A working typing test on dispatch text. Addresses, unit IDs, callback numbers, plates, with per-keystroke accuracy and a running clock. Your result leads with keystrokes per minute, the metric the CritiCall entry sections report, and shows WPM and accuracy alongside it so you can see which of the two is actually holding you back.
Typing is not a section you pass and forget. It is the throughput every entry section is measured through: the data entry sections score how much accurate text you get down while something else is competing for your attention.1
CritiCall is graded section by section. There is no averaging across the exam that rescues you: a strong total does not save a candidate whose one section is below the agency cutoff for that section. You can be quick, accurate and calm on eight sections and still be removed on the ninth.
Typing is the section most candidates assume they will be fine on, which is exactly why it is worth measuring rather than assuming. Two minutes on this page tells you whether it is a problem, and if it is not, you can stop thinking about it and go and fix the section that is.
Street grids with one-way restrictions and closures. Fastest legal route, direction of travel, which unit is closest.
Practice map reading in the free skill check →A real timed run on dispatch text. KPM first, then WPM and per-keystroke accuracy, benchmarked against the two figures our skill check publishes.
This pageWhere typing speed meets the actual test: caller details into CAD fields, scored on exact match, with a dispatch alert interrupting you mid-entry.
Practice data entry in the free skill check →The combined CritiCall skill check runs an audio data-entry drill and a map-reading drill in one sitting, and the main CritiCall page covers the exam as a whole. Not sure CritiCall is even the exam you were invited to? Start at the 911 dispatcher test hub.
We checked this against the publisher rather than guessing, and the answer corrects something most typing pages get wrong. Biddle Consulting Group scores the CritiCall Keyboarding module in words per minute. Its own test list says so in as many words. For the Computerized Data Entry module it publishes no unit at all. And every agency typing minimum we could find is written in WPM, usually net WPM with a certificate attached.4 So WPM is the unit that decides whether you qualify. KPM is still the more honest description of what dispatch entry does to you, which is why this test leads with it, but the two answer different questions and you need both.
The publisher's data sheet on the Keyboarding module: "Test score measures words per minute." Five agencies publish typing minimums and all five state them in WPM, four of them as net WPM backed by a typing certificate.4 If you are chasing a number to qualify, that is the number.
WPM assumes a "word" is five keystrokes of running prose. Dispatch entry is addresses, plates and phone numbers: high-digit, high-punctuation, no rhythm and no predictable next letter. "8406 S Kedzie Apt 2B" is 20 keystrokes and roughly four words. WPM flatters prose typists. That is why we report KPM first, but it is our editorial choice, not the publisher's unit.2
The industry definition of a word is five keystrokes, so KPM ÷ 5 ≈ WPM and KPM × 60 = keystrokes per hour. That is arithmetic, not a claim. This test shows you all three so you can answer your agency in whichever unit it asks, and check whether its figure is net or gross before assuming you already clear it.
Both are taken from PrepTerminal's own CritiCall skill check, and both come with the conditions they were measured under. We will not quote you a third number, because there is no published national minimum and every agency sets its own.2
Read the gap between those two rows carefully, because it is the most useful thing on this page: the same candidate is expected to produce less than half the throughput when the source is audio instead of text. That is what splitting your attention costs, measured. A clean-text typing score, including the one this page is about to give you, is your ceiling under ideal conditions, not your score under exam conditions.
It is rarely raw speed. It is two habits that only show up when something else is competing for your attention.
General typing sites hand you a clean paragraph, no interruptions, and let you settle into a rhythm. Every skill you build there evaporates the moment a caller is talking over you and a pop-up lands mid-address. That is not a criticism of typing practice. It is why this page reports your clean-text score as a ceiling rather than a prediction. Our own figures make the point: the expected minimum drops from 60 KPM to 28 KPM when the source becomes audio.
Speed is the number that visibly improves, so it gets all the attention. Accuracy is the one that gets you removed. A house number typed 8460 instead of 8406 sends a unit half a mile away and looks completely correct on the screen while it happens. This test tracks every keystroke as you make it, so a mistake you went back and fixed still counts against your accuracy, because on the real thing, the time you spent fixing it is gone either way.
There is a third habit worth naming: looking at the keyboard. On audio data entry your eyes belong on the form and your ears on the caller. Every glance down is a phrase you did not hear, and the audio does not play twice.
Dispatch text, not a novel: addresses, unit identifiers, callback numbers and plates, punctuated the way a CAD record is. Choose one minute for a quick read or three minutes for a number you can actually trust.
KPM. Net keystrokes per minute, your headline number, counting only the characters that ended up correct.
WPM. The same result divided by five, for agencies that ask in words.
Accuracy. Of every keystroke you committed, the share that was right at the moment you typed it. Corrections do not un-make the error.
It cannot tell you whether you will clear your agency's threshold, because agencies set their own minimums and most do not publish them.2 And it is clean text in silence, so it is your ceiling, not your exam score. The audio and data-entry drills in the free skill check add the interruptions.
Opens in a full-screen panel with a live clock. Works on a physical keyboard; a phone keyboard will give you a number that means nothing.
A faster clean-text score is worth something. A score that holds while a caller talks over you is worth the job.
Typing practice as transcription, not as a blank speed test: the source is a caller or a record, and you enter it into fields while it is still arriving.
Speed and accuracy reported separately, every run, because the exam scores them separately and because a single blended number hides which one is failing.
60+ audio call simulations at real caller pace with background noise and unclear addresses. Played once, like the real thing. This is the practice the 28 KPM figure describes.
Dispatch pop-ups that land mid-entry and have to be acknowledged before you can carry on. The mechanic behind the 60 KPM standard-entry figure.
