The WPM stands for words per minute, and it is a measure of typing speed, commonly used in the recruitment process and typing speed tests. It is standardized to five characters or keystrokes. … Make sure you start your touch typing with high accuracy. Your speed will grow over time. It is a measure of the output speed on a. keyboard. Here’s how it works: – start a timer and start typing for exactly 1 minute. – count how many characters you just typed including spaces.