Looks like Eric is investigating putting a rated non timed section in tactics trainer. I am happy he is at least considering it. As I already mentioned he could keep the rating private in that section  similar to chessmentor which is not geared to competition and rating status but just uses the rating to show ones invidividual development in different areas.  And frankly I really do not think more time is going to affect the ratings that much. If one does not get it in say the first five minutes it is unlikely that person will ever get it right later on. But five minutes to 60 seconds is a quite difference and being able to feel you do not have rush and can spend you time calculating will also prevent a lot of 'hail mary' moves. You all know what I mean. The moves you make now will actually be because you think they are correct and if they are not you cannot blame time. That will really help point out the errors in your thought processes.

Well, I already threw my two cents out there, and I'm feelin too lazy to type a bunch of stuff, but I really think you'll learn more timed. As you get faster, u get a better graph of how you're improving than non-timed. It's harder, but you will learn more. Getting the questions right is not what it's all about.

I think it's important to get used to time pressure. I like to think that eventually I'll be able to ignore any anxiety/panic associated with it through repeated exposure to tightly timed problems... dare to dream!

Well, if you play only turn-based chess, or out-right correspondence chess, it seems kind of silly to rate yourself by what you can spot in 60 seconds. Me, I really enjoy sitting down with a position and a large cup of coffee or two and running through sideline after sideline of one position in ExaChess, which I think is probably a lot like ChessBase, except for Mac. I don't use an engine to analyze in ExaChess; I just use it like an analysis board that saves every sideline you manually investigate.

What I'm getting at is that I'll spend an hour or more pouring over one position, so speed in finding solutions to tactics problems seems irrelevant to me. Of course, if you're into OTB chess, especially blitz, then of course I can see that a timer and rating would be invaluable. But it seems to me that if you're not interested in OTB chess, you can just go into Settings and turn off the Tactics Trainer's timer and not be bothered by it. Chess.com lets you have it both ways.

not quite  It doesnt let you have it both ways imo. In a rated session the trainer will typically throw stuff at  you near your rating level and it is nice to have that kind of adaptive environment. In unrated you have to do all that manually and there is really no way to track your progress  in terms of percentage right wrong and at what level you are performing. I personally think it would be nice if they offered both a blitz and  a standard rated tactics regimen.

nimbleswitch, think of the tactics trainer positions as the kinds of positions you'd find in each of the many sidelines you investigate. While pouring over one position in ExaChess you probably come across a dozen or more (twenty? thirty? depends on how wide and deep you're searching) positions like you'll be solving in tactics trianer. If you can't evaluate these quickly and accurately (1 to 3 minutes) you'll never be able to analyze a position the way you describe.

 

The tactics trainer positions are pulled out as specifically those positions with a single tactical resolution. They are not like a position where you can dig deep into sideline after sideline. They reperesent the kinds of things that will truncate sidelines, e.g. one side has lost to a combination. So, tactics trainer is training you to quickly and accurately evaluate those sideline tactics so that you can deeply analyze a position in a manageable time.