What’s in the drill
About one token in ten is a number, split evenly between four kinds:
- Years from 1900 to 2030, such as 1966.
- Prices with a dollar sign and cents, such as $14.99 or $3,974.19.
- Counts, from small numbers like 14 to larger ones with a thousands separator, like 12,480.
- Decimals with one or two places, such as 8.9 or 43.61.
Everything else is common English words from our 1,000-word list. That mix is the point: the drill trains what real documents ask of you, switching from letters to digits and back without losing your place.
Numbers are scored like words
Each number is one token. A single wrong digit, a missing decimal point or a missing thousands separator means the whole number earns no credit until you fix it, the same rule as any other word. Each digit, comma, period and dollar sign counts as one character toward your speed.
That is stricter than it looks, and deliberately so: 1,250 typed as 1,205 is a real error in an invoice or a report, and the scoring treats it as one.
Technique
- Read the whole number first. Take in “$3,974.19” as one unit before you start typing it, so you aren’t re-reading in the middle.
- Reach and return. Move to the number row from the home position and come straight back. In a motion-capture study of everyday typists, minimal movement of the whole hand and a consistent finger for each key were both linked to high performance (Feit et al., 2016).
- Know your shifted symbols. On a standard US keyboard the dollar sign is Shift plus 4, while the comma and period need no Shift.
- Accuracy over speed. A number that is almost right is wrong. If your accuracy drops in this drill, slow down until it recovers.
Number row or numeric keypad?
This drill trains the number row above the letters, the keys you use for numbers in running text. For columns of figures, the kind of entry a numeric keypad is built for, switch the test’s mode to digits: it drills amounts with decimals, whole numbers and short calculations, typed on their own rather than mixed into words.
A short routine
- One drill at your normal pace. Watch for which kind of number trips you up: prices, decimals or long counts.
- Two drills at a slower, deliberate pace, reading every number in full before typing it.
- One normal 1-minute test to make sure your letter speed hasn’t suffered.
In real documents, numbers sit inside punctuated sentences, so the punctuation drill is the natural next step. If a job you’re applying for tests data entry, read typing test for jobs for what hiring tests measure.