10 key by touch: keypad fingering, KPH and what counts as a good score

What is the numeric keypad, and why "10 key"?

The keypad is the calculator-style block on the right of a full-size keyboard. Wikipedia lists its other names as numpad and ten key, after the ten digit keys. It's built for one hand, usually the right, and a standard PC keypad has 17 keys: the digits 0 to 9, a decimal point, four arithmetic symbols, Num Lock and Enter.

Two details trip people up. The keypad puts 7, 8 and 9 on the top row, the reverse of a phone, where 1, 2 and 3 are on top. And with Num Lock off, 8, 6, 2 and 4 act as arrow keys, so a keypad test taken with Num Lock off produces a screen of cursor movement and no digits. Macs have a Clear key in place of Num Lock.

The 5 key usually carries a raised bar or dot. That bump is the keypad's version of the F and J bumps on the main keyboard: it lets your middle finger find home without your eyes.

Which finger presses which key?

The home row is 4, 5 and 6. India's National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS), in its typewriting course, defines the keypad home row as 4, 5, 6 and the plus key, and says the 0 is pressed with the right thumb. Wikipedia gives the same index, middle and ring placement on 4, 5 and 6. Each finger then owns the column above and below its home key.

That's the common four-finger method, and it's what a column layout suggests: the decimal point sits under the 3, so it goes to the ring finger, and the right-hand column of minus, plus and Enter goes to the little finger.

It isn't the only method. A teaching unit published by the Illinois State Board of Education uses three fingers: the index finger takes 0 as well as 1, 4 and 7, and the ring finger takes Enter, plus, minus and the asterisk along with its own column. That suits people whose little finger is weak or whose keypad has a tall Enter key close to the 6. Pick one method and stay with it. Mixing the two is what produces a slow hand.

How to learn 10 key by touch

Most people already know where the digits are. The hard part is trusting the hand without the glance. A plan we'd follow:

1. Turn Num Lock on, rest index, middle and ring fingers on 4, 5 and 6, and the thumb under the 1 and 2. Type 456 456 456 pressing Enter after each group, until it feels dull.
2. Add one column at a time: 7, 4, 1 for the index finger, then 8, 5, 2, then 9, 6, 3. Always return to the home row after a reach.
3. Add 0 with the thumb and the decimal point with the ring finger. Amounts like 10.50 and 300.07 drill both.
4. Cover your hand with a sheet of paper or a cloth. If you can't stop glancing, that's the test.
5. Type real material: a column of amounts from an old bank statement, entered into a spreadsheet, then added up. If the total matches, you were accurate.

Ten minutes a day is enough. Aim for no errors before you aim for speed, for the reason in the next section. If your laptop has no keypad, an external USB keypad lets you practice the real thing.

How is KPH calculated?

KPH is the number of keystrokes you made, divided by the minutes the test ran, times 60. On a keypad each digit, decimal point and Enter is one keystroke, though tests differ on whether Enter counts, so read the instructions.

Some worked examples:

• India's Staff Selection Commission (SSC) gives data entry operators a passage of about 2,000 to 2,200 key depressions and 15 minutes. 2,000 keystrokes in 15 minutes is 2,000 ÷ 15 × 60 = 8,000 KPH, which is exactly the SSC's qualifying speed.
• 1,000 keystrokes in a 5-minute test is 1,000 ÷ 5 × 60 = 12,000 KPH.
• 97 keystrokes a minute is 97 × 60 = 5,820 KPH.

To compare a KPH figure with a WPM figure, divide by 300. A word is five keystrokes, and an hour is 60 minutes, so 8,000 KPH is about 26.7 WPM. That looks slow until you remember that every keystroke here is a digit, and digits have no spelling to carry you along.

The other thing to check is whether the test counts every key you pressed or only correct ones. A gross KPH counts mistakes too, and the accuracy is reported beside it; a net figure removes errors first. An employer who asks for "net keystrokes" means the second, and the same performance gives a lower number. Our post on what typing accuracy really measures explains why those two numbers drift apart faster than they look.

What is a good 10 key score?

These are the official figures we could find and confirm, converted with the rules above.

So 8,000 KPH, with no errors, will meet nearly every official bar we found. The SSC's figure for the Comptroller and Auditor General's office shows how far above that some specialist roles go. Private employers commonly list their own KPH targets, often higher for experienced operators working on numbers only, and they usually test on their own software. We haven't quoted those, because we couldn't trace a single figure to a primary posting.

Two things about the table. The Census posting offers 5,400 KPH and 25 WPM as alternatives, and 25 WPM converts to 7,500 KPH, so the keystroke route was the lower bar. And the US federal government has no qualification standard of its own for the data transcriber series: the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) points agencies to its general clerical standard, which accepts skill on a data transcribing machine or a typing speed of 20 WPM at GS-2 and 25 WPM at GS-3 and GS-4, measured on a five-minute sample with three or fewer errors.

Accuracy decides more of these tests than speed. A wrong digit in an account number costs more than a slow one, which is why the community college goal says "no errors" and the federal rule caps errors at three.

How does our KPH test relate to keypad work?

Our KPH test turns on numbers and punctuation inside ordinary text and reports your speed in characters per minute; multiply by 60 for keystrokes per hour. Because the digits sit inside words and sentences, most people type them on the number row. The test checks the character, not the key that made it, so you can type every digit on the keypad instead.

That makes it a test of alphanumeric entry, the names, addresses and invoice lines that make up most data-entry jobs, more than a pure 10-key test. Your score will include your letter speed and the cost of moving a hand between keyboard and keypad. That cost is real at work too, so it's worth measuring, but don't compare the number directly with a numbers-only keypad score.

For the number row on its own, the number typing test isolates digits, and for exam practice the SSC CGL data entry page sets up the 15-minute format. The rules for that exam are in typing tests for government exams in India. The results screen on every test lists your most-missed keys, and practice builds a short drill from them.

Frequently asked questions

What does 10 key by touch mean on a job application?

That you can enter figures on the numeric keypad by feel, with one hand and without looking down. Employers often test it with a timed keypad exercise scored in keystrokes per hour.

What is a good 10 key typing score?

Around 8,000 KPH with no errors meets the official benchmarks we found, which run from 5,400 to 8,000 KPH for entry-level jobs. Some specialist roles ask for more, such as the SSC's 15,000 for the Comptroller and Auditor General.

Which finger presses 0 on the numeric keypad?

The right thumb in the common four-finger method. Some courses give it to the index finger instead.

Is 10 key the same as typing speed?

No. Typing speed is prose on the main keyboard, usually in WPM. 10 key is digits on the keypad, usually in KPH. Divide KPH by 300 for a rough WPM equivalent.

How long does it take to learn 10 key by touch?

We found no study that measures it. The layout is small, so most of the work is breaking the habit of looking down. Ten minutes a day of covered-hand drills is where we'd start.