Every degree requires a substantial amount of written work to be completed. If you are aiming for a fist class degree, you will need to work even harder, spending more time editing and polishing your degree assignments. You will work much faster on your degree assignments if you are able to touch type.

Touch typing teaches you to:

• Make use of all digits on both hands, not just your index fingers!
• Look at the screen, or document you are copying from, not the keyboard.
• Type at least around twice as fast as finger and thumb methods
• Learning to touch type allows you to work more fluidly, the fact that you are looking at the screen (your output) and not the keyboard means you are concentrating fully on the content of your document / degree assignment.
• You can see instantly when you have made a mistake and correct it.

I used a CD Rom to learn to touch type which gets you looking at the screen (not the keyboard) immediately.

I used an old (pre 2000 I think) version of Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing from Mindscape, available used on Amazon for less than five pounds.

Advantages

• It is cheap
• You can sell it on to another student when once you’ve learned, you won’t need to use it again!
• It is very effective (I learned the keyboard in ten hours)
• You will save hundreds of hours on written work for your degree
• Your degree work will flow more easily
• It is a lifelong skill which surprisingly, only a minority of people posses

Disadvantages

The commentary on Mavis Beacon is irritating, but you learn just as easily with the sound off.