How does the Morse Code Test work?
Pick a speed and press Start. A letter plays in Morse code, a 600 Hz tone, and you type the letter you heard; the next one plays as soon as you answer. Keep going for 60 seconds. In Words mode each sound is a common English word of 2 to 5 letters, and you press Enter after typing it.
After each answer you see what played, in dots and dashes, so you learn the letters you missed. Nothing about the sound is shown while it plays: the screen never gives the answer away. You can replay a letter, but the clock keeps running.
How fast is each Morse code speed?
Morse speed is counted in words per minute using the word PARIS, which is 50 dot-lengths long with the gap after it. So at W words per minute one dot lasts 1200 ÷ W milliseconds. A dash is three dots, the gap inside a letter one dot, between letters three and between words seven, as the International Telecommunication Union defines them:
| Speed | Dot | Dash | Gap between letters |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5 WPM | 240 ms | 720 ms | 720 ms |
| 10 WPM | 120 ms | 360 ms | 360 ms |
| 15 WPM | 80 ms | 240 ms | 240 ms |
| 20 WPM | 60 ms | 180 ms | 180 ms |
| 25 WPM | 48 ms | 144 ms | 144 ms |
How is the Morse Code Test scored?
Your result is the letters you got right in 60 seconds. A letter counts if it is in your answer in the right order, so a word with one letter wrong still earns the others. Accuracy is the share of the letters played that you got right, and in Words mode the result also counts the words you typed exactly. The letter or word still playing when time runs out isn't counted, right or wrong. Your typing speed is part of the minute, but not of the accuracy.
What is the Morse code for each letter?
These are the letters and digits of International Morse Code as the ITU sets them out (Recommendation ITU-R M.1677-1, 2009), the same table the test plays. The shortest letter, E, is a single dot; the longest, J, Q, Y, last 13 dot-lengths each.
| Letter | Code | Letter | Code |
|---|---|---|---|
| A | ·− | N | −· |
| B | −··· | O | −−− |
| C | −·−· | P | ·−−· |
| D | −·· | Q | −−·− |
| E | · | R | ·−· |
| F | ··−· | S | ··· |
| G | −−· | T | − |
| H | ···· | U | ··− |
| I | ·· | V | ···− |
| J | ·−−− | W | ·−− |
| K | −·− | X | −··− |
| L | ·−·· | Y | −·−− |
| M | −− | Z | −−·· |
| Digit | Code | Digit | Code |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | ·−−−− | 6 | −···· |
| 2 | ··−−− | 7 | −−··· |
| 3 | ···−− | 8 | −−−·· |
| 4 | ····− | 9 | −−−−· |
| 5 | ····· | 0 | −−−−− |
What can affect your Morse Code Test result?
- Speed against spacing. At slow speeds every part of a letter is slow, so letters are long and easy to count but hard to hear as one shape. Many learners use Farnsworth timing instead: letters sent fast, with the gaps between them stretched. This test uses the standard spacing at every speed.
- Your speaker. Any speaker or headphones work; Bluetooth delay doesn't matter, because nothing is timed against the sound. Noise matters more: a quiet room helps at the faster speeds.
- Typing. The time you take to type comes out of the minute, and phone keyboards are slower. Autocorrect is off in the answer box.
Morse is rhythm as much as sound, so the Rhythm Test is a good partner; for plain keyboard speed, try the Typing Speed Test.