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For Teachers

How Live Races and a School Tournament Got My Students Typing Faster

October 17, 2026 · 4 min read

I teach computers to students from Class 6 to Class 10, and for a long time typing was the part of the syllabus they didn't take seriously. Drills felt like a chore, so students typed what they had to and stopped.

Over about two months, that changed. Here are the average speeds I recorded, by class group:

Class groupBeforeNowChange
Class 9–1020 WPM26 WPMabout +30%
Class 7–815 WPM21–22 WPMabout +40–47%
Class 6not measured14–16 WPM—

Class 6 is still building basic familiarity with the keyboard, so I'm treating it as a group that simply needs more time. I didn't record a starting speed for them, so I can't claim a gain there.

What changed in my classroom

Nothing about the lessons themselves changed much. What changed was that typing stopped being a solo drill and became something students competed in:

  • Live races. Students race each other in real time, so a classmate pulling ahead mid-race is much harder to ignore than a score on a screen. See Live Typing Races and our guide to how live typing races work.
  • A four-round school tournament. The tournament runs in four rounds, and only selected students move on at each stage, from class qualifiers up to a live final. Having a real event to prepare for gave practice a purpose. Here is how a school typing championship works.
  • Class-versus-class competition. Students started practising for their class, not only for themselves.

More time spent typing

The pattern I noticed most is simple: competition raises the amount of time students spend typing. When there is a next round to qualify for, students practise more, and more practice is what raises speed.

An honest caveat

This is one teacher's experience with one group of students over two months. It is not a controlled study. Regular practice would probably have raised speeds on its own, so I can't say the races alone caused the gain. What I can say is that competition got students to practise far more willingly than drills ever did.

If you want to try it

  1. Take a baseline first. Record each class's average before you start, so you can see real progress. Our post on typing speed by grade level gives realistic targets to compare against.
  2. Run short live races often rather than one big event.
  3. Set a tournament as the goal, with classes competing against each other. You can set up classes and a championship for free.
  4. Watch accuracy as well as speed, so students don't trade correct typing for raw WPM.

Written by Navdeep Singh

Navdeep Singh, MCA (Master of Computer Applications), is a Computer Faculty at a Government School in Punjab, India. He teaches computer fundamentals, digital literacy, and typing skills to students. Drawing on his classroom experience, he founded TypingBIRDS to help learners improve their English and Punjabi touch typing speed, accuracy, and confidence through practical lessons, typing tests, and interactive games. He also creates and reviews the educational content published on TypingBIRDS to ensure it is accurate, practical, and easy to understand.

Last updated: October 2026

Frequently Asked Questions

Do live typing races really improve typing speed?

In one teacher's classes from Class 6 to Class 10, average speed rose noticeably over about two months, for example from 20 to 26 WPM in Class 9–10. This is one classroom's experience, not a controlled study, so regular practice may have contributed too.

How does a TypingBIRDS school tournament work?

It runs in four rounds, from class qualifiers to a live final. Selected students advance after each round, so every student has a reason to keep practising.

Why did Class 6 improve less?

Class 6 students are still learning key positions, so progress is slower at first. No starting speed was recorded for them, so no gain is claimed. They currently average about 14–16 WPM.

Still have questions? The fastest answer is your own number.

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