and timing myself.
Accuracy trumps plain old speed. We had a designer who just blew non-caddies away because he was so "fast". Man, those keys just went clickity-clack 100 miles a minute, and he was zooming and panning like the wind.
Trouble was, when you really looked at the drawings, there were columns running through equipment and other such nonsense.
The speed will come, concentrate on accuracy first.
I've also had people come out of Tech schools with (at least) certificates in AutoCAD/drafting, who could barely handle the basics. But they thought, because they had been "trained", that that was it...they knew all there was to know. And they pretty much stopped there, proving themselves to be not so smart after all.
I'm self-taught 20+ years ago - no degree whatsoever. Of course, that was when AutoCAD was still pretty new and I was in the right place at the right time starting out. Now I'm the resident cad queen. There's plenty that I don't know, but I'm really good at looking things up, and I've probably run into just about every problem in my past, so I can answer tons of questions for my coworkers.
Besides dumb luck, what's my secret? A love of puzzles & mysteries... and pure laziness...seriously, don't laugh! Whenever I thought to myself, "there must be an easier way to do this", I would (and still do) work like crazy to find that easier way.
Never think you know all there is to know about this field. Never. Ever. Because even if you're a whiz kid, the new version comes out and there's even more to learn.