March 8, 2018
"### Day 1 I decided to do something. I’m going to learn to type with the Dvorak keyboard layout. People say it’s easier and that they can type faster with it. I hit about 60-70 wpm on the QWERTY keyboard and that seems to be as fast as my fingers can move. So I’m curious if I can go faster on Dvorak or not. It’s an experiment. I also own/program a website that has [typing tests and typing lessons](https://thepracticetest.com/typing). So another motivation to learn Dvorak is to see how it would fit in with the website. I think there is enough interest in Dvorak to justify adding lessons for it, but do they need to be totally new lessons – or will just an extra keyboard image be enough? ### Day 2 _This is my second day trying to learn the Dvorak keyboard._ Yesterday, I did [three typing lessons](https://thetypingtest.com/typing/lessons/03) at The Practice Test. I had to look up the keys for each lesson as I went, but that was not the hard part. The hardest part is unlearning the QWERTY keys that I am already proficient at. I’m wondering if there is any point to learning DVORAK if you can already type 60+ wpm in the QWERY system. I’ve heard that it’s faster though, and so I thought I would give it a try. I typed the fist sentence of this post with Dvorak and a bunch of misspellings. (I have no clue where the ‘y’ key is or the ‘c’, so tried the closest phonetic spelling I could find. Today, I reviewed the first three lessons (trying to get 20 wpm before moving on) and then the next three. [I could not get 20wpm even after several tries on the second three](https://thepracticetest.com/typing/lessons/06). I’m hoping that tomorrow it will go better. I’m really worried that if I succeed with Dvorak it will ruin my QWERTY skills… at the same time, I’m not convinced that this new letter placement is going to be faster to type with even if I do learn it. The biggest challenge though was when my boyfriend asked me to Google something for him. I tried to type it in, but OH, NO… my keyboard is broken! Took half my practice time to figure out how to [switch back and forth between QWERTY and Dvorak on the Mac](http://thepracticetest.com/about/help.php#dvorak). (Yesterday I was on a windows machine, which was easier to switch on.) ### Day 3 I reviewed the first 6 lessons and did [3 more typing lessons](https://thepracticetest.com/typing/lessons/09). I am typing this with the Dvorak keyboard, but I am so slow that I look forward to the number keys because they are in the same place. And back with my old friend QWERTY. I had to pause half way through today and type a few lessons the old way just to make sure I hadn’t forgotten it. I don’t think I can recommend Dvorak to anyone who already knows how to touch type. It may be faster for those who learn it from a fresh start, but is’t so frustrating to type so slow! I was never a fast typist, but I’ve been typing for years and years and finally, one year things started to click (thanks to a ‘letter invader’ game I played for several hours a day while I was out of work). I’d forgotten how hard it is to type when you are first learning. At this point, the best thing I can say for Dvorak is that it is reminding me that typing is really HARD when you first start learning to do it. ### Day 4 I skipped the review today and [finished all the letter lessons](https://thepracticetest.com/typing/lessons/13). It feels good to know where all the letters are, **but my wpm is only 10**. And typing with Dvorak _**hurts my head**_. I have to concentrate really hard. It’s like holding a door open in my brain. **_Don’t type the old way – Type the new way._** If I let the door shut then my fingers just go right back to qwerty without even thinking about it. My fears about switching back may be unfounded. At this point, the letter placement with Dvorak does not seem to have any natural advantages like I thought it would. I was buying into the idea that the letters were placed in qwerty with the purpose of slowing people down and keeping keys from jamming in the old-fashioned typewriters. Now, I feel like qwerty is superior because the most frequent letter combinations (like T-H) are NOT right next to each other. (Which might jam a traditional typewriter…) But also alternating hands when typing seems to be the fastest way to type…so the more combinations that alternate left to right, the faster I can make the transitions. I’m not giving up on Dvorak yet. I don’t think I’ve given it a fair shot with only 4 days, but I am not as sure that I will end up loving it in the end. ### Day 5 I decided to try something different today and see how other people are teaching the Dvorak keyboard. Would some letter drills designed for Dvorak help me get faster? [Dvorak Keyboard Training](https://learn.dvorak.nl/) This site says, don’t do letter drills. Fine, I wasn’t. I still feel lost and their very first drill looks as intimidating as trying to type my email! So I backed away slowly. Taking a second look, I think those were all home row keys, but it still looks too hard to begin with. [Typing Club – Dvorak](https://www.typingclub.com/dvorak) Now I feel like Goldilocks. After 10 (very nicely designed) lessons, I’ve had enough of letter drills. I don’t feel like I’ve learned anything much or improved my skills as much as I was hoping from letter drills. The drills themselves, while they look beautiful are LONG and BORING, and I’m anxious to get on with it and type something real. [Programmer Dvorak Typing Tutor](http://programmer-dvorak.appspot.com/) Oh, not, not more drills! But better drills. (Maybe the same drills?) The good thing is I can choose between them and not have to “play” the whole game to get the next lesson. I’m bookmarking this one for future reference, but not in the mood for these drills today. [Typing Cat Basic Dvorak](http://thetypingcat.com/typing-courses/basic) After several blogs and forums here is another set of lessons, and