The scoring in ZenTypist is somewhat unconventional. It depends on how fast you make mistakes, not on how fast you press the right button. That is because ZenTypist is above all for training accuracy.

Each time you type a sentence, the total error score for that sentence is calculated, and stored. The score displayed is calculated based on your 10 previously typed phrases, with less recent scores having less impact on your current score.

That is, if you type your first sentence, and you get a high error score, say, 10 000, your overall score will be 10 000. However, if you type your next sentence and get 500 points for it, your total will not be 10 500, but 500 + some fraction of the 10 000, say 8 000, so it will be equal to 8 500. If you complete your third attempt without any errors, your overall score will be 0 + (a fraction of 500, say 400) + (a smaller fraction of 10 000, say 6 000) = 6 400.

To cut the long story short, your more recent typing results have more impact on your overall score than your old ones. The lower the figure is, the better. Your goal is to keep it 0 or as close to that as possible.

First of all, what is Zen? Here’s what Wikipedia thinks about it:

Zen emphasizes the attainment of enlightenment and the personal expression of direct insight in the Buddhist teachings.

What does this have to do with ZenTypist?

The point is that we all know what people want from their typing: they want to type fast and easily. They don’t want waste time punching in some text. So they try to type faster! That is only human, so to speak. However, typing fast cannot be achieved by simply trying to type faster!

Imagine that you have taken up the violin, and you want to play The Flight of a Bumblebee. It is a very fast piece, and it will take a lot of time to practice before you will be able to play it with any decent tempo. So you start with slower pieces and gradually work your way up to your goal. And even when you proceed to The Bumblebee itself, you still play it 2 or even 4 times slower, until your fingers know what to do. Until you make no mistakes. And then you increase the tempo and practice again.

However, if you try to play it fast right away, you will constantly make mistakes. You cannot learn something by doing it wrong over and over again, you can only learn by doing something right over and over again.

The same is true for typing. In order to type fast, you need your fingers to know what to do, so you don’t have to think about it. Then you will be able to think of what to type, not where to find that next key you need to press. So just like a musician, you need to increase the speed gradually when you stop making mistakes at the previous speed level. Again: you need to achieve accuracy, and then increase speed, and not the other way round.

This is in fact the Zen. You have a goal, but the only way you can achieve it is by abandoning it for what seems to be a different goal altogether. That is, in order to achieve speed you need to forget about it and practice for accuracy. Seems a bit paradoxic and somewhat irritating. But it is true.

And it is not something I came up with. It has been known for ages, and most typing tutors tell you the same. However, what they reward is speed. They tell you what speed you type at, and consequently you start chasing it, even thought it is the false prophet.

ZenTypist rewards accuracy. The score you see has nothing to do with how fast you type, but it depends on how fast you make mistakes. The sooner you hit a wrong key, the more error points you get for that miss. You get no reward for typing the right character no matter how soon or late you do it, nor indeed are you punished for typing slowly.

In other words, ZenTypist does not distract you from your real goal. Take your time, type slowly, type accurately, and you will become a fast typist!