Typing lessons

I've been trying to improve my typing speed, because I'm just starting to look for a job, and a mere 28 words per minute isn't going to help. I have one of those programs (Mavis Beacon) that teaches you typing, and have started back more or less at the very beginning. I've discovered that I do terribly with just typing the letters and "letter combinations" ("ads dsk" and so forth and so on) but much better with actual words. My problem is I get nervous and start looking at the keyboard, and that rather slows me down, whereas I probably do know where all the keys really are, I just haven't practiced enough in an environment where I have to get it right. In addition to work, speedier typing would help me in my writing, not having to go back and retype whole words because I goofed on one letter near the beginning. There's got to be some way to save on keystrokes and therefore time, which is sort of the point. Does anyone have any advice? The program says to slow down and type accurately rather than quickly until you're sure of what you're doing, which I'll start to do, but then I get impatient... *sigh*