1 Minute Typing Test

Type the passage for one minute and read your words per minute and accuracy.

Type each word and press space after it. The clock starts on your first key. They were not railway children to begin with. I don't suppose they had ever thought about railways except as a means of getting to Maskelyne and Cook's, the Pantomime, Zoological Gardens, and Madame Tussaud's. They were just ordinary suburban children, and they lived with their Father and Mother in an ordinary red-brick-fronted villa, with coloured glass in the front door, a tiled passage that was called a hall, a bath-room with hot and cold water, electric bells, French windows, and a good deal of white paint, and 'every modern convenience', as the house-agents say. There were three of them. Roberta was the eldest. Of course, Mothers never have favourites, but if their Mother HAD had a favourite, it might have been Roberta. Next came Peter, who wished to be an Engineer when he grew up; and the youngest was Phyllis, who meant extremely well.

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1 minute of typing. Words per minute is correct characters divided by five; accuracy is correct keystrokes out of all keystrokes.

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Next step Next step up: two minutes on Alice in Wonderland Half the time: thirty seconds on a novel's first lines

How it works

This 1 minute typing test is real prose: the first chapter of The Railway Children (1906), cut into seventeen short passages with capitals, speech marks and punctuation.

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Sixty seconds from your first key

The clock runs for exactly 60 seconds from the first key you press, so a 60 second typing test and a one minute typing test are the same thing here. If you finish a passage before the minute is up, the next part of the chapter follows.

What slows people down in this chapter

Speech: more than half the paragraphs open with a quotation mark. Words printed in capitals for stress, such as HAD and ONLY, must be typed that way. A dash is two hyphens with no spaces, and hyphens join words such as red-brick-fronted.

Questions and answers

How is this one minute typing test scored?

Your speed is correct characters divided by five, per minute, so over one minute it is your correct characters divided by five. A slip you leave uncorrected does not count toward it. Accuracy shows beside the speed.

Is a typing test 1 minute long harder on real sentences?

Usually. Book prose has capitals, speech marks and punctuation, which common lower-case words do not. For a minute on plain words, use the typing speed test, and compare a score only with another on the same kind of text.

Is a 60 second typing test long enough?

For a quick reading of your speed, yes. One slip moves a one minute score more than it moves a three minute or five minute one, so take a few runs. Your best is kept in this browser only.

Is this 1 minute typing test free?

Yes. It is free, with no sign-up and nothing to install, and what you type never leaves your browser.

Why is this one minute timed typing test set on a 1906 novel?

The Railway Children was first published as a book in 1906, so it is in the public domain in the United States, and its first chapter is plain storytelling with plenty of speech.

All 17 passages

The Railway Children (1906), chapter 1 17

Not Railway Children Yet The book opens in an ordinary suburban villa with three children: Roberta, Peter and Phyllis. Hyphens join red-brick-fronted and bath-room, and the house-agents' phrase sits inside single quotation marks.
Three Lucky Children Mother writes stories and funny poems, Father is never cross, and the dog is called James. Two words are printed in capitals for stress, NOT and HOW, and two dashes are typed as two hyphens each.
The Engine Goes Off With a Bang Peter turns ten, his model engine lasts three days, and he takes to his bed with a cold. One long paragraph of narration, then three short lines of speech about gruel and pigeon-pie.
A Poem About Pigeon-Pie Mother's poem for Peter in bed. Its seven verses are set here as running lines, so a capital letter starts each line of verse in the middle of a sentence. Watch for them.
Father Can Mend Anything Father has mended a rocking-horse, a doll's cradle and the Noah's Ark beasts, and Peter waits until he has dined to bring out the Engine. Engine keeps its capital E all four times.

Show all 17 passages (12 more)

The Railway Children (1906), chapter 1, continued

A Knock at the Front Door Father promises a Saturday of mending and says girls are just as clever as boys. Then someone knocks. Almost every paragraph is speech, so quotation marks open and close all the way down.
Two Gentlemen in the Library Mother guesses the callers want money for a testimonial, Roberta wishes for a moat and drawbridge, and Ruth the parlour-maid comes in with a message. Her speech drops letters: Please'm, p'raps.
Called Away on Business Mother comes back with a white face and sends the children to bed, and Ruth will not say what has happened. Short paragraphs, one pair of brackets, and Ruth's double negatives, typed as printed.
Breakfast Without Mother Roberta lies still in the dark, and at breakfast the three quarrel about Peter asking Ruth. Capitals carry the stress, as in ASK and DON'T, and one line ends in a colon and a dash.
Mother Asks for Help Mother comes home near seven, tired out, and asks the children to be good and to ask no questions. A dash on each side of one remark breaks her sentence in two.
A Germ of Endearment Peter owns up, the children promise to be as good as gold, and at bedtime Peter muddles a phrase of Father's. Seven words are printed in capitals for stress, from YOU to HAS.
Aunt Emma Comes to Stay Weeks of dull meals, an aunt with a sewing-machine, and servants who hint at what they know. Most of it is one paragraph of about two hundred words with no speech at all.
Playing at Being Poor Mother says they are leaving for a little white house in the country, and a week of packing follows. One sentence is a plain list of eight things, from crockery to fire-irons.
The Last Night at Home A bed on the drawing-room sofa for Peter, a cab to the station, and Aunt Emma seeing them off. THEY and HER in capitals turn one short sentence into a joke.
The First Train A cold platform at night, the tail-lights of the guard's van going into the dark, and a muddy uphill walk behind the cart. Four paragraphs of narration round one line of speech.
The Key Under the Doorstep The shutters are shut, nobody answers the door, and the cart man finds the key. Short lines, most of them speech, and one dropped letter in e'er.
Only the Rats One candle in a bare kitchen, a scampering in the walls, and the door blows the light out. The last part, and its last line of speech opens with a word in capitals.

How this list was compiled: Seventeen passages cut from chapter 1, The Beginning of Things, of The Railway Children by E. Nesbit, first published as a book in London by Wells Gardner, Darton in 1906, after running as a magazine serial from January 1905 to January 1906 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Railway_Children). A work first published before 1931 is in the public domain in the United States (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_domain_in_the_United_States). The chapter was split at paragraph breaks into parts under 1,700 characters, listed in reading order, so a finished passage rolls into the next. Changes to the text: hard-wrapped lines and paragraphs were joined with single spaces, curly quotation marks were set straight, each dash was set as two hyphens, and the seven verses of the poem were set as running lines. Words printed in capitals for stress, such as HAD and ONLY, and spellings of the time, such as bath-room and arm-chair, stay. Characters divided by five give standard words (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Words_per_minute). Titles of the parts and the notes are own work. All checked 2026-10-06. Licence: Public domain in the United States: a novel first published as a book in 1906 (London: Wells Gardner, Darton), before 1931 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_domain_in_the_United_States). Part titles and notes are own work.