5-minute typing test
Five minutes of common English words, the sample length of the US federal standard for clerk-typist jobs. You get your words per minute, accuracy, slips and how steady your pace was. The clock starts with your first key.
The timer starts with your first key.Tab or Esc restarts
The 5-minute federal standard
The US Office of Personnel Management’s qualification standard for clerical positions sets typing speeds for federal jobs: 40 words per minute for clerk-typists, office automation clerks and assistants and clerk-stenographers, and 20 or 25 for data transcribers, depending on grade. How it measures them:
“Words per minute are based on a 5 minute sample with three or fewer errors.”
US Office of Personnel Management: Qualification standards for clerical and administrative support positions
Applicants can show the skill by passing an agency’s performance test, with a certificate of proficiency from a school or other organization authorized to issue one, or by certifying it themselves, and agencies may test anyone who self-certifies. This page is practice for that standard, not the official test.
Reading your result against it
At 40 WPM, five minutes is 200 words, or 1,000 characters, so three errors is very few: accuracy matters as much as speed. The results show:
- Words per minute
- Only the characters that are right in the end count, so a mistake you leave in costs you speed.
- Slips
- Every wrong keystroke, including the ones you fixed: a strict count of your mistakes.
- Accuracy
- The share of your keystrokes that hit the right key. A slip you fix still counts against it.
- Consistency
- How even your pace was from word to word, across all five minutes.
Keeping your speed for five minutes
- Build up to it. Take 3-minute tests until your speed there is close to your 1-minute speed.
- Start at a pace you can hold. Settle into an even rhythm from the first word rather than sprinting the first minute.
- After a slip, fix it and move on. Get straight back into your rhythm; the next word is already on screen.
- Read the rhythm chart. If your pauses grow toward the end, build up with 3-minute tests; if they gather on the same letters, practice aims at those.
A certificate for your test
Signed in with Google, you can turn a 3- or 5-minute test into a certificate: your name, speed, accuracy, test length and date, at an address anyone can open to check it, ready to print or save as a PDF. It’s free, and the button is on your results.
It records a result typed here, unsupervised, as the certificate itself says. It isn’t a certificate of proficiency from a school or an organization authorized to issue one, which is what the federal standard means, so ask whether an employer accepts it.
Other test lengths
- 1-minute typing test
The standard sprint: your speed on everyday words, and how it compares with 168,960 typists.
- 3-minute typing test
Speed and stamina: the pace you keep once the first minute is over.
- Every length in one place
The main typing test also runs for 15 or 30 seconds, and keeps the length you pick.
Read next
What employers ask for, and how to type more accurately and faster, each guide with its sources.
What is a good typing speed? Average WPM and percentiles
The average typist types about 52 WPM. 60 WPM beats about 68% of typists, 80 WPM puts you in the top 10%, and federal typing jobs ask for 40 WPM.
How to improve typing accuracy
Slow down until mistakes nearly stop, find the keys you miss and what you hit instead, and fix the reach behind each slip. You’ll usually get faster too.
How to type faster: a practical plan
Cut mistakes first, then practice your slowest keys and key pairs a few minutes a day, read ahead and let keystrokes overlap. A plan based on research.
Frequently asked questions
What typing speed do federal jobs require?
40 words per minute for clerk-typist, office automation and clerk-stenographer positions, under the Office of Personnel Management’s standard for clerical jobs, measured on a 5-minute sample with three or fewer errors. Data transcriber positions ask for 20 WPM at grade GS-2 and 25 WPM at GS-3 and GS-4.
Is 40 WPM a good typing speed?
It meets the federal clerk-typist standard and is a solid working speed, though below the average of 51.6 WPM in a 2018 study of 168,960 typists: 40 WPM was faster than about 31% of them. What is a good typing speed? compares other speeds.
Sources: US Office of Personnel Management: Qualification standards for clerical and administrative support positions; Dhakal, Feit, Kristensson and Oulasvirta: Observations on Typing from 136 Million Keystrokes (CHI 2018)
How is a 5-minute typing test scored?
Your words per minute are the characters you typed correctly, spaces included, divided by five and then by five again for the five minutes. Accuracy is the share of your keystrokes that hit the right key, and slips counts every wrong keystroke, fixed or not.
Can I use this test for a job application?
As practice, yes; as proof, only if the employer accepts it. Federal agencies accept their own performance tests, certificates of proficiency from schools and organizations authorized to issue them, or applicants certifying their own speed, and other employers set their own rules.
Can I get a typing test certificate?
Yes, free, after a 3- or 5-minute test while signed in with Google. The certificate shows your name, speed, accuracy, test length and date at its own address, where anyone can check it, and you can print it or save it as a PDF. It records a result typed here without supervision, so it isn’t a certificate of proficiency from a school or an organization authorized to issue one.
How do I keep my speed for five minutes?
Build up to it. Take 3-minute tests until your speed there is close to your 1-minute speed, settle into an even pace from the first word, and practice the keys that slow you down, which the results name after every test.