tactics trainer

    a player should never have rating points deducted for solving a tactics problem too slowly. this (generally) does not reflect a game situation. at worst, a slow solution should result in +1 point. in addition, it is not good to rush people while in conceptual training. finally, to penalize a person for the correct solution (no matter how slowly they come to it) is igoring the power of positive reinforcement. 

Exactly right.

Fourth, I for one am winding up with an endless stream of 600 level puzzles that are teaching me nothign and will continue to teach me nothing until I eventually pick up the skill to absorb an entire chessboard accurately from scratch, inside of five or six seconds.  It's going to be a while, is all I can say.

You're not being penalized.

You didn't spot it very quickly, this means you found the problem hard, so your rating is adjusted appropriately so you get easier problems in the future, just like if you got it wrong.

The penalty for getting it slowly is less than the penalty for getting it wrong.

But yeah, it is designed for quick pattern recognition, I've heard david pruess recommend that you don't spend more than half a minute (not sure on exact time) looking at each puzzle anyway, because you're trying to train pattern recognition, not problem solving.

your point is well taken.  for some, pattern recognition comes with solving the problem (we're hands on players, not rote). so, in a sense, we're both right.

Yeah, the higher problems are in a different world. Down here it is simply a question of finding the pin/fork and making sure you're not hanging anything first.

To the original point - changing the system so that a correct answer is awarded +1 would just raise the rating pool, would it not? People's ratings would increase on average, so the problems would decrease less and everything would just rise.

EDIT: But getting the answer right would be much more important, which is the main point. Duh. 

I think if there was a way to turn off the timing feature, it would help out. With no time pressure, you can look more thoroughly.

i kind of like the timing feature...but again it is kinda a pain :) but i think its good for learning skillz :)

 very good. simple. it gives the options to those of us who want more time to think about specific probelms. i don't know if the chess.com powers that be read this stuff. i hope they do. thanks.P.S.:I LOOKED AT THIS AGAIN. ALTHOUGH YOU CAN TURN OFF THE TIMER IT'S ONLY BEFORE THE PROBLEM IS SHOWN. IF IT COULD BE TURNED OFF AFTER YOU SEE A SEEMINGLY COMPLEX POSITION, THEN IT WOULD HELP THE LEARNING PROCESS FOR A LOT OF US.

Changing the settings only works for premium members, not free like me.