How the drill works
Each round is 25 items made only from the nine home-row letters A S D F G H J K L: real words where possible, plus a few short letter groups. Type each one and press Space with your thumb. Wrong letters turn red, and the round ends as soon as the last word is typed correctly. Pick 50 or 100 words under Length when 25 feels easy.
The finger colors on the keyboard below the text are mirrored between the hands, so A and ; share a color (the little fingers), as do S and L, D and K, and the index fingers’ four keys F, G, H and J. The key you need next glows in full color. After each round you get your speed, your accuracy and a map of the keys you missed. Every letter you type also counts toward the My weakest keys drill, which later builds practice from your own slow and error-prone letters.
Getting your hands in place
- Find F and J with your index fingers by feel: the bumps are there so your eyes can stay on the screen.
- Let the other fingers fall on the keys beside them: A, S and D for the left little, ring and middle fingers, K, L and ; for the right middle, ring and little fingers.
- Rest both thumbs on the space bar. Use whichever thumb feels natural to press it, and keep using the same one.
- Reach sideways for G and H with the index fingers, then come straight back.
Keep your wrists relaxed and your fingers lightly curved, and don’t worry about speed for the first few rounds. Accuracy above 95% on the home row is a good sign you’re ready for the next row.
Why this row comes first
Your fingers return here after every other key, so it’s the row a touch typist uses as a map. It’s also the easiest to drill with real words: all 42 of them are listed below, and none uses the right little finger’s home key, the semicolon, which you’ll meet in punctuation later.
When the home row feels automatic, switch the Practice menu to the top row, then the bottom row, and check your speed on real sentences with the standard typing test. If your work involves columns of figures, the numeric keypad has a home row of its own, 4 5 6, which the 10-key test drills with the same kind of keyboard guide.
The 42 home-row words in the drill
a · as · all · ask · has · had · add · fall · sad · dad · half · glass · gas · flag · flash · hall · salad · shall · glad · dash · lash · flask · flasks · slash · hash · sash · gala · saga · salsa · alfalfa · alas · lad · fad · fads · lag · flags · falls · asks · adds · halls · salads · dads