Looking for Touch Type (keyboarding) volunteers!

Dear friends and colleagues.

    I would like to recruit volunteers who are willing to spend 40 minutes per week in online training course over 8 week period to learn how to touch type (keyboarding). I’m interested in this topic and trying to find an answer based on data I receive. I’m trying to come up with an answer about how long does it take to learn how to touch type, for people who lack the skill before or for those who gained wrong skill in typing.

By the end of this course I will perform statistical analysis on the data and share with you the results; Mean, Median, Mode and Standard Deviation. The primary question is “ How long does it take to learn to touch type at speed of 15 word per minutes for people who lack the skill“

How does this course work?

It is an 8 week program, which includes two training sessions per week (On Saturday and Tuesday). Each session lasts for 20 minutes.

Upon registration, your user name and password will be sent to you through the email, along with the website URL address. You will then access the website, read the instruction carefully and start practicing touch-typing, without looking at the keyboard. I will monitor your progress online, by observing your practice duration, accuracy and speed per minutes.

At the end of each week, I will send you feedback of your progress, along with graphical presentation of your speed and accuracy. The goal in this very short course is to reach to 10 words per minute speed with 100% accuracy. With more training you can reach to 20 wpm and even more. Normally, average person can handwrite 20 words per minute, but with touch typing training a person can reach  60 to 80 words per min.

There is optional online interactive session every Tuesday-starting October 14^th, at 6 P.M Makkah time. This will be through Skype or other platforms (e.g. Google Hangout).

When does this start?

October 7^th, 2014, and lasts for 8 weeks.

What does this course require?

Commitment for practicing 40 minutes per week. Session need to be finish before Saturday and Tuesday 6 P.M. Makkah time.

Who can enroll?

Any body who is interested to learn how to touch type, who lacks the skill or types in wrong way (e.g. hunting for letters, looking to the keyboard or typing with two index).

Who cannot enroll?

If you already had any type of training.

If you can’t commit on doing two session per week.

Note; although you can’t enroll if you had any kind of training before but I can still help out and give you user-name/password and monitor your progress. But I’m not going to use the data in the analysis.

Why I’m doing this training?

I’m looking for data, that’s why I’m interested to teach and mentor small cohort of students. I will send you few optional questions by the end of this mini-course.

This course is definitely free, I get the data and you get the training, it’s a win-win situation.

What should I do to get enroll?

Send me your Date of Birth, First and Last name and Email. Once I receive them, I will generate your user name and password and email them back to you. You then, will be able to log in any time, read the instruction and start typing.

What are the required materials?

Although it’s prefer to use desktop, lap top still can be used. But remember, lap tops are not for long time use and they might cause wrists and neck pain; and strain of the eye muscles. If laptops are to be used, it’s preferred to use external keyboard, mouse and laptops monitor to bring the screen up to the eye level.

More information about the ergonomic of working on a computer will be discussed in the optional session.

What is the importance of touch-typing?

Most of the communications now-days are becoming through writing. Emails, Social Media and writing on MS word all require good skill in touch typing to be more productive and to save time. Many exams like TOEFL, ILETS and USMLE Clinical Skill are changing to be computer based. Typing fast and accurate will increase your chance in finishing those tests in timely manner. Many office jobs require the person to type fast and accurate to communicate finish up the work quickly. Typing in wrong way takes longer time, distract you-by flipping your eyes between the screen and keyboard- and makes writing unpleasant with the time.

Please do not hesitate to ask further details. Below is my email, in case you want to enroll or ask question.

Sultan Alwajeeh.

Email: alwajeeh.em@gmail.com

Skype:snak700

Three Myths about USMLE Step 1

Three Myths about USMLE Step one:

1-It’s pure basic science: 

This is a common myth. Many people think USMLE step one is solely about basic sciences and has nothing to do with patient care. From the begging of USMLE 1, when it was ECFMG, the exam was basic sciences that are related to clinical. With the time, the committee are making the test more like clinical cases, to mimic the real life.
USMLE step 1 is heavily focus on materials that are related to clinical science. Unless you understand the basic of Medicine, you will not become a great physician. Basic Science is the foundation of the career of Medicine, whether they call it USMEL, MRCP (UK) or GAMSAT (Australia).

2-USMLE Step 2 is purely clinical:

This myth is very dangerous, as many students think they can do step 2 before step 1. They usually say “we want to hit two birds with one stone”, to prepare for Canadian as well.
I usually prefer to tell students “If you want to apply to Canada, take the Canadian, while if you want to apply to USA, take the USMLE”. 

Step two has almost 40% of it's materials are founded on basic sciences. Thus, if you flip the equation and take Step 2 before Step 1, you are doing your self a disservice 

3- To score 99, I will need to answer all the question correctly:

Even though, the term 99 is not used nowadays, I would use it to mean “High Score”. Although I took mine one thousand years ago, when I took 
the exam, 99 scores varied greatly. 

Excuse my French, but I use to name the barely scored 99 “ Homeless 99”.
I usually answer this myth by telling the students “Even Hippocrates, did not answer all the questions right!”

Well, Hippocrates was an ancient Greek Physician, so he did not technically need to do USMLE, he might aced the GMLE (Greek Medical License Examination). That was a joke!

To make a long story short, you are allowed to miss questions and still score 99 or 240. 

Lastly, the USMLE Step1, 2 and 3 might look intimidating but they are the road to become a great 
physician. Such a road wouldn't be paved with roses!

                          Enjoy this video....