What do you do when shorthad appears in documents?

I learned shorthand in high school and thought it would be fabulous for note-taking in college.  I used shorthand during my freshman and sophomore year and didn't follow the rule to transfer them to longhand or type them before forgetting the conversation.  When it came time to take my comprehensive exams in order to graduate, I could not read any of those shorthand notes.  Thank goodness my classmates shared theirs with me!   It takes years to master this skill which is also unique to every scribe.  To further complicate this, there are two forms of shorthand, Gregg and Pitman.  It will be very difficult for most transcribers to decipher shorthand even with a comprehensive guide.