I haven't run much in regards to T2k, I've barely dabbled in it, but I have run many Merc: 2000 and Dark Conspiracy games since the early 1990s and they both use the same Skill increase system as T2k in either the 2nd Ed. or 2.2 versions.
These have all been face-to-face games and there's never been any problem with tracking XP because most games usually result in 2-3 XP in general for each session plus extra points based on significant/intense actions conducted by the PC, excellent role-playing by the Player, outstanding results achieved by the PC/group and so on. From memory, this pretty much follows the recommendations from the various GDW games as to how much XP to award
Typically, most PCs end up with 3-4 XP per session.
I actually find this system far easier to track than something like D&D where almost any action the PCs do can result in XP awards and you're constantly updating their XP as the session progresses.
Some Referees, require that the PCs have a period of downtime before they can apply XP to a skill and raise it to the next level, some require the XP to be spent on only those skills used during the session, some allow the XP to be used during the session, some award "general" XP to be used as the Player likes and also "specific" XP that must be used on a specific skill.
I've seen all of these ideas put into use and used some of them myself but overall, the biggest issue I have ever seen with the GDW XP system, is players of a certain fantasy RPG, thinking that they don't get enough XP.
I haven't seen any particular problem with the amount of time it took for people to raise skills but then I typically used the "general XP and specific XP" approach so that after say three sessions, PCs could have accumulated anywhere from 9 to 12 XP and in particularly intense sessions, they may have even gained an extra point (potentially up to 3 extra XP over three sessions)
I was running the session once a fortnight so in real time we're talking six weeks for the PCs to gather between 9-12 (and potentially, 15) XP.
Obviously if I was running the game once per week it would have taken half that time.
My approach suited me and my group. I have heard of other Dark Conspiracy Referees who awarded more XP per session (typically 4-7 points), at the time I didn't think that was necessary but that's what suited them and I can understand why they would choose that approach once their skills got high enough that they needed to bank 7-10 points to raise a single skill.
But again, the phrase "your mileage may vary" comes into play, if the PCs are not advancing quite fast enough, then adding a few extra XP per session won't screw things up and if they're advancing too quickly, I found adding a few extra skills into the game caused a further dilution of the XP pool.
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