Adaptive difficulty

Using adaptive mode gives me lessons at around 2200-2300. I think I learn more from those around 1800-2000.

So an adaptive-but-easier setting would be good.

To be a bit more thorough...

Maybe it is just too generous with the score after giving hints. At the higher levels, I seem to need spoonfeeding with hints, and struggle to see how to apply the ideas in my own games.

Eg: Hint - white's goal here is an eventual e4. OK I wouldn't have guessed that. Why is white's goal e4 anyway? Why is control of d5 and f5, say, more important today than some other objective? (It's thematic - does that mean just take my word for it?) Don't I want to understand this before working out how to prepare e4?

One last thing. In tactics trainer there is space for comments under each problem - but often there is not much to say about the tactics problems. In chess mentor there is often a lot to say about a position, but nowhere for comments.

ExtraBold, I think you are right. A comments section for the Chess Mentor lessons just as there is for Tactics Trainer would be a good idea. Thank you.

I'm sticking to sequential until I have a good reason to change.

Because you are bored and it has become habit, andf you probably find comfort in it. It may be an addiction form you that you need to use more self control on.

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I'm coming accross Extrabold's problem and it's rather annoying too. Just get a membership a few days ago to try out chessmentor. From the trial free lessons I already knew that I liked the methodology to it, even if it does exagerate the amount of feedback. (many moves have a default response to them that doesn't explain why it was wrong, but rather just tell you there's something better, redundant given it's already flagged as wrong).

Anyway, I'm getting poor performances on some of these lessons but still ridiculously, I'm boosted in rating pushing me to lessons even further beyond my scope. Partially to blame, I believe, is that penalities are proportional to exercise length. So many problems let you thrash against wrong answers where you can plausibly try all legal moves (and I have) and still raise in rating in the end.

Additionally the adpative setting supposedly picks my weakness to work on, but it still tends to throw categories I'm better with so that I get even larger spikes in point gains sending me unreasonable high.

I know I can filter out those categories, but it's not that I don't want them, it's that I want those of them I get to be harder. It keeps statistics it can keep relative ratings for different categories, so why doesn't it?

Begining to feel like I'm rambling, so I'll stop...really adaptive-200 might be better...

...stop getting ones right?

I've done 27% of the problems in sequential mode and I like it and plan to continue in that mode. So far my rating is about 1900.