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Nail It Now (Typing Tutor) Review by Stacey Jones

Georgina (Georgie) Farmer
Nail It Now
61 3 9646 9511
34 Tucker Avenue
Port Melbourne VIC 3207
http://www.nailitnow.com.au

With almost everything done on computers these days, touch-typing is a skill that everyone needs to learn. Two-fingered typing is slow and time-consuming, which is why all kids should be learnt to touch-type as soon as they have access to a computer. Nail It Now is a unique typing program that will have you typing with all fingers in under two hours. It is very easy to follow and anyone with a computer, two programs - Powerpoint to receive and print off the lessons and Word to complete the lessons. Once you pay, the lessons are emailed to you, so there is no waiting. You can start immediately.

When I learnt to type many years ago, I used the programs where I was consistently typing aaaa ssss dddd ffff. I found this particularly boring and monotonous. When my son was told that he was to learn typing this year, he was not particularly happy about it. He started with the program they gave him, typing his aaaa ssss dddd’s and became quite bored and discouraged very quickly. When the opportunity to review Nail It Now came up, I was ecstatic, as this looked like a completely different typing program that didn’t follow any of the traditional, boring lessons.

We were given access to the Single-User (Individual) Nailers, though there is also a Multi-User (Education and Business) Nailers subscription as well. As part of this subscription, we received two versions of lessons – one for everyone and one for children in grades 3 – 6. Each of these versions are broken up into five lesson areas:

  • LEFT side
  • LEFT side Exercises
  • RIGHT side
  • RIGHT side Exerciess
  • Shift Keys and Caps Lock Key

I printed out the children’s version for my son and placed them in a ring binder for easy access. I informed him of the three rules he needed to follow before starting. They are:

  • He needed to follow each step exactly as written
  • He must NOT look at the keys
  • He must be persistent!!!

On day 1, he sat down and started the LEFT side lessons. Before he knew it, he was typing complete words with his left hand. He was so surprised and extremely happy. No more of the one letter repetitive typing. He was actually making progress! Although he still cannot type at lightning speed, which he knows will only come with practice, he is continually making progress each and every time he uses this program. There is no doubt that this program will help him exceed his goal of typing 35 wpm with 100% by the end of the year.

As he was improving so much with this, I decided I would try the ‘everyone’ version. Now, I can type extremely fast but my accuracy is not that great. As I have been working through the lessons, I have found my knowledge of the position of the keys is improving which in turn is helping my accuracy.

After using this program for a couple of months, we still have a long way to go, but we are extremely happy with the progress we have made so far. Being able to type ‘real’ words instead repeating the same letter over and over again is a great way to learn and keep kids engaged. We have found Nail it Now to be a more realistic, natural way to learn how to use the entire keyboard in a very short time.

-Product review by Stacey Jones, The Old Schoolhouse® Magazine, LLC, April, 2017

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