Medical Typing Test

Type free medical terminology typing practice on 17 drills, or a scribe typing test on visit notes.

Type each word and press space after it. The clock starts on your first key. Chief complaint: itchy rash on both forearms for one week. History of present illness: the patient is a 41-year-old man who cleared brush in his garden the day before the rash appeared. He reports pruritus that is worse at night and small blisters that weep clear fluid. He denies fever, swelling of the lips or tongue and trouble breathing. He has used no new soap, lotion or medicine. Past medical history: eczema as a child. Allergies: no known drug allergies. Exam: streaks of erythema with small blisters on both forearms, no pus, no swollen lymph nodes. Assessment: contact dermatitis, most likely from poison ivy. Plan: referral to a dermatologist if the rash has not cleared in two weeks.
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Listening uses a voice that is built into your device, a few words at a time. Nothing is sent anywhere.

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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 Set a plain-words WPM beside your medical oneNext: call notes with addresses and plates

How it works

This medical typing test times you on the words a clinic types all day: 17 drills of terms and chart phrases, then 12 visit notes about invented patients. Choose one in the Passage menu, set 1, 3 or 5 minutes or No timer, and read your WPM and accuracy. A self-test: no certificate.

Read the full guide

Medical scribe typing practice, from roots to notes

Start with the word parts: once -ectomy is removal and nephr- is the kidney, nephrectomy stops being 11 random letters. Six drills group terms by shared part and four by body system. Four more cover drug forms, routes, 33 drug classes and 34 generic names, with no doses anywhere, and three hold chart phrases. The 12 visit notes set those terms in sentences with colons, ages and a blood pressure such as 118/76.

American spelling, by eye or by ear

Passages follow MedlinePlus, so they print anemia, edema, diarrhea and hemorrhage, not anaemia or oedema. Match the screen: a British spelling typed from habit counts as errors. A scribe types from speech, so Listen to it has a voice on your device read a note a few words at a time. Choose No timer for that: the voice reads only the note you picked. With a clock running, a short drill that ends hands over to the next passage.

  • Break a long term at its parts and type it in beats: chole, cyst, ectomy. Three short runs beat one run of 15 letters.
  • Repeat Beginnings for level, speed and place until hyper- and hypo- stop blurring. On a chart that slip reverses the meaning.
  • In the notes, keep your eyes on the text through the digits. 128/78 is six keystrokes, and looking down for the slash costs more than the slash.

Questions and answers

Why is my WPM lower on medical terms?

The words are long and built from parts: hypercholesterolemia and electroencephalogram run to 20 letters. Hemorrhage, diarrhea and cirrhosis hide r-r-h, and ophthalmic packs in p-h-t-h. They are unforgiving too: ureter and urethra are different tubes.

Is this a typing test for medical scribe applicants?

It is practice for one, and nothing more official. The 12 visit notes share a scribe's headings: chief complaint, history of present illness, exam, assessment and plan. We know of no scribe employer's test or pass mark we could check, so none is quoted; ask the recruiter. A result here is an unverified self-test.

Are the patients and the medical details real?

No. Every patient, visit and reading is invented. The notes give no doses and no advice: they exist to be typed, not followed. Spellings and word-part meanings were checked against MedlinePlus on 19 September 2026. Take a health question to a clinician.

All 29 passages

Word parts: roots, beginnings, endings 6

  • Beginnings for level, speed and place hyper- is above normal and hypo- below; tachy- is fast and brady- slow; peri- around, endo- within, trans- across, inter- between, sub- under. One letter separates hyperglycemia, high blood sugar, from hypoglycemia, low, so the pairs sit side by side.
  • Digestive roots hepat- is the liver, gastr- the stomach, col- the colon and cholecyst- the gallbladder. Diarrhea, cirrhosis and hemorrhoids all carry r-r-h, and ileostomy starts ile-, from ileum, the lower small intestine.
  • Endings for problems -itis is inflammation, -osis a condition, -pathy disease, -emia a blood condition, -oma a tumor, -megaly enlargement, -penia a lack, -plegia paralysis, -pnea breathing and -rrhea a flow. MedlinePlus files tendinitis with -din-, not -don-.
  • Endings for tests and surgery -ectomy is removal, -gram a recording, -scopy examining with an instrument, -stomy a surgical opening, -centesis a puncture to remove fluid and -plasty a reconstruction. Tonsil has one l; tonsillectomy has two.
  • Head and nerve roots enceph- is the brain, neur- a nerve, ophthalm- the eye, ot- the ear and rhin- the nose. The trap is ophthalm-: it holds p-h-t-h, so an h sits before the t as well as after it.
  • Heart and vessel roots cardi- is the heart, angi- a blood vessel, thromb- a blood clot and hem- blood. Two traps: arrhythmia runs a-r-r-h-y-t-h-m, and hemorrhage doubles the r before its h.
Show all 29 passages (23 more)

