louisebelle's Full Review: The Learning Company Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing F...
Before owning a computer, I had not much exposure to computers. This meant I had no idea that there was a correct and efficient way to type! When eventually I did get a computer, I found myself occupied with many assignments that were required to be typed for work, and typing was NOT my expose at the time! I used my forefinger and middle finger on each hand to type, and with an addition of looking at the keyboard, it took me ages to type! After 8 years of typing this way, I developed my own method that seemed extremely fast to me, which indeed it was rather difficult to keep up with finger placement, and I STILL looked at the keyboard.
I was introduced to Mavis Beacon by a co-worker of mine who's child happened to use it for school! I bought this product at my local costco and check it out. I found that Mavis Beacon uses rather simple methods of teaching people to type. Mind you that this program was obviously inteded for younger people, but I found that it gave me the basics to grow off of what I already had.
First, Mavis finds out how wellyou actually know how to type already. I felt that I wanted to wipe my slate clean so that I could learn how to type the correct way, and hopefully do that WITHOUT looking at the keyboard. Mavis has games, such as Road Race, which is probably my favorite, which causes me to type correctly as fast as I could to get a high type speed. When i first began, I typed about 10 wpm, the correct way and without looking!
One of the first things you learn is the placement of the fingers on the HOME ROW: asdf jkl;
You learn to type these out first with the correct fingers, and once you have mastered that, you move on to type the letters and symbols surrounding those 8. After that, you move on to typoe combinations, such as "kik, kik, kik", or "lol", or "sws". You gradually build up your skills until you are able to type words. Once you can do that, you can participate in the games such as Road Race, or Penguin Crossing, which is where you must type a word correctly in order to let a little penguin survive the current! Certainly, children would find this an amusing way of learning. Another part of the program I found efficient is their typing tests, where the user is able to select from numerous documents, such as the Gettysburgh Address, or other Parliaments, and evenexcerpts from famous stories.
It is important to make goals for yourself, especially with this program. I had begun with 10 wpm and I made it my goal to reach 100! Now that was a high goal, but after practice with this program for even just 10 minutes a day, I now exceed that goal, with typing near 150 wpm!
If you were once like me, who used to fingers to type, turn to this program. It is widely used in school programs, and should be used by all typing beginners. It proved to help more people learn to type than any other product.
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