Hey WSO. I'm a college freshmen looking to go into investment banking upon graduation.
The issue is that I never learned to type quickly and efficiently. Currently, I type with my pointer finders (cringe, I know) and on a 1 minute typing test, I averaged 38 WPM with 6 errors.
Is learning to type with all my fingers, and increasing my WPM something that I should make a priority? Also, if so, do you have any resources you recommend?
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Bump, I'm in the same boat
I think this is a good skill to have universally, considering that your entire life will revolve around your keyboard. I type 80 WPM which is an increase from my 40 WPM last year. I would recommend doing minute time trials every once in a while during the day, it adds up really quickly and defenilty increases productivity
Definitely, you should learn to type with all ten fingers. You can learn the QWERTY keyboard first and the order of the keys and then you should start practicing speed test type writing on various websites. You can just type speed test typing test.
I know this wasn't directed towards me, but since I'm in a similar situation to OP, I figure it's ok. In terms of learning the QWERTY keyboard, should I use one of the free online courses, or should I just start doing it?
Yes, you can definitely learn from a free online course. Here is a website I found that was particularly useful.
powertyping.com/qwerty/lessonsq.html
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https://play.typeracer.com/
Yes you should learn how to properly type. This is how I learned how to type as a kid:
Mario Teaches Typing baby
no
I can’t believe these are the type of dweebs banks are hiring these days
The ones who can't type or the ones who can?
Play some typing games to learn how, then type correctly for school, etc.
All you need to do is read a book or news site every day, and while you're doing it take notes on what you read by typing out your notes in the proper way. It will be painful at first because you probably will have to look at your keyboard to remind yourself where keys are, but eventually you'll get better. The key to learning is consistency, not doing some online program once or twice a week. Once you have the basics down and have some muscle memory you can start doing timed tests to improve the speed.
Learned typing when I was super young, but in elementary school they would put paper towels over our hands and make us type so that you can't look at the keys. It honestly works like a charm. Practice for a few hours a couple times a week and you will improve significantly in just a few weeks, and by the end of the summer you can be a great typist. I do those racing games now just to keep myself sharp, but first focus on memorizing the keyboard layout and going for accuracy before you worry too much about speed.
It's also a phenomenal skill. I can hit 130 words per minute and its insanely helpful for school, work, etc. I haven't started in IB yet, but worked at a PE firm last summer and ended up getting note taking duties in every meeting because I was the only one on the team who could type fast enough to keep up with a live meeting.
This is very sad
Know a couple friends who can type 140 WPM. They actually get work done so much faster. Imagine if the average finance person types 70 and they both have to write an email. Gets done in half the time.
I always struggle with getting faster with typing but I am faster than 70-80. Any tips? Yes, I type with all of my fingers
For me at least, the time of writing emails is consumed 95% by (over)thinking about wording, re-reading several times before sending, etc, and 5% actually typing so I disagree with being helpful for email
this shit hit home for me. I’ve spend hours writing and rewriting a short email due to overthinking. smh
Regardless of how you spend your time writing an email, when it comes to actually writing the email, you would save half the time. So even if it's 5%, you just saved 2.5%
Every additional second it takes you to type something is a second less you are able to sleep.
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