of typing with using all 5 fingers I type extremely slow. Only can type fast with two pointers.
However I’m incoming ib and know it might be quicker to use the neutral position, do you guys have any tips on becoming faster at typing?
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Just comes down to practice and getting reps in. I would google Words Per Minute typing tests and just drill those until you can type at an efficient speed.
Do you use all 5 fingers to go fast?
90%+ of the time I only use one finger on my left hand and two fingers on my right. Use my index finger to hit space.
90-110 WPM
this is some psycho shit, respect it.
There are several free web apps that teach you how to type with all 10 fingers properly. Highly recommend learning that skill, and, more importantly typing without looking at the keyboard.
Sign up for an online PC game, you'll be motivated to improve when you can't flame because of how slow you type.
this is the way
Spent two summers ago going from 70 to ~90wpm. Best time spent outside of excel shortcuts
As long as you can use a keyboard in lieu of a mouse it doesn’t matter. Personally, the latter
You can also do CTRL + Alt + V + V , so saving the „two down“. For me that’s faster than alt esv
I primarily use two fingers and am 90+ WPM. Sometimes I'll reach for the farther keys with the middle fingers, but definitely not proper typing technique. I'm faster on a mech keyboard (cherry browns) although don't bring one into the office until you're a FT, interns will get laughed at.
I would just practice typing quizzes and the like with your regular typing form. It's probably easier to get up to 80+, which is all you really need, typing "improperly" than to relearn a new hand position.
I type mostly with just 3 fingers on each hand and am comfortably 90-120 wpm. My typing position is also WAS shift spacebar bc i learned to type by playing runescape and flash games in 2007
Honestly typing speed doesn’t matter much in IB. You are not writing novels. When you do write, what actually takes the most time is thinking rather than physically typing. At least for me, the gating factor for written work product is always my thinking.
One area it might hurt you is that you have to take notes during calls and some people can speak pretty fast. If you really need to though, you can just do hand written notes and transcribe into email after. Might actually be helpful for you since typing again will help you remember and learn more, but obviously not ideal since it takes longer.
Try chatting function in online video games. Chatting while playing gotta be quick as you have to be back to the game soon enough (or be killed). I promise your typing speed will be improved fast.
https://www.amazon.com/Mavis-Beacon-Teaches-Typing/s?k=Mavis+Beacon+Tea…
I'm a pretty fast typer and I credit this game I played as a kid for 100% of my abilities
Bro SAME. I was about to comment this. My parents bought me this and made me do it. You can call it a "game", but I found Mavis to be a tough teacher and have low key nightmares going through that program.
I do the exact same thing. Tried learning to use all fingers but was too slow so stuck to what I know. You’ll be fine
try some online website where you can learn to use all 10 fingers
I actually spent some time during winter break learning how to go from a two-finger typer (30 wpm) to a 10 finger typer (70 wpm) in under a month. I'm an incoming FT so I figured it would help as well. these were the three websites that helped me the most:
typing . com - I would recommend you start off with this as they have a great learning program and have a mix of fun exercises and games to help you learn without boring you.
10fastfingers . com - I would recommend you use this once you have learned how to become a 10 finger typer on typing . com. this site shows you the 200 most frequently used words and gives you good repetition to master how to type fast with 10 fingers.
keybr . com - would also recommend using after mastering typing . com. this is currently my favorite typing practice website as it has algorithms that see which keys you miss/hesitate (as in it takes a couple of seconds before you press it) and comes up with words that will help you over time become more efficient and accurate in typing. also, it breaks down your wpm by keyboard key and has some great stats/graphs that are insightful.
the three sites that I mentioned are all free but have an ad-free option that is around $7. the ads on these sites aren't intrusive whatsoever. I usually never pay for stuff that's free to use but these sites have helped me so much that I actually ended up paying for ad-free
Curious how much time you spent daily doing this to pick it up so quickly
This is my claim to fame. I was in the exact same position as you and it was a huge source of anxiety. Let me be very clear—you can’t finger type once you start full time—people will make fun of you constantly and it will immediately make you start off on the wrong foot with people not taking you seriously. Also, a huge part of the job is taking notes on calls or recording changes quickly, so you need to borderline become a 90 wpm typer to be a good analyst. Finally, I get you have been able to get away with not typing correctly until now, but for literally every other professional position the rest of your life, people will look at you like you are a moron if you finger type. You need to fix it and it’s going to blow, but it’s actually crucially important for your career. I would argue typing actually might be the single most important skill for an analyst as dumb as it sounds. The truth is so much of the job is doing quick admin tasks that being slow is really really bad.
I used to be able to do like 55 wpm using 2 fingers and just decided to commit to typing correctly. I used this website:
https://www.typingtrainer.com/demo/quick_tour.html
I just listened to music and tried to do it at least 15 minutes a day for a month. I read something online that said it takes 40 hours to go from 0 to 100 wpm. The truth is, you just need to learn the fundamentals and get comfortable learning the proper way where it is natural and eventually once you start fulltime that can serve as practice to make you better.
About 4 months in, I was screen sharing and making excel changes live with a client and an MD, and the MD remarked how he was always amazed how fast the analysts could do live changes. It sounds stupid, but it was a culmination of me finally fixing a weakness to the point where it was now praised as a strength.
Look, the analyst job is way too difficult to go in knowing you have some insecurity or deficiency—fix this shit so you don’t even think about it, otherwise you will have huge problems. I was there, I had this problem, I fixed it, and I’m telling you it’s possibly the single best thing I did to prepare myself and set myself up for success in the role.
Definitely practice your typing skills before starting. For brand new analysts, my only expectation is that they can take good call notes. Failing at that would be a major red flag
Typing fast will be super helpful and is kind of a necessity. Also with the two finger thing you can't really utilize the excel/ppt shortcuts as well.
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