Common Typing Mistakes Begginers Do

Typing faster is like a smooth glide, but it is not an easy journey that we can achieve through just random typing test practices. We need to find out what mistakes we are doing and how we can avoid them while building a smooth curve of our typing speed.

Fast typing, or we should say typing in a constant rhythm without making many mistakes, feels like a breeze. As a beginner, whether you initially type at whatever WPM, you need to understand a few thumb rules to learn typing faster without messing around, so the learning curve can be smaller.

In this post, I have discussed the most common mistakes that I personally did and have seen people doing while chasing speed.

Hand and Finger Position

Take this seriously. Without proper hand posture and ergonomics, your hands and fingers just won’t glide over the keyboard, which will directly affect your keypresses and slow you down.

You will need to find a hand posture that you can comfortably hold without much effort or getting tired, while you can also access all the keys.

Try to put your hands at the center of the main typing keys on your keyboard. Glide your fingers over the keys without pressing them to see whether your fingers can access those far letters comfortably or not.

Your wrists should be relaxed and should not be bent too much upward or downward. Also, avoid resting too much body weight on your wrists while typing because this can make your hands tired during longer sessions.

Once you get your hand placement position right, you have covered the very first step and are ready to move ahead and type all those first letters, though with less WPM for now, but eventually getting there where you want.

Right Finger Placement

There is a reason why proper finger placement is recommended to type faster.

You might have typed for a while on the keyboard with no proper finger placement, and your maximum speed may be around 30-40 or maybe 50 WPM, but without a proper rhythm.

That is why the rule to put your fingers properly on the home row exists in the typing world.

Before moving ahead or typing enough to develop muscle memory, put both of your hands’ fingers on the correct keys. This makes sure that while you practice, you develop good muscle memory that will help you excel in typing without needing to rewire your finger movements later.

Your left-hand fingers should rest on A, S, D, and F, while your right-hand fingers should rest on J, K, L, and the semicolon key. Your thumbs should stay around the spacebar.

The F and J keys usually have small bumps, which help you find the home row without looking at the keyboard.

Use the Correct Finger to Type

You may have had your old way of typing on the keyboard. Maybe you typed using two or three fingers, or however you were typing so far will have created some bad finger usage habits.

These old habits can make your fingers automatically move towards the keys they previously used to press, even when you are starting to type properly.

You will need to rewire your old way into the proper way of pressing every key with a particular finger. This allows you to cover the whole keyboard area properly without jumping, moving your hands repeatedly, or jumbling around to reach far keys.

Here is the key guide that tells you which finger should press which key.

Left Hand

Pinky: Q, A, Z, and usually 1, Tab, Caps Lock, Shift

Ring finger: W, S, X

Middle finger: E, D, C

Index finger: R, F, V and T, G, B because the index finger handles two columns

Right Hand

Index finger: Y, H, N and U, J, M because the index finger handles two columns

Middle finger: I, K, comma

Ring finger: O, L, full stop

Pinky: P, semicolon, slash, and usually 0, hyphen, equals, brackets, Enter, Backspace, and Shift

At first, following this finger placement may make you slower. This is normal because your fingers are learning a new movement.

Do not return to your old typing style just because it feels faster for now. Once you build muscle memory with proper fingers, your speed will increase and your typing will become smoother.

Don’t Chase WPM

In order to achieve a good WPM, you always need to make sure that you make fewer mistakes.

When your accuracy is good and stays above 97%, you will already be heading towards achieving a good WPM as you continue practicing.

At the start, you will make a lot of mistakes, and you should not stress too much about it. You may see an accuracy rate of around 80-90%, but that is what you need to focus on fixing first.

So, in short, do not chase WPM and do not skip accuracy. This is one of the most important parts of learning to type faster.

WPM is only the result that appears after you improve your technique, accuracy, finger movements, and rhythm. It should not be the only thing you focus on during every practice session.

Why Accuracy Is Most Important

Try typing a long word in one go. Then type the same word while making a few mistakes, correcting them, making another mistake, and correcting it again.

You will see a drastic time difference between the smoothly typed word and the messy, low-accuracy one.

The same thing applies to your overall typing speed when you type bigger words, sentences, or paragraphs.

Take your time and hover over the correct key before hitting it when you are confused about the key you are going to press next.