Terms by body system 4

  • Bones, joints and muscles Fasciitis has two i in a row, rheumatoid opens r-h-e-u, and coccyx doubles the c and ends y-x. spondyl- is a vertebra: it opens spondylosis and spondylolisthesis, the longest word in the set at 17 letters.
  • Chest and breathing terms Silent letters: asthma hides t-h, pneumonia and pneumothorax open with a silent p, and pleurisy keeps its e-u. Dyspnea is dys-, difficult, plus -pnea, breathing.
  • Kidney and urinary terms nephr- and ren- both mean kidney, cyst- is the bladder, and -uria means in the urine, so hematuria is blood in the urine. Ureter and urethra name different tubes; check the ending before you move on.
  • Skin terms Pruritus, itching, ends -itus: it is not built on -itis. Psoriasis opens with a silent p, abscess goes s-c then s-s, and seborrheic keeps r-r-h.

Drug forms, routes, classes and generic names 4

  • Drug classes The words for what a medicine does, as a medication history uses them. No drug is named and no dose is given. anti- means against, so an anticoagulant works against blood clots and an antiemetic against nausea and vomiting. Anesthetic is the American spelling; the British one adds an a, anaesthetic. Diuretic runs d-i-u, and ACE is three capitals.
  • Drug forms The words for the shape a medicine comes in. No drug is named and no dose is given. Suppository doubles the p, lozenge has a z, and elixir ends i-r.
  • Generic drug names Thirty-four generic names spelled as MedlinePlus Drug Information lists them, with no doses and no uses. Hydrochlorothiazide is 19 letters: type it in four beats, hydro, chloro, thia, zide.
  • Routes paired with forms Ophthalmic is the eye and otic the ear, one slip apart on a medication list. sub- is under and lingu- the tongue, so sublingual is under the tongue; bucc- is the cheek. Commas count as characters here.

Chart phrases and abbreviations 3

  • Abbreviations written out Eighteen abbreviations from the MedlinePlus list, each followed by what it stands for. EKG and EEG are one letter apart and name different tests: the heart and the brain.
  • Headings of a visit note The headings a visit note is filed under, then the body systems a review of systems runs through. Short lines with a full stop each: the test is the capital letter and the rhythm, not the vocabulary.
  • Normal exam phrases Stock lines for an exam that finds nothing wrong, the phrases typed most often in a shift. Auscultation, listening to the sounds of the body, is the word to drill: au, scul, ta, tion.

Scribe-style visit notes 12

  • Visit note: abdominal pain An invented patient. The densest note in the set: gastroesophageal, cholecystectomy, dysuria, hematuria, appendicitis and urinalysis in one visit, each drilled earlier by its root or ending.
  • Visit note: asthma follow-up An invented patient. Albuterol and fluticasone are named with no dose. Wheezed, wheezing and stridor sit close together, and 97 percent is typed as a word, not a sign.
  • Visit note: burning urination An invented patient. Dysuria, hematuria, cystitis and pyelonephritis all come from the kidney and urinary drill. Pyelonephritis is the one to slow down for: pyelo, neph, ritis.
  • Visit note: chest pain An invented patient. Myocardial infarction is the MI of the abbreviations drill written out, and it is typed twice. Lisinopril and atorvastatin return from the generic names drill, with no dose.
  • Visit note: cough and fever An invented patient, as in every note here. Colons after the headings, a slash in the blood pressure and a decimal point in the temperature: a note tests punctuation and digits as well as terms.
  • Visit note: diabetes follow-up An invented patient at a routine visit. Hyperlipidemia and hypertension open alike and end differently; A1C is a capital, a digit and a capital, typed without a space.
  • Visit note: headache An invented patient. A note with few long words: the work is in the list after denies, five items and three commas, and in the three vital signs with their slash and decimal point.
  • Visit note: itchy rash An invented patient. Pruritus ends -itus and erythema has one r, both from the skin drill. Forearms is one word, and poison ivy is two.
  • Visit note: low back pain An invented patient. In a one-sided complaint the side is the fact that must not slip: right is typed six times here and left never. Sciatica hides a c after its s.
  • Visit note: sore throat in a child An invented patient, a child, so part of the history comes from a parent: her father denies, not she denies. The age takes two hyphens, 7-year-old.
  • Visit note: swollen legs and shortness of breath An invented patient with the longest medication list in the set, and no dose anywhere in it. Congestive heart failure, the CHF of the abbreviations drill, is typed in full three times.
  • Visit note: twisted ankle An invented patient. Left and right carry the meaning in an injury note, so a swapped side is the error to watch for. Appendectomy returns from the endings drill.

