Start with (mostly) correct typing habits, was encouraged to start touch-typing while in elementary school, and used a computer often to do things (video games, forums, etc). I didn’t have to put much deliberate work into trying to learn how to type faster—it was more a byproduct of being on the computer all the time.
I was 60wpm on qwerty; I’d taken a couple of classes several years before, but I hadn’t done any practice drills or anything since, just normal typing. I didn’t do any specific training; I just typed a lot (it could easily have been nanowrimo or similar, I don’t remember), alt-tabbing back and forth with an onscreen layout diagram when I needed to. I agree that it sounds insanely fast, but that’s how I remember it going.
Aside: What did you do to reach 80 wpm?
Start with (mostly) correct typing habits, was encouraged to start touch-typing while in elementary school, and used a computer often to do things (video games, forums, etc). I didn’t have to put much deliberate work into trying to learn how to type faster—it was more a byproduct of being on the computer all the time.
I got to 80wpm in a weekend by switching to dvorak in software but not hardware, forcing myself to touch type correctly.
What was your speed with qwerty? One weekend to learn a new layout sounds insanely fast. How did you train?
I was 60wpm on qwerty; I’d taken a couple of classes several years before, but I hadn’t done any practice drills or anything since, just normal typing. I didn’t do any specific training; I just typed a lot (it could easily have been nanowrimo or similar, I don’t remember), alt-tabbing back and forth with an onscreen layout diagram when I needed to. I agree that it sounds insanely fast, but that’s how I remember it going.