New Speedometer and Improved Cheat Protection
To be more consistent across different texts, TypeRacer is changing the way it measures WPM today. Instead of counting the actual number of words typed, we are now counting the total number of characters in the texts, using the convention of 5 characters per word, as defined on Wikipedia. This means that your WPM will likely improve for some of the harder texts – those containing lots of big words.
We are also changing the way the typing test works. (In case you missed our last post, we started asking everyone with a score of over 100 wpm to pass an “un-cheatable” typing test.) This only affects our fastest typists, but if you’re in this category, please continue reading.
The first anti-cheat typing test we deployed two days ago turned out to be too hard. Some users pointed out that they could get a really high WPM on a race with an easy text and then not be able to pass the typing test because it contained a much harder and unfamiliar text. The change to the WPM calculation should fix this discrepancy.
We also made quite a few changes to the typing test itself. It now only kicks in at 110 wpm (previously 100), and is much more lenient – it asks you to type within 25% of the wpm you got in the race (previously, this was +/- 20wpm fixed). For example, if I you get 145 wpm in a race, the typing tests now asks you to type only 108 wpm, whereas before, it asked for 125. Furthermore, it now saves the greater of your test score and your race score. So if you passed the test in this example with, say, 109 wpm, you will actually be certified for 145 wpm since that was your original race score. Similarly, if you passed this test with 150 wpm, you’d be certified for 150 wpm, since it’s greater than your race result. Being certified to type at X wpm means that you won’t be asked to take the typing test unless your score exceeds X+25%. So if you’re certified at 150 wpm, for example, you are clear to type up to 187 without having to take the test again.
You may have noticed that some people were still able to cheat on the old typing test. That’s because it was too easy to use OCR on the text images. This made it necessary to start giving the test as a CAPTCHA. We understand that it makes it harder to read, but keep in mind that you do not have to get every word right. If you skip a few words or a few letters in some of the words you can still pass the test. Also, the text in the image should now be much easier to understand than the Star Trek text we used before.
Finally, you now have the ability to retry the test several times! With all these changes, we don’t anticipate any trouble for legitimately fast typists to pass the test. We hope that taking this test proves to be worth it for our fastest typists in order to prevent cheaters and have accurate high scores. Let us know what you think!
Good! I like the new challenge
. Thanks for working so hard to stop cheating.
fatguyinalittlecar
May 19, 2008
Thank you so much! Although I usually hit around 100- falling under the new ceiling- I’ve ran into the new test a few times, and it’s much easier. I often score better on the test than the actual race, too! It’s not that much harder to comprehend; no harder than the random Star Trek babble.
L.A.
May 19, 2008
The changes are much appreciated! No problems so far.
Shih Tzu
May 20, 2008
Dont worry it will be cracked soon….
Anonymous
May 20, 2008
I will be cracked soon
Sarthak
May 20, 2008
I wonder why you deleted the comment which was at spot 4 above.
Utkarsh Kukreti
May 20, 2008
Utkarsh – the comment you’re referring to is now restored, since you objected to its removal
Thought about deleting it because it carried no meaningful information, equivalent to saying “the world will end” without any explanation supporting this claim.
In the spirit of keeping the discussion meaningful here, let me ask the original poster, “Anonymous”, why he thinks “it will be cracked soon”?
typeracer
May 20, 2008
The lameness of going to the trouble to do OCR to cheat on a typing game is mind-boggling.
Hopefully, when there are accounts, obvious cheaters will be permanently banned. Say, allow one account per email address or orkut/facebook/etc user, and permaban anything associated with those credentials.
Joseph
May 20, 2008
Congrats. I can no longer cheat, (at least until I come up with a way to circumnavigate your CAPTCHA scheme).
Cheater
May 20, 2008
Good luck, Cheater
Keep in mind, this is just a starter CAPTCHA – there’s no limit to how hard it can be made, in theory. Your time might be better spent simply learning how to type faster.
typeracer
May 20, 2008
I think we all owe cheaters (like myself) a big thanks. Thanks to their work at exploiting the system, typeracer has now a really good protection mechanism. Nobody needs to wonder anymore whether the score was obtained fair and square, or if cheating was involved. You’re welcome.
