Data Entry, Keyboard Skills and Documentation Practices
This domain tests measurable typing performance and the documentation discipline around it: how speed is calculated, how accuracy is judged, how the numeric keypad is used, and how records are kept verifiable.
Core rules
- Accuracy is graded before speed; a fast but error-prone entry is a failed entry.
- Standard conversion: 5 keystrokes = 1 word. WPM = (keystrokes ÷ 5) ÷ minutes.
- Gross speed counts everything typed; net speed deducts errors per minute: net WPM = gross WPM − (errors ÷ minutes).
- Touch typing keeps fingers on the home row A S D F and J K L ; with the thumbs on the space bar; the numeric keypad home keys are 4, 5, 6.
- Double entry (keying twice and comparing) and data validation rules catch transcription errors; check digits catch number errors.
- Documentation practice: one naming convention, consistent date format, version numbers, source document reference and regular backup.
Worked example
A candidate types 300 words in 3 minutes with 12 errors. Gross = 300 ÷ 3 = 100 WPM. Errors per minute = 12 ÷ 3 = 4. Net = 100 − 4 = 96 WPM. Reasoning: errors are deducted from the per-minute rate, not from the total word count, so correction on screen does not repair the gross figure.
Traps that cost marks
- Reporting gross speed when the question asks for net.
- Counting keystrokes directly as words instead of dividing by 5.
- Believing backspacing before submission removes the error from the gross count.
- Mixing WPM with keystrokes per hour.