The small amount of time you spend finding the correct key is still better than hitting a wrong key, pressing Backspace, and typing the same character again.

As your muscle memory develops, you will no longer need to pause before pressing those keys. Your fingers will start moving automatically.

Don’t Chase Speed Initially

When you start to type, don’t instantly chase or decide how much WPM speed you have to achieve soon.

Your typing speed will take its time to reflect in your typing and will eventually show up, but not necessarily on day one, day ten, or even day one hundred.

You will get better as you continue to type over time. This may take some days or even a few months, depending on your current speed, technique, practice routine, and personal learning ability.

While you are starting out, focus on putting your fingertip on the right key before hitting it. This helps you make fewer mistakes and prevents you from getting frustrated over correcting a single character multiple times.

In short, focus on accuracy first, and speed will come up as you build muscle memory.

Don’t Type Too Much or Get Tired

Yes, the feeling to get better within a few days will come. You may want to achieve a great WPM or at least a better typing speed in only a few days, but accept that it probably won’t happen that quickly.

This is going to be quite a journey where you need to focus on getting a little better day by day.

Hitting one-hour or three-hour daily practice sessions won’t always help you much, especially as a beginner. It may only make your wrists tired and cause your accuracy to drop.

Build a minimal daily practice time, such as 10 to 30 minutes a day. You can also try practicing for five minutes after every hour if that suits your routine.

This won’t tire your wrists too much and will eventually help you build a consistent practice routine.

If you want to practice for a longer time, divide your practice into smaller sessions. For example, instead of typing continuously for one hour, you can complete two or three shorter sessions with breaks between them.

Don’t Go Hard Mode as a Beginner

While typing a normal email, note, or daily diary, you will surely need punctuation, numbers, capital letters, and other symbols.

But when you are starting out, you need to go slowly and let your fingers become familiar with the letter keys first.

This not only builds the initial confidence you need to continue your journey but also prepares you to type medium or hard-level sentences containing punctuation and numbers faster later.

If you directly start with difficult typing lessons, you may make too many mistakes and feel that typing is too hard.

Start with simple lowercase words. Once your accuracy and finger placement become comfortable, slowly introduce capital letters, punctuation, numbers, and symbols.

Don’t Look at the Keyboard

Looking at the keyboard repeatedly is another common mistake beginners make. It feels easier because you can search for the key with your eyes, but it prevents your fingers from building proper muscle memory.

Touch typing means typing without looking at the keyboard. Your eyes should stay on the screen or on the text you are copying.

In the beginning, you may press many wrong keys when you stop looking at the keyboard. Your speed may also drop. But this is a temporary part of the learning process.

Try to resist the habit of looking down after every mistake. Instead, slow down and allow your fingers to find the key.

With regular practice, your brain will remember the keyboard layout, and you will no longer need to search for keys.

Don’t Press the Keys Too Hard

Pressing keys harder does not make your typing faster. It only uses extra energy and makes your fingers tired.

Keyboard keys generally require only a light press to register. Try to keep your hands relaxed and tap the keys gently.

When you press too hard, your fingers take more time and effort to move towards the next key. This can disturb your typing rhythm during longer sessions.

Smooth and light keypresses will help your fingers move faster and reduce fatigue.

Don’t Overuse Backspace

Using Backspace is important when you make a mistake, but depending on it too much can become a bad habit.

Some typists type faster than their control level, make many mistakes, and immediately fix them with Backspace. They may still get a decent WPM result, but their actual typing flow remains weak.

While practicing accuracy, try to press the correct key on the first attempt. Slow down enough that you don’t need Backspace after every few characters.

You should still correct errors in normal writing, but your main goal during practice should be reducing the number of mistakes from the beginning.

Don’t Practice Only Easy Words

Easy and common words can help you build confidence and improve typing flow, but practicing only easy words can limit your real typing ability.

You may get a high WPM on a simple word test but become much slower when typing articles, emails, or paragraphs containing difficult words.

Once you are comfortable with basic lessons, start practicing longer words, unfamiliar letter combinations, capital letters, punctuation, and complete sentences.

This will prepare you for real typing instead of only helping you score higher on easy typing tests.

Don’t Take Only Typing Tests

A typing test is mainly useful for measuring your current performance. It tells you your WPM and accuracy, but taking tests repeatedly does not automatically fix your mistakes.

