Why is recall so hard?
In every typing test I've taken (once a week for my high school Computer Graphics/Design/ and Tech class) I've scored between 45 and 60 words per minute. I know all the words, and I can type them all out. I just cannot manage to do the accents of the words (that is, take one of my hands of the keyboard, click the accent or punctuation needed, then put it back on to type the rest of the words) in the three seconds that I have to get a full score of 10 for the question. Which means I can never get a perfect score for recall. Am I the only one having this problem?
14 Answers
A couple of comments:
(1) When I used to have to type 10 hours a day (hated it!), I typed close to 100 words a minute. Now I'm lucky to reach 40.
To type 100, you need to always keep your fingers on the "home" keys. This means the accent mark is on the wrong key! The "pinky" finger is your slowest, and making any finger stretch from its home key, also slows down the motion. So, when using an English keyboard, you don't type quotation marks very often, but in Spanish the tilde is used more than just about any other key. Which means it is in the worst possible position!!
(2) When I do the flashcards, I never score higher than anyone, unless I'm the only one who has done that particular set. 
However, as Q was mentioning above, it is a learning experience for me. So I continue to do a set until I get each word perfect -- regardless of speed. Sometimes, I've been called away from the keyboard (answered a phone call or something) and received a "1 point," but if it was correct, I never tried to go for a "higher" score, just make sure I knew the words!
IMHO, life is too short to worry about "high score" over "increasing knowledge." The second just seems so much more profitable! 
Yes, it's not perfect. I made up for the weak results in recall by doing all that much better in every other area.
In the end, if I knew the recall entry in my head, I didn't really worry about missing the actual typing. The real goal is to learn, and these are just "tools". 
It's never too early or too late to get over being a perfectionist. I speak from experience.
One gets a sense of power and mastery when one can dominate a test and get 100%. You get a heady rush of pride. However, it brings a false sense of power, and, so, there is a life lesson to be learned here.
The keyboard/accent challenge is working against you. It is a technical difficulty. You could reach into your pocket and purchase yourself an international Spanish language keyboard and learn to use it. I don't know how it handles the accents, but you will have a separate key for the ñ.
Don't have the money? Too drastic an effort? You may have to accept that this typing challenge is one that is out of your control.
If you get a high score, but it is not 100%, you will still be learning the vocabulary and a new language.
You can give yourself credit for learning the language and forgive yourself for not getting a perfect score. Accepting your imperfections is a good skill to develop and is something that invariably you will learn to do more often as your life unfolds.
The idea behind scoring the exercises is so that you can compare your progress with others (I don't know why that is important, but that's my personal opinion, not shared by many). If even the scores of a good typist such as yourself are lowered by typing difficulties (making the accented letters) then the playing field remains equal.
My advice: quit worrying about your score. Better to get all the answers correct with a low score,than miss learning something to expedite a high score, even if you barely squeak out the 750 to get credit for the lesson.
It is pretty tough. I even have my keyboard set to Spanish, meaning I can hit the '[' key down with a letter to get an accent mark. That's quicker than taking your hand off the key, grabbing the mouse, clicking the letter, and going back to the keyboard... and it's still difficult to get a perfect score.
If you want to get 100% it's easy enough to cheat with copy/ paste. It won't help your Spanish much of course.
I thought I was fast at typing..but not fast enough! Also, when I try to be faster, I make stupid mistakes..like forgetting an accent or spelling mistakes. I think a lot of people have trouble with the recall section!
Typing ! Fooey! I will never get a perfect score there, I just got over it and did the best I could. I think I am the "prince of typos" anyway. By the way I use the " Columbus system" when typing,I discover a key and then land on it. Bah!! The point is to learn the material.
I've often wondered how people get perfect scores! Amazing! 
It is tough for me on the recall section because I can never type fast enough to get a perfect score.I do think that posting on this website has made me become a much better and faster typer.Good luck on your typing skills and learning spanish.
What I do is make sure to always position my arrow key to hover over the list of special letters, in between answering each question. That has helped me a little bit. But it is almost impossible to get a perfect score, if there are any special characters involved in the test. Good luck!
If you have really mastered the lesson there is no need to worry about not typing fast enough! Don't forget the time is just working against you to test how fast you recall not how fast you type. I love SpanishDict. You can always go back and reanswer things you are not good at or remaster old lessons ANYTIME and for free. The time is just a tool. It's ok if you get straight 8s or 9s in the recall. At least you're problem is not lack of mastery. It's just typing (you really can't do anything about it especially with accents).
Well, I am a native speaker and after three trials I could only make 150 points of 160 points available in the recall.
In the total (recognize, listen and recall) I made 462, out of 480 (156, 156 and 150). And I type pretty fast (or so I thought!)
I switch it so it gives me a Spanish word and I type the English so I don't have to worry about accents
