# How to calculate relative keystroke proficiency

Discussion in 'Physics & Math' started by Jennifer Murphy, Mar 20, 2017 at 2:35 AM.

1. ### Jennifer MurphyRegistered Senior Member

Messages:
169
It seems to me that the true "proficiency" of each key that a person types on a keyboard is not accurately measured by just the percentage of correct keystrokes. I can guarantee close to 100% accuracy by taking as much time as I need to find the right key. The standard typing test practice of subtracting errors from overall words per minute (WPM) is also a very crude measure. It seems to me that to get an accurate proficiency rating for each key, I would need the percentage correct and the time interval from the previous keystroke.

Suppose I have a program that will give me a string of text to type and will record both the accuracy of each keystroke and the time interval from the previous keystroke (in milliseconds). And suppose I get this data for 6 of the keys:
Code:
C/R     C          D    E    F    G    H    I
5  Key            1    2    3    4    5    6
6  %Correct     0.99 0.99 0.95 0.95 0.90 0.90
7  Interval (ms) 200  300  200  300  200  300
8  WPM            60   40   60   40   60   40
9  Proficiency   ???  ???  ???  ???  ???  ???

How do I combine rows 7 and 8 to get a relative proficiency for each key (row 9)?

Is key #3 (Col F) with an average accuracy of 0.95 and an average interval of 200 ms (60 WPM) more or less proficient that key #2 (Col E) with a higher proficiency (0.99) but a slower speed (300 ms = 40 WPM)?

Any suggestions?