A ten-minute practice routine that uses the subway

Typing practice usually fails because it is boring, and you stop. A subway line gives practice a shape. It has a start and an end, the words are real, and the result is a card you can compare with last time. Here is a plan that takes about ten minutes.

Minutes 0 to 3: one easy line, slowly

Pick a line at difficulty level 1 or 2 and ride it at a speed where you make almost no mistakes. The point of this ride is rhythm. Look at the next station name on the nameplate while you finish the current one, so there is no gap between names. The Aalto study found that fast typists make fewer mistakes, so if you are slipping, you are probably going too fast for today.

Minutes 3 to 7: the same line, a little faster

Ride the same line again with the gauge in view and push the pace by about ten percent. Do not chase your best score. Watch the typo count on the result card. If it goes up by more than a couple, you have found the speed limit for this session, and the next ride should be slower.

Minutes 7 to 10: a harder line or Express

Finish with something different. Try a line one level up, or Express mode, where you get sixty seconds and a random run of stations. Express is a good way to practice reading ahead under pressure, because you cannot memorize the order. Whatever result you get, write nothing down. Over a week, the trend is the only thing worth looking at.

Things that actually help

Use all your fingers and keep your eyes on the nameplate and off the keys. Rollover, pressing the next key a moment before the last is released, is what fast typists in the Aalto data used for a large share of their keystrokes, and it tends to arrive with practice rather than with effort. Stop after the third ride. A fourth rarely beats the first three.

Repetition matters more than variety. It is tempting to switch cities after one ride, but the same line twice teaches your fingers the words, and the words are the actual obstacle. English station names repeat Street, Avenue, Square and Park. Korean names repeat 역, 대학교 and 공원. Learn those and long names stop being long.

Lines for each stage

For the first week, try the L train in New York, the Victoria line in London or the Ginza Line in Tokyo, all short. In the second week move to the Jubilee line or the Yamanote Line. By the third week you will probably be ready for Seoul's Line 2, which is a loop of forty-three stations.