How to Interpret Your Typing Test Results Properly

The Numbers on Your Results Screen

Number	What it means	What counts as good
Gross WPM	Raw speed before error deductions	Not meaningful on its own — compare to net WPM
Net WPM	Speed after error penalty — your real score	40+ for office work, 60+ for professional roles
Accuracy %	Correct keystrokes / total keystrokes	95% minimum, 98%+ for professional use
Correct chars	Characters typed correctly	Higher is better
Incorrect chars	Keys pressed that did not match expected	Lower is better — target near zero
Extra chars	Characters typed beyond what was expected	Should be near zero

Gross WPM vs Net WPM

Your gross WPM is how fast your fingers moved. Your net WPM is how much correct text you produced. The difference between them is entirely determined by your errors. If they are close together — say, 65 gross and 63 net — your accuracy is strong and speed is the right focus. If they are far apart — 65 gross and 52 net — errors are the bottleneck and accuracy training will give you bigger gains than pushing for more raw speed.

See gross vs net WPM compared for the formulas and a side-by-side example.

Your Accuracy Percentage

Accuracy below 95 percent is not just a quality problem — it is a speed problem in disguise. Every error costs you in two ways: the net WPM penalty for the incorrect character, and the time you lose as correcting or continuing through disrupted rhythm slows you down.

At 90 percent accuracy, errors are constant enough to break your flow repeatedly. At 98 percent accuracy, errors are rare enough that your rhythm stays mostly intact. Crossing from 90 to 95 percent accuracy often produces a bigger net WPM gain than adding 5 raw WPM. Use the accuracy test and the accuracy improvement guide to work on this.

The Character Breakdown

The character breakdown is the most actionable part of your results because different error types point to different problems:

Incorrect characters mean you pressed the wrong key. This is usually a finger assignment problem — you used the wrong finger, or your hand drifted from the home row and you guessed the key location incorrectly.

Extra characters mean you typed more than was expected. This often indicates key bounce on a worn switch, or a habit of pressing a key twice on a fast movement. The accuracy test will show if this pattern repeats consistently.

Missed characters mean you skipped over a character. This usually happens when typing faster than your fine motor control allows — your brain moved to the next word before your fingers finished the current one.

What to Do With This Information

Look at your last five test results, not just the latest one. A single result reflects the specific words in that test plus your mental state at the moment. Five results reveal actual patterns. If accuracy is consistently 93 to 95 percent, accuracy work is the priority. If accuracy is consistently above 97 percent but net WPM feels stuck, speed work is the priority.

Create a free account to save your results automatically and track trends over time. Then use the improvement guide and the accuracy guide to target whichever number needs the most work.