Free Online Typing Tests for Transcription Practice

Improve Your Skills Before You Apply

By
Laureen Miles Brunelli
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Laureen Miles Brunelli is an experienced journalist with more than two decades of experience in the field. She covered parenting, specifically focusing on the subject of work from home, as a writer for The Balance.
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Updated on January 26, 2020

Transcription is a viable way for someone with good typing skills to earn cash from home. But like any other job, you need to have skills and possibly experience to get a home-based typing job. Companies look for transcriptionists that type fast, but also accurately.

There are many different types of transcription, each requiring different typing speeds, training and other skills, such as excellent spelling and good listening ability. These transcription opportunities include everything from data entry, which usually accepts the slowest typing speeds and pays to least, to real-time captioning, which might require speeds as fast as 300 words per minute and pays accordingly. Knowing how fast you can type is important in knowing how much you can earn!

The websites listed below will help you determine your current abilities and practice your skills if you need improvement for legitimate home transcription work. These sites are free but may have sales pitches or Google ads that try to sell you certification or classes that you may not need. Use the tests but always keep an eye out for the signs of a scam.

Prepare Before You Apply to Typing Jobs

Most companies with transcription jobs screen candidates with an application process. It can be disappointing to go through the process only to be rejected because your typing skills are slow and/or filled with errors. These online typing tests and practice files can give you an idea of how fast and accurately you transcribe audio. You can use them to check if your skills are up to the job's requirements or to gauge if your typing skills are improving.

Also, though there are many online typing tests on the Internet, these particular tests are geared toward transcriptionists, rather than students.

Go Transcript

Go Transcript is a transcription service that has a page with a list of its old typing tests that you can use to test yourself. When you complete the test, you'll see the mistakes you made. Note, this tool is just for practice testing. If you want to apply to be a transcriptionist at Go Transcript, you need to visit its job page and take the current test.

Listen and Write

It takes a little time to make sense of this site. However, it has many audio files that can be typed directly into its interface so that it can score your speed. If you sign up and log in, it will keep track of your progress. The site has files in a wide range of levels and languages, and offers different modes of transcription from full to correction.

Express Scribe Practice Transcription Files

Popular transcription software maker provides several files (medical, legal, and general) for practice on its software. The software is free to download, and there are PDFs of the completed transcription to check your work, but there is no timing mechanism to check your speed.

Meditec

Meditec offers MyCAA approved training for military family members. It has a free practice transcription test to budding medical transcriptionists. The test is to help you experience what medical transcription is like and decide if it's something you want to pursue. It is divided into four sections, the first three of which focus on listening and spelling, while the fourth is an actual doctor's dictation.

Unlike general transcription, medical transcription requires that you have basic knowledge of medical terms.

Transcription Companies