70: the professional gateway
Seventy matters because of what it unlocks rather than what it proves. Transcription postings set their floors at 70–90 WPM, and the arithmetic explains why: conversational English runs at 130–160 spoken words per minute, so a 70 WPM typist transcribes an hour of audio in roughly two to two and a half hours of work — the ratio at which the job becomes economical. Below 70 the ratio breaks; above it, each extra WPM is directly billable. No other typing threshold converts to money this cleanly.
70 WPM by age
| If you are… | 70 WPM is… |
|---|---|
| A student | Rare — genuinely competitive-club territory |
| 17–44 | Top ~5% for any adult group |
| 45+ | Roughly double your cohort’s average |
Jobs at 70 WPM
Everything general: long cleared. Transcription (70–90): you’re on the floor of the band — in the door, with accuracy and audio-handling skill now the differentiators. Captioning and legal transcription tiers sit a little higher. If typing-priced work interests you at all, this is the number where the option becomes real.
Getting to 80
The 70→80 climb rewards realism in training: real punctuation, capitals and numbers (drills without them flatter you by 10–15%), sustained 3–5 minute lengths, and an accuracy floor of 96%. Eight to ten weeks of daily short sessions, typically — moving you from the 96th to the 99th percentile, into the top few percent of everyone who has ever taken this test.
Retest — 3-minute mode
Click the words and start typing — the timer starts on your first keystroke. space next word · Esc restart