English Typewriting Course – Junior & Senior Grade
English typewriting for the Government Technical Examination, taught from the home keys up. The syllabus sets 30 words per minute for Junior Grade and 45 for Senior Grade — this is the course that gets you there, with the exam's own lessons and spacing rules.
What English typewriting certification means
English typewriting is examined by the Department of Technical Education, Government of Tamil Nadu under the Government Technical Examination, at two grades. The certificate is a standing requirement for clerical and data-entry posts across the state.
Junior Grade — 30 words per minute.
Senior Grade — 45 words per minute.
Those are the syllabus's own thresholds. It also states that a candidate reaching them while taking the COA certificate course is certified as qualified in GTE Typewriting at the corresponding grade — so typing practice done for COA earns a second certificate rather than only supporting the first.
Keyboard: QWERTY. Font: Arial at size 12. Both are fixed by the syllabus, along with the spacing rules set out below.
The lesson progression
- Home keys. Left hand on
a s d f, right hand onj k l ;, little finger to little finger. The first exercise isasdf ;lkjrepeated until the fingers find the keys without looking. Everything after this depends on not skipping it. - First words. Still on the home row and its immediate reach — a, add, adds, ask, lad, all, falls — typed a line at a time, a page at a time. Accuracy before speed, always.
- Extending the reach. Lessons two onwards bring in
gandhunder the index fingers, then the upper and lower rows, one group of keys per lesson so no finger learns a bad habit. - Capitals and the shift keys. Left shift for right-hand letters, right shift for left-hand letters, both worked with the little fingers. Practised on business vocabulary — Budget, Decrease, Improvement, Advantage, Purchase, Employee, Promotion, Experience — because that is the vocabulary the exam passages use.
- The whole alphabet, daily.
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz.,forwards and backwards, plus the pangram "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy little dog", five times a day. It is the fastest way to keep every finger in condition. - Paragraphs and punctuation. Full passages against the clock, with the exam spacing rules applied from the first attempt rather than corrected later.
- Timed tests. Speed measured in words per minute with errors counted against you, repeated until you are clearing the grade threshold with a margin — not just touching it once.
The spacing rules the exam marks you on
These are set out in the syllabus and they cost candidates marks more often than speed does, because they are easy to learn and easy to forget under time pressure:
Five spaces before the beginning of a paragraph.
Two spaces after a full stop, a question mark and an exclamation
mark.
One space after every other punctuation mark.
They are drilled from the first paragraph exercise here, not bolted on at the end.
English Typewriting Junior Grade
Target: 30 words per minute. Junior Grade is where most students start and it is the grade most clerical job notifications ask for as a minimum.
The work is the home keys through to full paragraphs with correct spacing, and enough timed practice that 30 wpm is comfortable rather than a personal best. Accuracy counts: a fast run with errors scores below a steady clean one.
Fee and duration are listed with every course on the fees page.
English Typewriting Senior Grade
Target: 45 words per minute. Senior Grade is the higher qualification and the one that separates candidates in competitive clerical selection.
Going from 30 to 45 is not more of the same practice — it is removing the pauses. That means unfamiliar vocabulary, numbers and special characters typed without looking, long passages without a drop in rhythm, and punctuation that no longer breaks stride. Senior Grade candidates work on longer timed passages with error limits.
Typewriting alongside COA
Students often take typewriting with the COA course, because the syllabus lets the same typing speed count for both — 30 wpm certifies Junior Grade and 45 wpm Senior Grade in that language, on passing the certificate course as prescribed.
Many also take Tamil typewriting, which is a separate certificate on a different keyboard layout, and shorthand. Classes run at our Thirukkanur and Mundiyapakkam centres and online.
How we teach it
From the home keys
No shortcuts past the fundamentals. Finger placement learned properly once is faster than speed built on bad habits and unlearned later.
Timed against the grade
Practice at the speed the grade actually requires, with errors counted the way the exam counts them.
The syllabus lessons
The exercises are the ones in the official Government Technical Examination syllabus, not a substitute set.
Classroom or online
Supervised practice at both centres, or online with speed and accuracy scoring.
English typewriting FAQ
What speed do I need for English Typewriting Junior Grade?
Thirty words per minute. The Government Technical Examination syllabus states that typing at 30 wpm is certified as qualified in GTE Typewriting Junior Grade in that language.
What speed do I need for Senior Grade?
Forty-five words per minute, per the same syllabus.
Which keyboard layout is used for English typewriting?
QWERTY. The syllabus fixes QWERTY for English and the Tamil99 layout for Tamil, with Arial font at size 12 for English.
Can I do English and Tamil typewriting together?
Yes, and many students do. They are separate certificates on different keyboard layouts, so each is examined and graded on its own.
Does typewriting practice count towards the COA certificate?
The other way round — the syllabus states that reaching 30 or 45 wpm while taking the COA certificate course is certified as qualified in GTE Typewriting Junior or Senior Grade, on passing the course as prescribed.
How long does it take to reach 30 words per minute?
It depends on how much you practise rather than how long you enrol for. Daily practice on the alphabet drill and paragraph exercises is what moves the number; contact the centre to discuss batch timings.