oh, what are they DOING? The keys are all in yet another order. Ok, there is more than one way to layout a keyboard and still call it Dvorak. This is obviously a different one (they had vowels on the right…) **Conclusion…** Even though The Practice Test is far from perfect, I am not thinking I will find what I’m looking for elsewhere. At the same time, the key combinations in a QWERTY course don’t seem that helpful for learning Dvorak, so it really needs to be improved. I’ll be thinking about how to do that as I continue my practice. Today I will try [typing some common words](https://thepracticetest.com/typing/practice/most-common/) to see how well I remember the alphabet. I might even venture over to [try some pangrams](https://thepracticetest.com/typing/practice/alphabet/). My head still hurts, but not quite so bad. I got 10wpm on both tests. That and this last paragraph took half an hour! ### Day 6 I practiced some [more pangrams](https://thepracticetest.com/typing/practice/alphabet/index.php) today and got 11wpm on my last try. At this rate, I think I can hit 40wpm in a month. Not all that impressive. I was reading a couple posts from people who have tried this before me. Based on their experiences I’m guessing the best I can hope for is to match my current speed. The increase seems to go along with people who haven’t learned to touch type in the first place learning to touch type with Dvorak. So the comparisons might not be fair. The world’s fastest typist used Dvorak though, so maybe… I’ve decided to try to keep this up for 30 days and see where that will get me before I draw any final conclusions. ### Day 7 I did a couple of pangram tests today. It takes me so long. I’m getting between 9 and 10 words a minute. I managed to do the last one at 12wpm. I know where all the keys are now. And that’s a good thing. My computer fell asleep while I had my keyboard on Dvorak and I had to type my password to get back in! (Well, that might be an interesting reason to learn Dvorak. Leave your keyboard switched over for an added layer of security. Even if they figure out your password, they probably won’t be able to type it! I may try this on my next job…) I’ve decided I really do need to have some letter drills to help learn where the keys are – in relation to each other. I need to get better at common keystroke combinations as well. So I will be building some [new Dvorak lessons for The Practice Test](https://thepracticetest.com/typing/lessons/dvorak/) over the next week or so. My hope is I can find a good balance between the letter drills and real words. I think it will be a helpful exercise to evaluate the standard typing lessons as well. They should have the same kind of balance between drills and real words. ### Day 8 Kind of an easy day today. I’m working on those lessons and trying to figure to figure out what order to introduce the letters. I’ve been practicing word list for those letter combinations to see how quickly I can progress from words to phrases or sentences. It’s been encouraging to see some bursts of 25-35wpm at times on the letter drills. I’m almost afraid to go try a real typing test because it might still be 10wpm… probably. ### Day 9 Three learning Dvorak lessons are done and loaded up online now: - [N & O keys](https://thepracticetest.com/typing/lessons/dvorak/01/index.php) - [T & E Keys](https://thepracticetest.com/typing/lessons/dvorak/02/) - [S & A Keys](https://thepracticetest.com/typing/lessons/dvorak/03/) The non-drills are starting to feel more like real words and phrases and I’m very happy to see that I can get up near 30 wpm. I’d like to maintain that speed as I branch out away from the home row and onto the others. The hardest keys right now are O and S, I keep forgetting and trying to type them with the wrong hand first. I’ve only started to catch myself before actually hitting the key, but it still breaks my rhythm and slows me way down when it happens. ### Other Interesting Dvorak Facts I was reading up on Dvorak today and discovered that August Dvorak (the guy who invented the Dvorak layout) was a professor at the University of Washington. That’s practically next door! (Well, one state over.) One of his students was writing a thesis on typing errors and he decided that the existing (qwerty) keyboard could use some improvements. The original studies Dvorak did divided up groups of students who were learning to type in school (so, no unlearning or relearning) and found the Dvorak group was able to learn the keyboard in about 1/3 of the time as the qwerty group. So maybe there is a greater advantage to learning Dvorak when you are just starting out on the keyboard. ### How Long Does it Take to Switch to Dvorak from Qwerty? There were some studies in the 1930’s about learning Dvorak. One by the Navy said you could relearn how to type in 10 days. (That would be tomorrow and I am not THERE yet… not to the speed that I can type qwerty – not anywhere near it.) The other study among a bunch of businesses came up with a time of 100 hours. I find that more believable. My boyfriend just pointed out that they may have been putting in 10-hour days with the Navy group. I’m practicing 30-60 minutes most days. 30 on purpose, and some extra with an occasional line in the blog here, or an email, or trying to type my password to get back in my computer. ### Day 10 I was so excited yesterday to see 30wpm on some of the Dvorak drills, but today I am back down to 15-16 as I added another 3 lessons to my practice. - [H & U Keys](https://thepracticetest.com/typing/lessons/dvorak/04/) - [D & I Keys](https://thepracticetest.com/typing/lessons/dvorak/05/) - [R & L Keys](https://thepracticetest.com/typing/lessons/dvorak/06/) This gets me off the home row. I think I prefer for the keys to be mixed between rows when I’m typing. It feels more “natural” than sticking to just one row. That makes me wonder about the idea that having 70% of the