60 seconds

Right hand typing test

Every word here is typed with the right hand alone: y, u, i, o, p, h, j, k, l, n and m. Short, odd little words like only, milk, pupil and opinion, and nothing else.

What the test is

This timed test only serves words you can type with your right hand: y u i o p, h j k l and n m. Your left thumb can still take Space if that is how you type, so keep both hands in place on the home row. Pick 15, 30, 60 or 120 seconds above and start typing.

Because the right side of a QWERTY keyboard has only three vowels, the words are short and a little strange: you, only, milk, pink, union, pupil, opinion, pumpkin, monopoly. That is part of the challenge. You cannot lean on familiar sentences, so each word has to be read and typed on its own.

Why it is worth a few minutes

Splitting your typing by hand is the fastest way to find a hidden weakness. A normal test blends both hands, so a slower side stays out of sight. Run this and the left hand typing test back to back and you have two numbers that tell you where to practise.

The right hand also does a lot of quiet work in everyday typing: Enter, Backspace, most punctuation and the right-hand Shift. If it is stiff on the letter keys it is usually stiff on those too. This test is a gentle way to loosen it up.

How to practise it

Place your right index finger on J. You should feel the small bump on the key.
Run 30 seconds. Words with doubled letters, like hill, poll and puppy, are where errors creep in, so take them steadily.
Run the left hand test at the same length and compare.
Spend most of your next few sessions on the weaker hand, then compare again in a week.

Which finger takes which key

Finger	Keys
Index finger	Y, H, N and U, J, M
Middle finger	I, K (and the comma)
Ring finger	O, L (and the full stop)
Little finger	P (and the semicolon, Enter and right Shift)

If the map is new to you, the typing lessons introduce the keys a few at a time, and the touch typing guide explains the home row and finger zones in full.

Scores and leaderboards

Right hand has its own leaderboard for each length, separate from the normal tests. Sign in to put your runs on it, or simply play: your results are kept in your browser either way.

Questions people ask

Why are the right hand words so short?

Only eleven letters sit on the right side of a QWERTY keyboard, and just three of them (i, o and u) are vowels. That leaves fewer real words to choose from, and they tend to be short: only, look, milk, onion, pumpkin. The test repeats them more often than the left hand test does.

Is the right hand test easier than the left?

For most typists it scores higher, because the right hand words are shorter and the keys are spread more evenly across the fingers. Words like lollipop and minimum, where one finger does two letters in a row, are the exceptions to watch for.

How should I compare my two hands?

Run the left hand and the right hand tests at the same length, ideally 30 seconds, one after the other, three times each. Compare the middle score of each set rather than the best. A gap of more than about 15% usually points to the hand that needs practice.