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Yusupov gives instruction on how to use the books in the beginning of each book.

The examples have diagrams. He says to look at the diagram first before reading the lesson and try to solve it for about 5 minutes, then read. He insists that all moves (main lines and variations) should be played on a physical board in front of you as you study the book.

Then you do the test questions. He says if you get stuck then after 10-15 minutes (I'm assuming 10-15 minutes as there are 12 question he says may take 2 hours and some can be done faster than others) then you can move the pieces around and to check new ideas. The point isn't to brute force solve it, but to give an honest effort, and if you can't, then you simply learn from the solution.

Solutions are given a point. If a solution was more difficult then additional points are given depending on how much you saw or understood. If you don't score well enough he says to redo the all the examples and the problems you got wrong.

But this whole scoring thing is a bit of pageantry IMO. I think you should look at the ones you missed and any interesting ones you got right too regardless. The point isn't some arbitrary score, but to learn something new. (And for me, I usually have to see something multiple times anyway before I'm going to start recalling these things in place of old habits during a game.)

Also, for me (he doesn't mention this), any instructional book should be read with note taking. As I go through the examples I write down anything I find especially interesting. Then at the end of each chapter I condense it into a bullet point list for quick review. If I especially want to remember something I star it. If something is a big weak point for me I use a highlighter. This makes review easier as I can turn to one page of notes and review what was most important to me.

Typing this it sounds like overkill, but honestly I can read something while taking no notes, and it makes complete sense, and I love it, then a week later I'll barely remember it... certainly not enough to use it in a game. The act of writing helps me remember (and makes thoughts more concrete when you're forced to write it), and of course review helps too. And it doesn't take much time to do it.

Has anyone seen that there is a new book in the series out?  http://www.qualitychess.co.uk/products/2/272/revision_and_exam_1_by_artur_yusupov/

It looks like this is a new book of test positions consisting of topics from the first three books.

Hopefully there will two follow ups.

My copy is on the way.

Thanks.

I definitely had this feeling. That it was just a lot of good instructive material. The ratings, tests, points, even dividing them into intro and exercises... all of it was an afterthought. It's just meant to be a lot of good material. Analyze and learn from it.

And to someone considering a book or the whole series, please don't take that as a negative. It's very high quality material, just don't be discouraged if it seems too hard... as Yusupov says in the youtube video he expects you to fail some of these! The point is you get to be exposed to these great and instructive positions.

Which of these books have Dreev -- Arkhipov, 1988?

You may want to try asking your question here:

https://www.chess.com/forum/view/general/yusupov-and-the-older-lower-rated-player

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