Cheater
May 20, 2008
Much much better! It’s sad that people feel the need to cheat on this. It’s not like the high scores are permanent – I don’t get it. Great game though, keep up the updates!
rowe33
May 20, 2008
Cheater: you make it sound like you hacked the NSA or something.
Congrats on cheating at a typing game. I haven’t done that since I was 13.
fatguyinalittlecar
May 20, 2008
Geez. I can’t believe how heartless some people are, to cheat on Mavis Beacon. Poor woman.
Anonymous
May 20, 2008
This is challenging, especially going
up against people when you are tired
and your hands ache. I condsider my-
self a pretty slow typer. I am in my
Computer Applications class. On this
game in a good day I type about 20-47
wpm, depends on what I have to type
and how I feel (like if I’m tired,
which I am right now).
Dark Fox
May 20, 2008
I dont know about the new changes, but when I use the race against others option, although I overtake my previous WMP limit MANY TIMES, there is no change shown in the profile page of my application or in the Friends Standings section. Neither does the No. of Races get updated!! It is only shown above the race WHILE I am taking the test, and after that I exit the race, it is NOT updated anywhere else! Please fix this immediately!
S.M.
May 21, 2008
Thanks for the improvements!
Does anyone else think, though, that the “randomness” of the quotes chosen needs to be improved? I feel like I’m constantly getting the same quotes over and over…
a
May 21, 2008
Thank you, I love this game… I absolutely cannot stop clicking the race again link! =P
Boone
May 21, 2008
The ‘Contribute a Quote’ works great, I was amazed to enter something there and see it show up a couple days later in a race!
Guest
May 22, 2008
Please, before making new challenges, make it international. It’s harder to have a real score that represents our speed with typing foreign words that looks unusually for us.
I’m french, and i do 63wpm in english. I’m sure to do about 100 in french. Sad to see i can’t beat my score.
Thank you for reading me.
ynk
May 22, 2008
Any chance to be developed a Orkut users ranking? On the main ranking we have just Guest users… T_T
Anonymous
May 23, 2008
http://play.typeracer.com/index?room=R3Vlc3Q3NjU4MzI4Mjk4ODE4NDY5Njk3
Anonymous
May 23, 2008
http://play.typeracer.com/index?room=R3Vlc3Q3NjU4MzI4Mjk4ODE4NDY5Njk3
matt
May 23, 2008
matty
dan
May 23, 2008
RACE ME SARAH.
HEIDI
May 23, 2008
HEY HEIDI AND KYLE:
http://play.typeracer.com/index?room=R3Vlc3QzOTQwMDcyOTIyOTE0MzQxMTEx
CLICK IT
saarha
May 23, 2008
The “help” boxes don’t help at all, they just mess up the natural flow of typing. They appear over the text you need to type, so when you make a mistake you have to stop, and close the box with the mouse so you can read the text and start typing again. Talk about irritating. Ditch those!
Harley B
May 23, 2008
Cheaters, why don’t you spend your time doing typing practice rather than cheating?
Nick
May 24, 2008
I have a question that is a little unrelated…I visit the site a lot…but for some reason after about 100 races or so it deletes my user name that I have stored on the site. Then I come back and have lost all my progress! Is there some setting I need to change on my computer to fix this?
Thanks!
Pickles
May 24, 2008
It seems the cheaters are plaguing the scoreboard again.
In particular, “hiren amin” is an admitted cheater and pops in from time to time to dominate the scoreboard.
James
May 24, 2008
Very nice, mate!
Guess who this is
Nice idea, but make sure there are lots of quotes for the anti-cheat mechanism, as people can cheat it just as easily.
Cheerio from Aus,
Guess Who
Anonymous
May 26, 2008
@Cheater
You see, we WOULDN’T need these protection mechanisms if there weren’t people like you.
Anonymous
May 26, 2008
well before i said i wont be cheating again, but than the new cheating test just tempted me to do it.
well anyhow unless they bring new cheating test i am bored.
hiren amin
May 26, 2008
Well apparently typeracer’s lamest user is cheating again. Time for a ban feature ….
joebloe
May 28, 2008
And I thought hiren amin’s scores were legitimate. As a 140 wpm (700 cpm) average typist, I was wondering how hiren amin averaged in the 850s when the whole record is avg 750 over 50 minutes.
