Given years of practice, symbol shorthand writers could sometimes acquire skills of 150 or even 200 words per minute, which might have qualified them for demanding positions such as court reporting typically dominated today by machine shorthands.
Most symbol shorthand writers in secretarial positions wrote between 80 and 140 words per minute.
Without the complexity of symbols to memorize and practice writing, Personal Shorthand theory is relatively simple.
Slightly more than a hundred high-frequency business vocabulary words are represented by a single written letter known as a Brief Form ("a" for "about", "t" for "time", "v" for "very", etc.).
In most Personal Shorthand textbooks, the entire Theory is presented in just ten lessons, after which review and practice can lead to writing speeds of 60 to 100 words per minute.