Classical Literature Typing Test

Learn something new as you improve your typing with this english literature typing test. Practice typing excerpts from your favorite classics! Over 70 passages from the best loved books available.

If you don't like a test prompt, you can get a different (random) prompt with the "change test" button - or select a passage from specific book to type from the list below. To find out how fast you type, just start typing in the blank textbox on the right of the test prompt. You will see your progress, including errors on the left side as you type. In order to complete the test and save your score, you need to get 100% accuracy. You can fix errors as you go, or correct them at the end with the help of the spell checker.

Sample Data Entry Test Prompt

A lane was forthwith opened through the crowd of spectators. Preceded by the beadle, and attended by an irregular procession of stern-browed men and unkindly visaged women, Hester Prynne set forth towards the place appointed for her punishment. A crowd of eager and curious schoolboys, understanding little of the matter in hand, except that it gave them a half-holiday, ran before her progress, turning their heads continually to stare into her face and at the winking baby in her arms, and at the ignominious letter on her breast. It was no great distance, in those days, from the prison door to the market-place. Measured by the prisoner's experience, however, it might be reckoned a journey of some length; for haughty as her demeanour was, she perchance underwent an agony from every footstep of those that thronged to see her, as if her heart had been flung into the street for them all to spurn and trample upon. In our nature, however, there is a provision, alike marvellous and merciful, that the sufferer should never know the intensity of what he endures by its present torture, but chiefly by the pang that rankles after it. With almost a serene deportment, therefore, Hester Prynne passed through this portion of her ordeal, and came to a sort of scaffold, at the western extremity of the market-place. It stood nearly beneath the eaves of Boston's earliest church, and appeared to be a fixture there. ('The Scarlet Letter' by Nathaniel Hawthorne)

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Select a Specific Typing Test:

Click on a topic to use it as your test prompt. Selections are ranked according to difficulty from '*' (easiest typing tests) to '*****' (most challenging typing tests). For more details, check the difficulty key at the bottom of the page.

Short typing tests for beginners: (1 - 3 minute typing test at < 30 wpm)

Intermediate typing tests: (3-6 minutes at 40 wpm)

Hard typing tests for advanced typists: (over 4 minutes at 60+ wpm)

If you have a topic that you would like to see added to the list above, please feel free to contact us with your suggestion for a new paragraph typing test.

Typing Test Difficulty Levels

Our typing tests are ranked on level of difficulty. The algorithm to calculate difficulty depends on the average word length and how many special characters like capitals, numbers and symbols are included in the text. Most standard pre-employment typing tests will be in the normal range. You should expect to get higher wpm scores on easier tests and lower wpm scores on the more difficult tests.

* Very Easy Typing Test
** Easy Typing Test
*** Normal Typing Test
**** Difficult Typing Test
***** Very Difficult Typing Test