DC
May 28, 2008
Err… sorry, world record, not whole record
DC
May 28, 2008
One thing I’ve suggested to the developer is to allow only a single instance of a name on the scoreboard at a time. At least you only have to see Cheater Cheater Cheater Cheater just once.
Joseph
May 29, 2008
I’m all for the continued efforts to stamp out cheating – keep up the good work! I like the idea of just one slot per person on the high score table too.
rowe33
May 29, 2008
http://play.typeracer.com/index?room=R3Vlc3Q2OTg0ODgzNTE2MTM4MzYzNDg4
Anonymous
May 30, 2008
What’s the status on the Facebook App? I’ve been waiting for weeks to challenge all my friends. At least when I start over, I can ditch my low scoring tests and bring my avg up faster.
And just a note about the cheaters. Most of them don’t do it because they need to see their name on the leaderboard, they do it for the challenge of cracking a system. Keep improving the code and keep the cheaters challenged too.
PapaSean
May 31, 2008
PapaSean, we’re working on the Facebook application right now, as a matter of fact! Permanent accounts for the main site, too, which would save your typing history, provide more stats, etc. So lots of exciting updates on the way! That’s why the blog has been quiet lately
typeracer
June 1, 2008
I LOVE YOU
nick
June 2, 2008
I <3 you as well. Great site
- 85wpm – 115 wmp typist.
The cheating test is good too, not hard at all for legitimate typers.
Mason11987
June 4, 2008
Please make it possible to reset ones’ score on the typeracer. That is people should be able to start afresh at 0 races, disregarding all the previous races upto the point. It will help people have improved scores as they keep improving, and their speed shall not be put down by theor past performances, while they were learning typing !
vipin
June 5, 2008
When a TypeRacer in French ?
Anonymous
June 6, 2008
i wan’t to be member here!how i shall do?
Anonymous
June 6, 2008
huh?
Anonymous
June 6, 2008
I liked the new typing test (I’m now certified for 112!).
There needs to be a one high-score per player rule though. All of the scores right now are by the same person!
Max
June 7, 2008
Alex,
Hope you see this comment. It was great seeing you yesterday. I’m going to try out the site. Congrats! Gerald
Anonymous
June 9, 2008
Would you be able to add your own paragraphs to the site, so that there’s many different ones to type?
David
June 9, 2008
wassup
Anonymous
June 9, 2008
kevin Race me
josh
June 10, 2008
http://play.typeracer.com/index?room=R3Vlc3Q1MjU4MjU1NzgxNjA2OTk5MjAw
join!
Kevin
June 10, 2008
http://play.typeracer.com/index?room=R3Vlc3Q0NzU2Mzg0MTA2OTU0MjExNDk0
Kevin Lats Race!!!!!!!!!!!!
josh
June 10, 2008
who ever wants to race the best and chat JOIN!
http://play.typeracer.com/index?room=R3Vlc3Q0MzM5Nzg5ODIyNjcyMDE3NDUy
Anonymous
June 10, 2008
Hm. Not so much with the working. The current (as of a minute ago) record holder is apparently so good, he completed multiple tests at the same time!
Anonymous
June 11, 2008
Hi!, this page is very good, although I know English I would prefer that you also put some texts in Spanish, because there is a difference between those who have English as native language and those who don’t.
Ericsson
June 11, 2008
i want this type racer on my personal computer what should be done to do the same.
krunal
June 12, 2008
you lost
Anonymous
June 12, 2008
Excuse me, can you pleaseeee make it possible to reset typing score in orkut? I used to type at 60WPM once. Now I type 80WPM. That’s unfair, isn’t it?
h4ck3r
June 14, 2008
YOU SHOULD MAKE IT LET YOU CREATE CUSTOM TEXT TO PLAY WITH YOUR FRIENDS ON THE PRIVATE ROOM K THANKS
USERNAME
June 15, 2008
http://24x7interestingfacts.blogspot.com/2008/06/crack-to-type-racer.html
http://www.orkutplus.org/2008/05/typeracer-application-hack-maximize.html
The above two links tell you about way in which you can cheat typeracer. Now thats’ quite unfair for legitimate megaracers. I wish that typeracer does something about this. A simple and quick way to put an end to this problem is to display text in a format which cannot be copy-pasted. But even that can be OCR copied.
