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SPEED, TIME & ACCURACY
by Kiem Vu

Upon entering the classroom, a male student approached me inquiring if I came to this place to challenge a typing test. I said yes, and he instructed to have a sit on a computer near by. After that, he came to me with a white form holding on his right hand and asked me to read the guidelines concerning the examination. I took a quick glance, looked up, and asked sarcastically, "does passing the typing test only take the speed of 30 words per minute???" He did not say anything but told me to finish reading the rest. I looked away and declared openly that I can type 60 words per minute easily. Afterwards, he gave me the multiple-choice part of the test to complete first and it was so easy.

When I completed the multiple-choice portion, the student asked me if I was ready to have a timed drill. I was so eager and told him immediately that I was certainly ready because I took three years of high school computer technology already. I looked around and realized that everyone was typing so poorly. I laughed at them, and wondered how skillful I was among the many. As I was typing, I tried to look around to see if anyone was noticing how good my speed was. I heard some talking and believed that others must have been discussing to one another about me. It made me feel really good, and certainly I would not want to lose their attention. I tried to type faster and faster. Occasionally I made some errors but I would not dare to fix them lest it'ddelay my speed. I was also confident that since I was typing so fast, a few mistakes would not be a problem. I tried to look around once more time and felt really good inside seeing how good I was compare to most slow typing students in the classroom. When the time was up, the student asked me to print out the drill, and he gave me a compliment, which I agreed he should have made it earlier "You type really fast!" I was so happy and held my head high so that everyone could see me clearly.

When I was about to leave the room, the student said to me that there was still one thing I needed to do: check my typing for errors. He then reminded me that I can have only a maximum of five errors, and thus, having more than five errors would fail me. I was shocked at the information he just gave. I told him that I type 75 words per minutes, but he said that it didn't matter how fast I type, more than five errors would disqualify me. I asked how could that be? He said, it was the guideline that I just read. I suddenly realized that it was my mistake. I did not read the guidelines because I thought I was so cool. As I was tracing my printed drill page for errors, I found the unspeakable truth, six errors. I could not afford those six errors! I wrote down four errors only on the reported sheet and hoped that the professor would not find the other two. I left the room with a disturbing heart. Pride is not cool, knowledge is not cool to display. A humbling heart seldom fails.

The professor found out the errors and I failed the test.

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