If you keep taking random tests without studying your errors, you may repeat the same wrong finger movements again and again.

Your practice should also include lessons for specific keys, difficult words, accuracy, and weak fingers.

You can take a typing test after completing your lessons to check whether you have improved. But don’t make every practice session only about testing your WPM.

Lessons improve your skill, while tests mostly measure it.

Don’t Ignore Your Weak Keys

Most people have a few keys they regularly press incorrectly. It may be Q, P, B, C, X, punctuation keys, or any other key depending on their finger control.

Ignoring those keys will make them a permanent weakness. Every time those characters appear, your rhythm will break.

Check your typing results and identify the letters or words where you make the most mistakes. Then create a small practice session around them.

For example, if you have trouble with B and V, practice words containing these letters slowly while using the correct finger.

Working on weak keys separately is much more useful than completing random tests and hoping that the mistakes will disappear automatically.

Don’t Compare Your Speed with Others

Seeing another person type at 80, 100, or 150 WPM may make you feel that your speed is too low. But you don’t know how long that person has been practicing or what type of typing test they are taking.

Every person starts at a different level and improves at a different speed.

Instead of comparing your WPM with someone else, compare your current performance with your previous performance.

If you were typing at 25 WPM last month and now type at 35 WPM with better accuracy, that is a good improvement.

Your main competition should be with your own previous speed and accuracy.

Don’t Change Your Technique Repeatedly

It is good to correct a bad technique, but changing your typing method every few days can confuse your muscle memory.

For example, if you use one finger for a key today and another finger for the same key tomorrow, your brain will not be able to create a consistent movement.

Choose the proper finger placement and follow it regularly. It may feel uncomfortable initially, but give your fingers enough time to adapt.

Consistency in technique is necessary to build strong muscle memory.

Don’t Ignore Rhythm

Fast typing does not only mean moving your fingers as quickly as possible. It means typing in a smooth and controlled rhythm.

If you type a few words very fast and then stop at every difficult word, your average speed and flow will drop.

Try to maintain a speed that you can comfortably hold throughout the complete test or paragraph.

A stable 50 WPM can be more useful than typing at 80 WPM for a few seconds and then slowing down because of mistakes.

As your rhythm improves, you can slowly increase your comfortable speed.

Take Your Time to Read Ahead

When copying text, don’t focus only on the current letter. Try to read the full word before typing it.

Once you become more comfortable, try to look slightly ahead. While your fingers type the current word, your eyes can prepare for the next word.

This can improve your typing flow because your brain already knows what your fingers need to type next.

Reading ahead may feel difficult for beginners, so start slowly. First learn to read one complete word, and then gradually try to look at the next word.

Build a Consistent Routine

One of the biggest mistakes is practicing for a long time one day and then stopping for several days.

Typing depends on muscle memory, and muscle memory develops through regular repetition.

Practicing for 15 to 30 minutes every day is generally more useful than practicing for three hours only once a week.

Choose a time when you can practice with full focus. Keep distractions away and work on one specific area during each session.

You can practice accuracy on one day, difficult words on another, and complete paragraphs on another. A proper routine makes your practice more focused.

Track Accuracy Along with WPM

When you track your progress, don’t record only your WPM. Also check your accuracy.

For example, moving from 50 WPM with 90% accuracy to 55 WPM with 97% accuracy is a strong improvement.

But moving from 50 WPM with 97% accuracy to 60 WPM with 85% accuracy may not be a useful improvement because you are making many more mistakes.

Your goal should be to gradually increase speed while keeping accuracy stable, preferably around 95% or higher.

Verdict

Learning to type faster is not only about taking random typing tests and forcing your fingers to move quickly.

You need proper hand posture, correct finger placement, high accuracy, relaxed keypresses, good rhythm, and consistent practice.

As a beginner, don’t chase WPM, don’t type for too long, and don’t directly start with hard lessons. First allow your fingers to become familiar with the letter keys and build correct muscle memory.

Avoid looking at the keyboard, identify your weak keys, and don’t compare your progress with other typists.

In my personal experience, the best way to type faster is to first learn to type smoothly. Once your movements become accurate and consistent, your speed will gradually increase on its own.

So, don’t go random while learning typing. Follow the proper technique, practice a little every day, and focus on fixing your mistakes. This will make your learning curve smoother and help you reach a better WPM without developing bad habits.