Rationale
The National Educational Technology Standards for Students (NET-S) outlines essential elements
of technology education that allow students to live, learn, and work successfully in an
increasingly complex and information-rich global society. Achieving keyboarding proficiency at
an earlier age is necessary for the successful integration of technology across the curriculum, thus
allowing Charter Oak Unified students to meet these national standards and the mandates
of No Child Left Behind, Common Core standards, and SBAC testing.
However - Nowhere does it say that these standards have to be met using touch operation of a keyboard. But if one can keyboard improperly at 30 WAM then certainly keyboarding by touch could probably double that number and therefore cut the amount of time spent on any project in half. This is why keyboarding by touch is so important.
How to Measure a Timed Writing Test
Timed writing tests can be applied to any block of text keyboarded. In order to allow for words of varying size all one has to do is count every five characters (keystrokes) as a word and then count up how ever many one has keyboarded in the time allowed. The space bar and punctuation marks also count as characters. For example, this sentence is comprised of ten words. It is broken up as follows. The RED vertical lines show where every five characters, including spaces and punctuation, are broken up to produce five character "keyboarding words".
For e|xampl|e, th|is se|ntenc|e is |compr|ised |of te|n wor|ds.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
There is always a slight discrepancy among text keyboarded because as you can see in this example there are a few characters left over that do not comprise a complete five character "keyboarding word". So if one can keyboard this sentence in one minute with no mistakes, then one can say that he or she can keyboard 10 WAM or Words A Minute.
GWAM - Gross Words A Minute - Timed writing score that includes errors
WAM - Words A Minute - Score that has been adjusted for extra errors.
On a three minute timed writing test A GWAM of 45 with three errors requires no adjustment. However, a score of 45 with six errors should be adjusted to 42 to account for the three extra errors above what is allowed.
The National Standard for keyboarding allows one error for each minute keyboarded. When students are tested the longer the test the more accurate the score. A one minute timed test is more of a sprint and not a very accurate measure. Most students are tested on a three minute timed test using age appropriate text without numbers or punctuation. Most jobs that require keyboarding skill typically require applicants to submit to a five or ten minute timed writing test to acquire a more accurate score.
Many computer programs such as Microtype or the online computer tests are using this standard to calculate timed writing scores but it is not shown. A score is generated without any explanation of how.
How to Measure a Timed Writing Test
Timed writing tests can be applied to any block of text keyboarded. In order to allow for words of varying size all one has to do is count every five characters (keystrokes) as a word and then count up how ever many one has keyboarded in the time allowed. The space bar and punctuation marks also count as characters. For example, this sentence is comprised of ten words. It is broken up as follows. The RED vertical lines show where every five characters, including spaces and punctuation, are broken up to produce five character "keyboarding words".
For e|xampl|e, th|is se|ntenc|e is |compr|ised |of te|n wor|ds.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
There is always a slight discrepancy among text keyboarded because as you can see in this example there are a few characters left over that do not comprise a complete five character "keyboarding word". So if one can keyboard this sentence in one minute with no mistakes, then one can say that he or she can keyboard 10 WAM or Words A Minute.
GWAM - Gross Words A Minute - Timed writing score that includes errors
WAM - Words A Minute - Score that has been adjusted for extra errors.
On a three minute timed writing test A GWAM of 45 with three errors requires no adjustment. However, a score of 45 with six errors should be adjusted to 42 to account for the three extra errors above what is allowed.
The National Standard for keyboarding allows one error for each minute keyboarded. When students are tested the longer the test the more accurate the score. A one minute timed test is more of a sprint and not a very accurate measure. Most students are tested on a three minute timed test using age appropriate text without numbers or punctuation. Most jobs that require keyboarding skill typically require applicants to submit to a five or ten minute timed writing test to acquire a more accurate score.
Many computer programs such as Microtype or the online computer tests are using this standard to calculate timed writing scores but it is not shown. A score is generated without any explanation of how.