How the CritiCall Keyboarding test works
Paragraphs of text appear on screen and you type them out word for word. Biddle says the ability to capitalise and punctuate correctly is emphasised, so unlike the data entry modules this one is in normal mixed case.
The score is words per minute. Biddle does not publish its exact formula. Austin-Travis County EMS asked for “at least 35 words per minute (wpm) with 80% accuracy”, which suggests agencies can see speed and accuracy separately.
How to type faster without losing accuracy
Copy-typing rewards a steady rhythm more than bursts of speed:
- Keep your eyes on the text, not your hands. Each glance down costs you your place.
- Read a few words ahead of what you are typing, so your fingers never wait.
- Fix a mistake straight away if you notice it. Do not go back for older ones.
- Treat capitals, commas and full stops as part of the word. They are scored.
Worked example: how net WPM is usually worked out
Typing tests normally count five characters, including spaces, as one word. Say you type 900 characters in five minutes: that is 180 words, or 36 gross words per minute.
If six words are left wrong, the common method takes off one word per error per minute: 6 ÷ 5 = 1.2, so your net speed is 36 − 1.2 = 34.8 WPM. That clears Florida Highway Patrol’s suggested 33.5 but falls just short of Austin-Travis County EMS’s 35, which is why accuracy matters as much as speed.
Tips for the real Keyboarding test
- Find out your agency’s WPM bar and test yourself on free typing tests until you clear it with room to spare.
- Run TestGenius’s Keyboarding sample to check your computer works with the platform. It is not scored.
- Use the keyboard you will test on, or one like it. A laptop keyboard can feel very different from a desktop one.
- Practise passages with plenty of capitals and punctuation, not just lower-case word lists.
Practise CritiCall Keyboarding on CogniPrep
Our version gives you five minutes of mixed-case paragraphs to copy, with the current word highlighted and Backspace allowed. You get net words per minute, worked out as in the example above, with your accuracy beside it. The five minutes come from a prep-site report, not from Biddle.