Sudarshan
June 15, 2008
A really addictive game! However, I feel one more option should be added. As such, I love racing people who’s avg wpm is greater than 90… I’ve been having close encounters with such people, but the thing is, people with an avg wpm>90 are damn hard to find… they pop up once in about 10 races.
It would be nice if you could introduce 3 separate rooms, apart from the general room, for beginners (say <50wpm), quick typists (85)… something like that… since there is no pming facility … or any provision which enables us to challenge non orkut/hifi/myspace users, it’s sorta boring
Otherwise, awesome going so far!
Trail of Mist
June 19, 2008
hey
hamish & andy
June 21, 2008
Very addictive game (: but for some reason my average speed is frozen at 104 wpm and has been for very long even though I have raced three times today, scoring 108 wpm, 119 and 127 wpm respectively. I think this should pull up my average score, and this isn’t even including the many races I have run before today in which I have scored anywhere from 89 to 127 wpm but which have failed to persuade my average to budge. Is there some mathematics that I’m missing, or is this a bug? Thanks!
Anonymous
June 22, 2008
Oops, the comment above belongs to me.
everybodylies
June 22, 2008
And I second Trail Of Mist above – my most recent race was with people who scored 62 wpm, 64 wpm and 62 wpm respectively, while I hit a personal record of 127 wpm. At what speed is one considered a Megaracer? Is it 50 wpm? Is 50 wpm really that fast?
everybodylies
June 22, 2008
pls make it possible to reset once scores…. actually initially few of my classmates played through my account… and now i have a real bad wpm.. pls make it so that one can reset the scores…. plzzzzzzz… make that one can start from the scratch… many of my frens are not playin it coz u cant reset the scores in this…
Anonymous
June 22, 2008
I like typeracer!
TomeknIain.com
June 23, 2008
It’s getting worse – I just got paired with three Average-level people in a race in which I typed 113 wpm. They typed 45, 42, 32 and 41 wpm respectively.
everybodylies
June 24, 2008
everybodylies – we will soon be adding a new skill level – Centurion – for those who type 100+ wpm. Megaracer starts at 55 wpm, which turned out to be too easy for many typists like yourself.
typeracer
June 24, 2008
There should be another level for people who type above 80 wpm… getting an average of 80 wpm is not a joke either.
Trail of Mist
June 26, 2008
Yay, thanks (:
everybodylies
June 26, 2008
this is AWESOME!
Angelita
July 22, 2008
http://play.typeracer.com/index?room=R3Vlc3Q1MjU2ODM0ODg4ODQzNjEyNTE2
zzz
July 26, 2008
Message to Typeracer, Totally addicted at the moment and looking forward to the Facebook application.
I think the only thing this game needs is more quotes, how many you say? As many as humanly possible. Variety= fun.
I know you guys are probably busy with lots of applications but im just letting you know of other areas that could be improved and this is one.
madchopper
August 18, 2008
Cancel that.
I read your “goal” to add 20 quotes every month. I like.
madchopper
August 18, 2008
that was a good story thanks
shalon
August 21, 2008
can i come to type
shalon
August 21, 2008
Really good. Helped me increase my scores. This new feature is definitely appreciated by me.
Anonymous
September 1, 2008
Also it’d be nice if you could set a new standard for the mega-racer. Currently my score’s at 92. What score do I need to ascend to the next rank? And what’s this rank? After mega racer?
Indrajit
September 1, 2008
Since the test can be taken several times. It is easier to cheat. Just slowly type it down to a file and do the same thing as before.
Anonymous
September 30, 2008
I did a race and scores 145 WMP. The challenge required me to get a 108 to pass. I took the challenge and got 108 WMP and 93% accuracy. The test said I failed because I didnt meet the requirement of 108 WMP. Why is this?
Saad
January 4, 2009
[...] taken measures in the past that make it harder to cheat, but if you saw the top 20 (Fastest Typists) last month, you know [...]
Encouraging honest competition « The TypeRacer Blog
February 7, 2009
i have no clue what that means
newz 304
February 18, 2009
I would love to see a special site for kids where there is age appropriate content (i.e. kids.typeracer.com). I work at a Public School in Orange County and this would be a great tool for them if they could be assured to bad content (and probably easier content)… Thanks love the service.
