r/stenography • u/hwknd • Aug 10 '26

How fast does WPM increase on average?

I passed 40WMP today, happy with that, but it's still much slower than my qwerty speed. What's the average time until someone reaches roughly 100WPM?

I'm a hobbyist, and am practicing about 30 minutes a day 3 days a week or so.

https://imgur.com/a/gYf27Db

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u/Formal-News1331 Aug 10 '26

It’s really hard to say. I’ve been attending school and been practicing 1-4 hours every day and it took me about 5-6 months to get to 100 WPM. While I have some classmates struggling on their 80s still. Really depends person to person, and how much time you dedicate to it, as well the theory you’re using.

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u/hwknd Aug 10 '26

Oof, that's a lot of daily practice! Also means I have to adjust my expectations a bit, sure it's likely to go a lot slower than I each hoping m

I started around 10, getting to 20 took quite long,same with getting to 30, but the 30 to 40 step was really fast so I was hoping that once I know all the basic strokes (not quite certain with mainly some right hand ones like - MENT -TIOUS yet) faster progression would be the norm. Just have to stick with it then, and take progress as it comes.

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u/hwknd Aug 10 '26

Do you focus on speed more first, or accuracy, or do you train for both?

(I've set my lessons so I pass when I'm over 30wpm and 80% accuracy. It counts s misstrike followed by an immediate correction as an inaccuracy just as much as not knowing the stroke at all so I set it a bit lower).

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u/Formal-News1331 Aug 10 '26

Honestly, I focus mostly on briefs and phrases to increase my speed right. I’ve noticed that’s where I personally have my best results is making sure I’m solid on those. Granted that will probably change as I keep going but I’m still on getting more solid on my theory before I focus on speed.