characters you type on the home row is actually better than 50% in the first place. It might be true for preventing carpel tunnel though. And I suppose “natural” is whatever you get used to. I’m just used to having my hands bounce all over the keyboard I guess. On the positive side. My head doesn’t hurt so much when I’m typing, and I’ve noticed I try to type the correct key more often now (as opposed to catching myself going for the qwerty position). I figure I’ve put in 5-10 hours so far. If it takes 100 to regain your previous typing speed, then I think I will make it if I can keep myself practicing that long. ### Day 11 Dvorak is getting easier all the time. I hit 20wpm today, at least a couple times, but by the end of my practice I was back down to 14-15wpm. It gets harder toward the end of my practice and I find myself spacing out, even over keys I know well now. But the head does not actively HURT. It only quits working now and then… without the pain. I did 3 more lessons today. - [M & W Keys](https://thepracticetest.com/typing/lessons/dvorak/07/) - [C & G Keys](https://thepracticetest.com/typing/lessons/dvorak/08/) - [F & Y Keys](https://thepracticetest.com/typing/lessons/dvorak/09/) I think that tomorrow I will cut it down to 2 and maybe to a full-keyboard test like the pangrams at the end. The practice tests are getting a little longer with each lesson and my speed is not increasing at the same rate. At 20 wpm it’s a 3+ minute test now. I might also benefit from reviewing the earlier lessons quickly at the beginning – to see if my speed has improved on the keys I’m supposed to know already. I don’t know, I guess at this point I just want some positive feedback. It’s hard to stay motivated when I’m so slow. It feels like it’s getting easier, but the test results aren’t improving that much. ### Day 12 A little Dvorak review today. I’m glad I decided to review, because I got to see some higher wpm scores for a change. They went down quickly as I progressed through the lessons though. I started out at 45 wpm on the first lesson and ended up at under 20 by the fifth home row lesson… and getting slower each time I took the test until I reached 15 wpm and decided to call it a day. I’m going to try to pick up where I left off tomorrow. I think that after a certain amount of time, I might just be getting to tired to concentrate enough to keep from hitting the qwerty keys. My mind starts drifting off in the middle of a test. And my cat wasn’t helping either. I’m pretty sure “correct typing posture” does not include a cat draped over your forearms or trying to roll onto the keyboard. Some days are just like that. ### Day 13 Oh, day 13 of learning Dvorak, and it’s an unlucky day. Maybe that is why I want to quit. I picked up where I left off on the lesson review, but didn’t get very far before I started getting slower instead of faster. I have found that I probably need more drills. The common letter combinations feel very awkward to my fingers and it’s things like “st” and “ere” that I find myself most often hovering over the keys where they would be on a qwerty keyboard… and it’s that hovering that keeps me from getting any faster. As a result of that, I’ve updated the [Dvorak lessons after the homerow](https://thepracticetest.com/typing/lessons/06/) to have a couple more lines of drills that include common words or letter patterns. I’m hoping that will help prevent so much hovering. I’m also considering that the same type of drills might be useful on the [qwerty lessons for beginning typists](https://thepracticetest.com/typing/lessons/). ### Days 14-16 I actually thought learning Dvorak was going to make typing easier, but here I am nearing the end of my second time through lessons for the alphabet and I think that even if I did not have to unlearn QWERTY, I would still not pick Dvorak. I’ve managed to increase my speed by about 5 wpm this week, and talked on the phone while practicing. It’s definitely getting easier. I’ve also noticed a lot of very common words that seem to use only the left hand, or mostly the left hand. I have two objections to that. First, I’m right-handed. So should all the vowels REALLY be under my left hand? Second, it still seems slower when I am typing adjacent letters on the same hand, as opposed to going back and forth between both hands. Even worse, when two adjacent letters are typed with the same finger! I find that this bothers me on both keyboards, but seems to happen much more often on the Dvorak layout. ### Days 17-18 Finished up round 2 of the alphabet with the Dvorak keyboard at just a hair under 20 wpm. I’m officially quitting this project today. I learned the keyboard, but I don’t think that this is something worth pursuing. I may play with Dvorak once in a while for fun, but I do not think I can sufficiently “unlearn” the qwerty keyboard without abandoning it completely. And, well, I have things to do. A lot of them involve typing and so I NEED to type 60+ wpm in my daily activities. I can’t afford to spend 2-3 weeks, or 2-3 months relearning the keyboard. At the same time, to really get good at Dvorak, I think that you probably need to switch over completely – not just for an hour of so of daily practice, but for everything. I haven’t found a reason to be that committed to this other keyboard layout… even if it were not for the fact that it’s non-standard and so there would be problems using other people’s computers/keyboards or letting them use yours. As a programmer, collaboration on the job often requires that kind of sharing. My end conclusion is that using the Dvorak keyboard is kind of like learning a cool magic trick… fun, but not very useful. At best you may impress a few friends with your magic skills, but you probably will not end up typing any faster than you would if you spent the same amount of time [learning touch typing](https://thepracticetest.com/typing) and practicing with the standard keyboard."