Practice skill test · not an official paper

AS 2708 typing standard

Ten-minute English clerical rehearsal at 40 WPM for ads that name AS 2708. Agencies pick their own tester.

Not a licensed AS 2708 assessment or APS Jobs centre.

US QWERTY — changes with paper language

US QWERTY

Duration 10:00 · practice cutoff 40 WPM · 95% accuracy · copy/paste disabled on the paper

US QWERTY keyboard

Default US ANSI board. Letters sit where English typists expect them. The on-screen board and this table follow the layout you picked in the exam settings. Set the same layout in your operating system so the keys you press match English on this page.

Home-row fingers rest on A S D F and J K L semicolon. Capitals and number-row marks use Shift.

This is the layout of most US clerical tests and of the English lessons on this site.

How to type letters on US QWERTY

Each row is a character that is not a plain unshifted English letter on that physical key. Shift and AltGr chords change with the layout.

LetterKeysNote
``
~Shift + `
11
!Shift + 1
22
@Shift + 2
33
#Shift + 3
44
$Shift + 4
55
%Shift + 5
66
^Shift + 6
77
&Shift + 7
88
*Shift + 8
99
(Shift + 9
00
)Shift + 0
--
_Shift + -
==
+Shift + =
[[
{Shift + [
]]
}Shift + ]
;;
:Shift + ;
''
"Shift + '
,,
<Shift + ,
..
>Shift + .
//
?Shift + /
\\
|Shift + \

AS 2708 is a standard agencies point to, not a hall you book

AS 2708 is the Australian Standard historically cited for keyboarding and typing speed assessment. Public-sector ads across the Australian Public Service, state departments, and police-support or admin roles still say things like “typing speed in accordance with AS 2708” or “40 wpm with 98% accuracy.” There is not a single national exam day run by Standards Australia that every candidate sits. Employers choose a test method. India Typing Test’s AS 2708 card is a ten-minute English rehearsal at a 40 WPM practice gate. It is not a certified AS 2708 assessment and not an APS recruitment centre.

Always read the job ad and the selection documentation. Some agencies want a five-minute test, some ten, some a certificate from a TAFE or a private tester who claims AS 2708 alignment. Police admin in one state is not the same as a Canberra APS4. This page exists so you can build the underlying copy-typing skill before you pay a tester or walk into an agency’s chosen software.

APS, state, and police-support admin are three hiring cultures

APS roles are advertised on APS Jobs with selection criteria. Typing may be a desirable skill rather than a scored exam. State health or justice ads may demand a certificate attached to the application. Police-support jobs sometimes want keyboarding because the work is occurrence reports and databases, not because you will sit a mysterious national typing olympics.

This card uses ordinary clerical English, not Indian running-matter about ministries, not US ZIP codes, not stenotype. Australian spelling (organisation, licence, programme where the passage uses it) may still differ from US default text in the pack. If a word looks American, type what is on screen. Official testers in Australia will use their own passages.

Accuracy percentages in Australian ads are not decoration

Many local ads pair 40 WPM with 95–98 percent accuracy. That is stricter than a casual internet test. This page’s accuracy gate is 90 percent as a training floor; you should personally hold higher before you claim the ad’s number. Errors on names of suburbs, licence numbers, and dates are how admin officers create work for someone else.

Ten minutes matches a serious certificate sitting better than a 60-second sprint. If your tester uses five minutes, you can still use this card for endurance and then take a five-minute OPM-style run for the shorter clock — but keep Australian job vocab in a custom list rather than switching your mental model to USAJOBS.

Certificates, TAFEs, and online proctors

Some applicants book a typing test at a community college or an online proctor who issues a PDF mentioning AS 2708. Agencies accept those only when the ad says so. A screenshot from India Typing Test will not replace that PDF. Practise here until the paid sitting is boring.

Ask the tester whether they use net WPM, whether backspace is allowed, and whether the test is five or ten minutes. Match that in your last week of practice. If they freeze backspace, do no-edit runs. If they want 98 percent, stop celebrating 40 WPM at 91 percent.

Police-support occurrence typing is not a literary contest

Support staff type names, times, and incident language. Accuracy on proper nouns matters more than a high WPM brag. After a timed run on this card, paste a custom list of Australian place names and rank abbreviations you are allowed to practise (public examples, not live job data). Then time another run so mixed sentences still hold.

Sworn officer testing, physical tests, and integrity units are outside this browser. Do not treat a typing certificate as a substitute for those gates. If the ad never mentions keyboarding, you do not need this card for that vacancy.

A four-week plan before an APS or state closing date

Week one: three ten-minute baselines on this card. Week two: accuracy first; add custom Australian workplace words. Week three: hold 40-plus WPM for the full ten minutes twice. Week four: match the tester’s duration; one unfamiliar keyboard if you can. Submit the application with the certificate they asked for, not a link to this site.

If typing is only “desirable,” still keep a weekly run. Selection panels notice slow email during the probation that follows a successful APS round. This page will not address your selection criteria. It will tell you whether 40 WPM is real for you.

What not to confuse this standard with

AS 2708 is not NCRA, not OPM, not USPS, not CPNS, and not SSC. Citing an Indian 35 WPM CHSL number on an Australian application looks confused. Citing a 225 stenotype number looks worse. Use the country cards that match the employer.

Standards get revised. If a 2020s ad cites a newer keyboarding document, follow that document. This page is educational practice aligned to how AS 2708 is still named in job ads, not a licensed Standards Australia product.

Frequently asked questions about AS 2708 typing standard

Qualifying rules, languages, WPM versus official software, and how this practice paper is not a Standards Australia certificate.

No. AS 2708 is a standard agencies and testers refer to. You book whatever test the employer or a TAFE/proctor offers. This website is not that sitting. Use it to build copy-typing before you pay or before an agency’s internal test. The ad’s wording and the tester’s rules decide pass or fail.