Why do practice sites report a higher number than the exam would?

Because they deduct one keystroke per error and the exercise deducts six. Neither is wrong as arithmetic; they are answering different questions. Only one of them is the question you will be marked against, and it is the one that gives the lower number.

Are spaces counted as keystrokes?

Yes, a keystroke is any character produced, spaces included, which is why keystroke counts are roughly five times a word count. An accent typed through a dead key produces one character even though it took two key presses, so it counts once.

Does correcting a mistake remove the penalty?

It depends on how the exercise is marked, and the bases are the place to check. What is certain is that backspacing costs time you do not get back, so avoiding the error is cheaper than either leaving it or repairing it.

Is the penalty always six?

It is six in the Cortes Generales notification we read in full. Each convocatoria sets its own, and autonomous and local competitions publish theirs in their own bulletins, so treat six as the figure to reason with rather than as a universal rule.

How many gross keystrokes do I need to reach 250 net?

About 266 a minute if one per cent of your keystrokes are wrong, and about 284 if two per cent are. Calculating this from your own error rate is far more useful than practising against 250, which is a figure you cannot observe while you are typing.

Does accuracy percentage tell me the same thing?

Not by itself. Accuracy is a proportion and the penalty applies to a count, so the same accuracy at a higher speed removes more keystrokes. You need the gross figure and the error count together, which is why both are reported alongside the net one.

ANSWER

How are net keystrokes calculated in a Spanish typing exercise?

Net keystrokes are the gross figure minus a penalty for every error, and the penalty is not one keystroke. The Cortes Generales notification sets it at six: net is obtained by subtracting the penalties from the gross, with a separate ceiling of two per cent errors on the gross figure. So 2,700 keystrokes with thirty wrong is 2,520 net, or 252 a minute over ten minutes, where a practice tool deducting one per error would report 267.

The exercise this rule comes from →

The formula, and the number in it that matters

Net equals gross minus errors multiplied by the penalty. The gross figure is everything you typed. The penalty, in the notification we could read end to end, is six. That multiplier is the whole difference between the number a practice site gives you and the number the examiner gives you. Deducting one keystroke per error, which is what almost every tool does, is not a rounding difference from deducting six. Work it in the direction that matters. Ten minutes, 2,700 keystrokes, thirty wrong. The penalties come to 180. Net is 2,520, which is 252 a minute. Against a threshold of 250 that is a pass by two points. Reported the usual way it is 267, and seventeen points of headroom that were never there.

What it means in practice

Each error costs roughly what a second and a half of typing earns at the required pace. Two errors a minute costs about twelve keystrokes a minute, which is more than most candidates gain from a week of speed work. Working backwards from the threshold is more useful than working forwards from your speed. To reach 250 net at a one per cent error rate you need about 266 gross a minute. At two per cent you need about 284. The cleaner you type, the less raw speed the same result requires. This is why the advice to slow down is not a platitude here. Below a certain accuracy, typing faster makes the net figure worse.

The error ceiling is a second, separate rule

Alongside the penalty, the notification admits a maximum of two per cent errors on the gross keystrokes. That is not the same test as the speed and it is not satisfied by passing it. Two per cent of 2,700 is fifty-four. Thirty errors is inside it. Ninety would not be, and no net figure rescues a run that breaches it: a candidate typing 3,200 keystrokes with ninety-six wrong clears 250 net comfortably and is excluded anyway. Track the percentage as a number of its own rather than inferring it from the speed. It moves first, and it warns you before the net figure does.

Seeing the real number while you practise

Most tools cannot show you this because they do not keep the counts it needs. Accuracy alone will not do: a percentage cannot be turned back into gross keystrokes without knowing how many there were. The Spanish test here reports it. On Spanish runs the results page shows gross keystrokes, the error count, net under the six-keystroke rule and the error rate, and it flags the two per cent ceiling separately, because the two rules fail independently. Use the ten-minute duration. A one-minute run tells you almost nothing about an exercise whose difficulty is concentrated in its last third. One caution worth repeating: six is the penalty in the notification we read. Another competition may set a different one, and where it does, its own figure is the one that counts.

Frequently asked questions

Why do practice sites report a higher number than the exam would?
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Because they deduct one keystroke per error and the exercise deducts six. Neither is wrong as arithmetic; they are answering different questions. Only one of them is the question you will be marked against, and it is the one that gives the lower number.
Are spaces counted as keystrokes?
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Yes, a keystroke is any character produced, spaces included, which is why keystroke counts are roughly five times a word count. An accent typed through a dead key produces one character even though it took two key presses, so it counts once.
Does correcting a mistake remove the penalty?
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It depends on how the exercise is marked, and the bases are the place to check. What is certain is that backspacing costs time you do not get back, so avoiding the error is cheaper than either leaving it or repairing it.
Is the penalty always six?
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It is six in the Cortes Generales notification we read in full. Each convocatoria sets its own, and autonomous and local competitions publish theirs in their own bulletins, so treat six as the figure to reason with rather than as a universal rule.
How many gross keystrokes do I need to reach 250 net?
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About 266 a minute if one per cent of your keystrokes are wrong, and about 284 if two per cent are. Calculating this from your own error rate is far more useful than practising against 250, which is a figure you cannot observe while you are typing.
Does accuracy percentage tell me the same thing?
+
Not by itself. Accuracy is a proportion and the penalty applies to a count, so the same accuracy at a higher speed removes more keystrokes. You need the gross figure and the error count together, which is why both are reported alongside the net one.

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