How this list was compiled: Own passages, written for this page; every patient, visit and reading in them is invented, and no dose is given. Spellings and meanings checked on 2026-09-19 against MedlinePlus, US National Library of Medicine: word parts and what they mean from the tutorial Understanding Medical Words, https://medlineplus.gov/medwords/medicalwords.html, and Appendix A, https://medlineplus.gov/appendixa.html; abbreviations from Appendix B, https://medlineplus.gov/appendixb.html; every other term found spelled exactly so in the Health Topics index, https://medlineplus.gov/healthtopics.html, the Medical Encyclopedia index, https://medlineplus.gov/encyclopedia.html, the Drugs, Herbs and Supplements index, https://medlineplus.gov/druginformation.html, or on a medlineplus.gov page returned by the site's own search (auscultation: https://medlineplus.gov/ency/article/002226.htm; hemoglobin A1C: https://medlineplus.gov/lab-tests/hemoglobin-a1c-hba1c-test/; lipid panel: https://medlineplus.gov/lab-tests/cholesterol-levels/). Spellings are American, as MedlinePlus prints them. Eight more visit notes and the drug classes drill were added on 2026-09-19. Each term they bring to the set was looked up that day through MedlinePlus's own search service (https://wsearch.nlm.nih.gov/ws/query, database healthTopics) and then found, spelled exactly so or as the plural of the same word, on the page the search returned. Each page name that follows goes after https://medlineplus.gov/ to make the address: palpitations: arrhythmia.html; troponin: heartattack.html; aura: migraine.html; flank pain: abdominalpain.html; penicillin, antibiotic: antibiotics.html; urine culture: urinarytractinfections.html; contact dermatitis: rashes.html; poison ivy: poisonivyoakandsumac.html; dermatologist: hidradenitissuppurativa.html; strep throat: streptococcalinfections.html; otitis media: earinfections.html; immunizations, vaccine: vaccines.html; rapid strep test, throat culture, tonsils: tonsillitis.html; eardrum: eardisorders.html; dander, antihistamine: allergy.html; spirometry: asthma.html; physical therapy: rehabilitation.html; reflexes: acuteflaccidmyelitis.html; atrial fibrillation: atrialfibrillation.html; basic metabolic panel: fluidandelectrolytebalance.html; lymph nodes: lymphaticdiseases.html; antiviral: birdflu.html; antifungal: endocarditis.html; anticoagulant, blood thinner: bloodthinners.html; anticonvulsant, muscle relaxant: traumaticbraininjury.html; antidepressant: antidepressants.html; antipsychotic: eatingdisorders.html; antiemetic: nauseaandvomiting.html; antacid: gerd.html; analgesic: painrelievers.html; anesthetic: anesthesia.html; opioid: opioidsandopioidusedisorderoud.html; sedative, laxative: colonoscopy.html; diuretic, beta blocker, ACE inhibitor, calcium channel blocker: bloodpressuremedicines.html; decongestant, expectorant, cough suppressant: coldandcoughmedicines.html; bronchodilator: chronicbronchitis.html; corticosteroid: steroids.html; steroid: anabolicsteroids.html; statin: statins.html; insulin: diabetesmedicines.html; probiotic: dietarysupplements.html; immunosuppressant: isletcelltransplantation.html; chemotherapy: cancerchemotherapy.html. Two terms came from pages fetched directly: crackles from https://medlineplus.gov/ency/article/000145.htm and oxygen saturation from https://medlineplus.gov/lab-tests/pulse-oximetry/. anti-, against, is from Appendix A. The notes name medicines a patient already takes and tests a clinician orders; none gives a dose, and none says what any reader should take or do. Licence: own work; the word-part meanings are paraphrased from MedlinePlus pages written by the US National Library of Medicine (US government work, public domain)

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