I have been trying to practice chess to get better and, besides playing live on Chess.com, I have been utilizing the Chess.com tactics trainer and I have tried using CTART 4 but it seems really hard and I have failed almost all the tests while on Chess.com tactics tainer I usually float between 1000 and 1100.  With this in mind I have only used CTART 4 for about half an hour then gave up to pursue tactics trainer in Chess.com.  I have tried studying masters games but, to be honest, I usually have no idea why they made certain moves and therefore feel like I am not learning anything.

My questions are this:

Which do you think is a better tactics trainer - the trainer here on Chess.com or CTART 4?

Do you think a beginner like me can benefit at all from studying masters games even though I really don't feel like I understand what is going on?

Do you ever play games against yourself?  I thought about trying this.  I thought maybe I might catch some glaring blunders I am habitually making.

Thoughts?

I've been using the mentor program and the videos for the last couple of weeks on chess.com and feel like I am learning a lot.  My rating is still floating around 900 but I get the feeling with a couple of more games and practise, the blunders and mistakes in my game will get lower, opportunities will be more apparent and more games will be won.  I also think that studying master games as a beginner without having any explainations for the moves is a waste of time.  We have to be given the reasons and logic for the move so we can understand.  I think with the videos in chess.com the commentaries have done a great job in explaining why a certain moves was done while talking about a master game ect...  

we all need an online practicing chess board for different purposes.

Way back when I used to play solitaire chess because there was nothing else to do.  But I'm pretty sure it's useless.  And nowadays, with all the outlets available, there's really no reason for it that I can see.

All the tactical problems seem impossible when you first start. Just keep doing em. Familiarize yourself with all the basic tactics I.e. fork, pins, skewers etc. Once you do that you'll start recognizing patterns and you will start solving more problems successfully.