When to correct

Until now, every drill has held the cursor on an error until you pressed the right key. That is the right way to learn where the keys are, because it makes every mistake immediate and specific. It is not how typing works anywhere else. In a document, an email, a form, a wrong key simply appears on the screen and it is up to you to notice it and decide what to do. From this lesson on, most drills behave that way, and the checks always have.

The decision is what this lesson is about. A typo you notice at once is cheap: one backspace, one retype. A typo you notice three words later is expensive: several backspaces, several retypes, and a lost place. So the first rule is to notice early, which means keeping some attention on what you have just typed even while your eyes are reading ahead. The second rule is not to over-correct: if you have fixed the error, move on. Do not retype the whole word to make sure.

The result card counts uncorrected errors separately from accuracy. An error you fixed still counts against accuracy, because the wrong key was pressed, but it does not count as uncorrected, and it is uncorrected errors that reduce your net speed. Net words per minute is the number this course gates on, and it is the honest one: it is what you would actually have produced.

notice early, fix once, move on