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Curious how efficient of a communicator y'all are? Words per minute (WPM for short) is a measurement that defines how quickly you are able to form and recognize words in your communication with others. Whether y'all're looking to figure out how quickly you lot type, speak, or read, the basic formula for finding your WPM is the same: (# words)/(# minutes).

  1. 1

    For the quickest results, apply an online typing tester. Today, the easiest way to figure out how many words you lot can type per infinitesimal is usually to use a program online specifically made to test this. It's easy to find dozens of these programs with a search engine term like "words per infinitesimal typing examination." Though there are many of these types of programs available, most work the same way: you type a list of words inside a certain fourth dimension limit and the programme uses your functioning to calculate your WPM.

    • 1 smashing program for this is available at 10fastfingers.com.[1] The examination on this page is elementary: but type each give-and-take on the screen, putting a space between each, until the infinitesimal timer counts down.
    • In addition to learning your WPM, this typing test will also tell you the number of mistakes you fabricated and tell you which percentage of test-takers you scored in.

  2. 2

    Alternatively, open up a word processor and set a timer. You tin also determine your typed WPM manually — for this, you'll need a computer programme yous can type in (like a word processor or notepad program), a timer or stopwatch, and a source of text you tin can copy.

    • Set up the timer for whatever length of time (in full general, the longer you test yourself for, the less vulnerable you'll be to fluke performances.)
    • Your text should be long enough that yous won't reach the end before your timer finishes.
    • If you don't have a give-and-take processor installed on your device, you can access i for gratis with a Google business relationship at drive.google.com.[ii]

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  3. iii

    Commencement the timer and start typing. When you're all ready to go, outset the timer, and so begin copying the text. Try to be equally authentic as you tin — if you notice a error while you're typing a word, set up information technology, just you don't demand to fix mistakes in words that you lot've already finished. Go along copying the text until the timer goes off, and then stop immediately.

  4. 4

    Split up the number of words past the number of minutes. Now, finding your WPM is easy. Divide the number of words you typed by the number of minutes that you originally prepare your timer for. The terminal reply yous get is your WPM.

    • Note that about all modern word processors have a "word count" feature, so you don't need to count your words manually.
    • For example, let's say that we type 102 words in 1 minute and 30 seconds. To find our WPM, we would separate 102 words/1.5 minutes to get 68 WPM.

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  1. i

    Use an online examination. If you're trying to effigy out how many words per infinitesimal you can read, in one case once again, your all-time bet is more often than not to use an online speed reading exam program. These are a little less common than typing speed tests just plenty of skillful ones can still be found with search engine queries similar "reading words per minute."

    • 1 great program is available at readingsoft.com.[iii] In this plan, y'all time yourself while you read a text of predetermined length. Once you finish, the plan calculates your WPM based on how quickly you reached the end.

  2. 2

    Alternatively, grab a stopwatch and copy a long stretch of text into a word processor. As in a higher place, it's also possible to find the WPM you read manually. To do this, you'll want to open a discussion processor, paste a page or two of text into it (preferably something you oasis't read before), and so get ready to start a stopwatch.

    • Before you begin, use your discussion processor'south "give-and-take count" feature to decide how many words are in your text selection. Record this number — you'll need it at the end.
    • A good place to discover long text selections you haven't read earlier is on your favorite news website. Since the news is constantly updated, yous won't accept to wait long to find something you oasis't read yet.

  3. iii

    Get-go the stopwatch and start reading. When you lot're prepare, get-go timing yourself and begin reading the text at your normal reading speed. Unless yous're specifically trying to see your maximum reading speed, you shouldn't blitz yourself — this won't give y'all an authentic moving picture of how fast yous read in your day-to-day life.

  4. 4

    Divide the number of words by the time it took y'all to read the text. Stop the stopwatch as soon equally you read the very concluding word in the text. At present, simply apply the aforementioned formula every bit above to find your WPM: # words/# minutes.

    • For case, if it took us three minutes to read a one,100-word news article, nosotros would find our WPM by dividing 1,100/3 = 366.7 WPM.

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  1. i

    Grab a stopwatch and find a speech communication with a known number of words. Figuring out your WPM while speaking is a picayune more than hard than the two methods above. Most noticeably, there aren't whatever proficient online programs that can make the calculations for y'all. Withal, with a footling endeavor, yous can still find your speaking WPM manually. Beginning by copying a spoken language (preferably a reasonably curt one that you haven't read before) into your word processor, then finding the number of words in information technology with the processor's "word count" feature. You'll as well demand a stopwatch for this test.

    • A list of major historical speeches is available at historyplace.com.[4] Many of these speeches (like, for instance, George Graham Vest's "Tribute to the Domestic dog") aren't well-known by the full general public, making them swell for this exam.

  2. 2

    Time yourself as you lot deliver the voice communication. Start the stopwatch and begin reading the text out loud. Talk at your normal speaking charge per unit — again, unless you're trying to effigy out your maximum speaking charge per unit, going quickly has no purpose. Speak with a moderate, conversational pace, pausing whenever feels natural.

  3. 3

    Divide the number of words in the speech past the minutes it took to evangelize. When you finish the speech communication, stop the stopwatch. Once again, your WPM is given by dividing the number of words in the speech communication by the number of minutes it took for you lot to speak it.

    • For instance, if information technology took us five minutes to deliver a i,000-give-and-take spoken language, we would observe our WPM by dividing 1,000/5 = 200 WPM.

  4. four

    Use a recording of a natural conversation for a more accurate WPM. The exam above is alright for determining your WPM, but it'south not perfectly accurate. The style nosotros speak when delivering a speech is a little dissimilar than the way we speak when nosotros're actually talking in our mean solar day-to-day life — many people, for case, deliberately talk more than slowly and clearly when reading aloud. In improver, since you lot're reading from a written text, the test is also partly a test of your reading speed and not your natural speaking speed.

    • To get the nearly accurate results, you'll want to tape yourself speaking to someone else in a semi-casual setting for a long, uninterrupted stretch of fourth dimension, count the words manually, and dissever by the number of words by the number of minutes. This is fairly painstaking, merely it's the virtually authentic measure of your actual speaking speed.
    • One good way to get yourself talking for a long stretch of fourth dimension is to gather a group of friends and tell them a long, detailed story that y'all know well and have told before. This way, you won't need to pause to call back how the story goes — yous'll only be limited by your natural speaking speed.

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  • Question

    I am having trouble with a homework assignment. My teacher wants me to read 106 words at 50 wpm, how do I calculate this and so that I tin complete this project?

    Community Answer

    Maybe this volition answer your question: 106 words read at 50 wpm should have y'all just over 2 minutes (nearly 2.ane minutes or about 2 minutes and 6 seconds). If information technology were just 100 words (not 106), information technology would accept exactly ii minutes.

  • Question

    What if I took less than a mintue to speak the text I was given? How exercise I calculate from seconds to mintues?

    Community Answer

    You should separate the number of words read by 60 to get wps (words per second). Or instead, yous could calculate your wpm like this: Separate the words read by the fraction of a minute information technology took. For example, 6 seconds is 0.i of a minute. If it took 48 seconds to read your words, that would be 8/10 or 0.viii minutes. In that case, divide your number of words past 0.8 to get your wpm.

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  • One time y'all observe your words per infinitesimal, multiply past 60 to find your words per hour (WPH).

  • Keep in mind that the text you use for your test can affect your results. Texts with lots of long, complicated words will boring y'all down and give you a lower WPM, while texts with by and large brusk, easier words will give you a college WPM.

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