As a typist, I hover around 100-120 words per minute. I can type just as fast as I think, so my writing pretty much flows out of my head and onto the... well... screen.
When entering college (the UC system) they require all incoming freshman to take the "Subject A" examination. It is a basic writing skills assesment, and in most students opinions, it is meant to weed out the non-english speakers. If you don't pass the exam by the end of your freshman year, you are kicked out of school.
This exam is 3 hours, and you basically read a few pages, then write a few pages in response. I was in AP english my whole life, honors everything. I worked as an editor on a student magazine, and proofread other papers to help out friends. I'm not saying I'm perfect (no doubt there are errors in this post) but I'm definitely average or above.
They score this exam on a 1-5 scale (4 is passing). I took it for the first time, and found out that it was hand written. My hand cramped up about 30 minutes in. I got frustrated and gave up. I got a '3'. I tried 3 times before I could pass it! When I passed, they decided to give me a "4-"... like telling me "you just BARELY did well enough to pass..."
Not being able to handwrite quickly and effectively has definitely held me back at times. Because I failed that test so many times, I was placed in the remedial english courses, and my class was comprised of foreign students who couldn't form a sentence to save their lives.