Typing sits beside Cross Referencing, Map Reading, Memory Recall, Prioritization, Sentence Clarity, Data Entry, Numerical Ability, Probability and Reading Comprehension. Your agency picks the set; the course covers all of it.
Scores broken down the moment you finish, so your next hour goes to the thing that is costing you rather than to whatever is first in the menu.
Measure the ceiling, find out which half is weak, then rebuild it with something talking at you.
Three minutes on this page. You get KPM, WPM, gross versus net, accuracy, and a verdict on which of speed and accuracy is the weaker half. Free, no account, as many attempts as you want.
If accuracy is the problem, slowing down by ten percent usually adds more net KPM than a week of speed drills. If speed is the problem, it is drills. Doing both at once fixes neither.
Transcription with audio running and pop-ups interrupting, which is the only condition under which your typing number means anything to a hiring agency. This is where the course earns its place.
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Real dispatch text, a live clock, per-keystroke accuracy and a result that leads with the metric the exam actually reports. Benchmarked against the two figures from our own CritiCall skill check, with the conditions each was measured under stated next to it.
Free, no account, retake as often as you like. Or see pricing
Typing is one input into two sections. Section-by-section grading means the course has to cover the rest of them too, and it does.
Drills where the source is a caller or a record rather than a paragraph on a screen, with speed and accuracy reported separately every run because the exam scores them separately.
Real-pace callers with unclear addresses and background noise, and a form to complete while they are still speaking. Played once, with no replay and no pause, like the real thing.
Dispatch pop-ups landing mid-entry that have to be acknowledged before you can carry on. The specific mechanic behind the standard data-entry throughput figure.
Cross Referencing, Map Reading, Memory Recall, Prioritization, Sentence Clarity, Data Entry, Numerical Ability, Probability and Reading Comprehension. Your agency picks the set, so the course covers all of it.
Scores broken down the moment you finish each drill, so your next hour goes to the section that is holding your result down.
Full refund within seven days of purchase. One payment, no subscription, no renewal. Michael reads every refund email personally.
One price, one payment. No tiers to weigh up and no subscription to cancel.
Test in 48 hours? Typing speed does not move much in two days. Accuracy and the interrupt habit do.
The most common typing question I get is "how many words per minute do I need", and the honest answer is that nobody outside your hiring agency knows, and plenty of agencies quote keystrokes rather than words anyway. So I built this page to answer the question that is answerable: what is your throughput, in the unit the exam uses, and which half of it is weak. If your accuracy is under 95 percent, that is where your next hour goes, not into speed drills. Ask your agency three things: the required speed, whether there is a separate accuracy threshold, and whether the number is keystrokes or words. They answer that every week. I answer questions about the modules myself at [email protected].
If something is not covered here, email [email protected].
There is no universal minimum and we will not invent one for you. Each hiring agency sets its own required speed and its own accuracy threshold, and the two are usually stated together, because a fast typist with a four percent error rate is not useful in a dispatch center.2 The two figures we can give you are our own, from the PrepTerminal CritiCall skill check: a typical minimum of 28 KPM on audio data entry with multitasking and 60 KPM on standard data entry with dispatch pop-ups interrupting. Ask your agency for their number, and ask whether it is keystrokes or words, and whether it is net or gross.
KPM is keystrokes per minute: every character you commit, including digits, punctuation and the tab between fields. WPM converts that into "words" by dividing by five, which is the typing industry convention. Dispatch entry is addresses, plate numbers and phone numbers rather than running prose, so the concept of a word does not describe the work: "8406 S Kedzie Apt 2B" is twenty keystrokes and about four words, and only one of those two numbers tells you anything useful. KPM × 60 also gives you keystrokes per hour, which is the unit some agencies quote.
No, and the result screen says so. This is clean text in silence, so it measures your ceiling under ideal conditions. The exam measures you with a caller talking over you or a pop-up landing mid-address. Look at the two figures above again: the same candidate is expected to produce less than half the throughput when the source is audio rather than text. Your clean-text number tells you whether the keyboard is the problem. If it is not, the problem is the conditions, and the conditions are what the course drills.
Yes, in two ways. Your KPM is net: it counts only the characters that ended up correct, so a wrong character earns you nothing. And your accuracy is measured per keystroke at the moment you typed it, so an error you went back and fixed still counts against accuracy. That is deliberate. On the real thing, the seconds you spend correcting are gone whether or not the field ends up right, and correcting under time pressure is precisely where candidates lose their throughput.
Whichever the result screen names as your weaker half. As a rule of thumb: if your accuracy is under about 95 percent, accuracy is where the points are, and slowing down by ten percent frequently raises your net KPM because you stop paying for corrections. Above 95 percent, extra accuracy buys you very little and speed drills are the better use of an hour. Trying to improve both at once tends to improve neither.
You can, but the number will not mean anything. The exam is taken on a physical keyboard in a test center and this drill assumes the same. If all you have right now is a phone, read the KPM explanation above, run the free CritiCall skill check instead, and come back to this one when you are at a keyboard.
As often as you like. There is no account, no limit and no score stored anywhere. The useful pattern is one run at the start of a session to see where you are and one at the end to see whether anything moved. Be aware that repeating the same passage inflates your result over time, which is a good reason not to treat a personal best on a familiar text as your real number.
No. Other dispatcher screening exams and state POST exams handle typing differently, and some agencies run a separate typing certificate entirely.1 If your invitation does not name CritiCall, do not assume it is CritiCall: start at our 911 dispatcher test hub and work out what you are sitting first. We would rather tell you than sell you the wrong course.
7-day money-back guarantee: one email to support, no questions asked. The published pass rate across PrepTerminal courses is 92%, never 100%, because no honest prep can promise that.