Milan
March 9, 2009
i think play.typeracer.com is a good way for kids to learn how to type fast its very fun also.
Anonymous
March 16, 2009
its very cool.
tatiyana
March 16, 2009
From which book or movies are these paragraphs of typing challenge taken?
Anonymous
March 28, 2009
Hey..but what if sum1 gets 99 by cheating??The typing challenge is for 100 and above…however I have passed the challenge many times….My best is 113…And ya TYPERACER ROCKS!!!!!!!
Viraj
March 28, 2009
In typing challenge can you put that after we finish the Submit is pressed automatically…?? Sometimes while pressing submit the time is wasted and I fail in challenge just for the speed of 1 wpm…pls help…:(
Anonymous
March 28, 2009
Wow, finally there is going to be more of a challenge for those of us who just win all of the time. This will definetly make this website better!
Anonymous
April 29, 2009
I think this is great. Too bad nerds such as Jordan and Phillies will still rule the leader-boards because they had nothing better to do than sit behind the computer all day.
Marcus
May 25, 2009
I am not happy with this cheat protection because, whenever I’m reaching near to my best score it is again asking me to take the retest but as per the rules i should not be be asked again till i have improved my speed by 25 percent.
Typing Challenge
Congrats, you just typed 141 wpm! We have to ask you to take the typing test again, since your last score on this test was only 111 wpm. This is done to discourage cheaters. Why?
If you pass this test, you will not be asked to take it again until your speed improves by another 25%.
Press “Begin Test” when you are ready to start. You will need to type at least 105 wpm to pass. Don’t worry about accuracy – some mistakes are allowed.
Begin Test
Anonymous
June 2, 2009
Yes, even i am gettin the same kind of crap everytime!!!!!
Anonymous
June 2, 2009
after clearing the anti cheat protection ur displaying my best race in the latest score… but it’s not getting updated in my scoreboard…
Anonymous
June 3, 2009
Could you explain what you mean by this: “after clearing the anti cheat protection ur displaying my best race in the latest score… but it’s not getting updated in my scoreboard…”? Can you send a screenshot, maybe?
typeracer
June 3, 2009
I don’t have the screen shot but y’day this thing happened with me twice both the times after clearing the anticheat my best race was counted as well as it got updated to my scoreboard … but after some time my best score was there in the latest high score but it was not there in my scoreboard..
Even I don’t know how this thing happened. I got very disappointed by this and i have decided that i’ll never play typer again. because what the use of playing my best score in not getting updated…. And many guys are raising finger on me saying that you are cheating….
Anonymous
June 4, 2009
What happen typeracer why r u so afraid to answer the above question???
Anonymous
June 4, 2009
Why do you keep make concessions with this Anonymous? You can eliminate him anytime.
)
guest
June 7, 2009
Why do you keep make concessions with this Anonymous? You can eliminate him anytime.
)
noname
June 7, 2009
I think it’s a great idea, but unfortunately I hardly pass them or get anywhere near the WPM score I had for me to get the cheat test in the first place.
Some of the quotes that I type really fast on are the ones that I have seen fairly often and get used to the flow.
I think that if you can use the same quotes for the cheat test, it would make things much easier, but I don’t know if that would make sense because a cheater would already know what to type.
What a finicky issue.
Jessica
July 3, 2009
It’s still possible to cheat. I personally find the 25% allowed way too much and the 92% accuracy required on cheat test way too low. From my experience as a cheater I can say that I my regular speed is 90-100 wpm with top speed in 115-125 wpm area. Yet with a small in-house cheat script written in autohotkey I can type up 180 wpm. I only have to type ~140 wpm with ~92% accuracy on cheat test which is doable for me – an average 90-100 wpm typist. What I’m saying is that because of the low accuracy required on the cheat test my speed on the cheat test is with ~30-40% higher than normally and with the added 25% I get to reach speeds of up to 55-65% higher than I could possibly reach which is absurd. You should take this in consideration and lower the allowed cheat interval to 10-15% require an accuracy of about 95-97% area on cheat tests.
Satan
July 28, 2009
Oh, and here’s the cheat script for reference purposes (compile with autohotkey):
;when pressing alt+ctrl+5 start auto-typing
!^5::
;take the text to auto-type from clipboard
text := clipboard
i := 0
oldrand := 0
Loop, parse, text
{
;this presses a key at a time
Send, %A_LoopField%
;this puts a little randomness wait between the pressings so arrythmia doesn’t drop near to 0 values and the speed isn’t too high like 400 wpm
Random, rand, 1, 100
if (mod(i,5) = 0)
{
temp := (oldrand + 25)
rand = mod(temp, 25)
}
i := i + 1
sleeptime := rand+19
Sleep, sleeptime
}
Satan
July 28, 2009
NO! I do not like this. I have gotten over 100 wpm a few times, but I can never get past the typing challenge. It’s still too hard, and I never cheat. I don’t even care about the cheaters. I just want to improve my typing speed. It’s gone up from 40 to 80ish wpm from this game.
deathsaura
August 14, 2009
Thanks, but I ‘m 102 today, but typing this CAPTCHA at 50 wpm for me is still hard
Nesal
September 18, 2009
Yeah, and I agree with Trail of Miss that it’s great if we divide levels competition into groups like beginner(<40), immediate(40<x<50), pro(50<x<60), TypeMaster(60<x 100 )
Nesal
September 18, 2009
So funny, while I was reading this page( by clicking “Why” in anti-cheat dialog ), and then press button “Begin Test” , it’s expired lol . I don’t know when I would 102 wpm again, it’s so hard for me
Nesal
September 18, 2009
this is good……. very good.
Anonymous
September 22, 2009
so you cant cheat and i believe 100 wpm can be obtained maybe even 150 wpm but that jelani girl thats average of 200 wpm is kinda strange i mean thats about textin 3 long confusing words in 1 second which im not sure how could be possible.
andy
December 10, 2009
я вот что скажу: спасибо..
гей эскорт Балаково
December 17, 2009
ok i did some searching and found out the world record for typing is 200 somethin but how can jalani type that fast anyways i mean 205 wpm thats only like 10-25 wpm below the world record
andy
December 23, 2009
When I raced the Tranditional Chinese’ Typing Test, I couldn’t accept this test after I finished typing. I don’t know why ,but I didn’t cheat… Could you solve this bug? Thanks.
animist512
January 12, 2010
Oh! Sorry, I forgot to say that “the test” I meant in the message I leave is the test which we type in over 100 wpm, we have to accept this test, or the record we make would be deleted.
animist512
January 12, 2010
For traditional chinese, the test does not work at all. All we can see are unrecognizable boxes.
Soarer
February 5, 2010
I was typed in Traditional Chinese and the test was a lot of ‘squares’, not Chinese.
andy74139
February 17, 2010
suck
----
May 6, 2010
oh no!
my ave. is 79wpm
i sometimes do 90+
recently i did get 105 but then it wasn’t saved. ’cause i didn’t pass the test
oh nooooooooooo!!!!i’m not a cheater,why do they do this to me.., waaahhhh
it’s a bit disappointing
lepp
May 30, 2010
I too failed the typing test twice – it seems very flawed. Once I’ve finished typing, I then need to search for the submit button. It doesn’t correct any mistakes. Please, make the cheating test exactly like your normal test, but with an added security CAPTCHA layer on top. If needed, you could render it easily in flash or with some more difficulty in canvas.
Anonymous
June 20, 2010
Typeracer is great!
I have improved a lot so far.
Niamh
August 19, 2010
Okay I just got 103 wpm, it’s the first time I’ve ever typed over that speed, and I know it’ll be a long time before I do it again, I just kept retrying the same text that was very short. And now I can’t pass the test… THANKS TYPERACER. Now what about the people actually weren’t cheating!
jacob
December 19, 2011
I always played the retest, because this is what I see every time. The picture is never complete, and I can’t get enough accuracy. I hope this glitch gets improved. And it’s not because of my computer or the internet. I tried switching computers, I tried changing the internet connection, I tried everything. I’m very disappointed because I can never pass that test, not because I was cheating, but because of a gltch.
http://img89.imageshack.us/img89/9295/challengegehe.jpg
Nudruja Kiatipanya
October 31, 2012