How in the world are the Tactics scored?!

I'm sure that this question has been answered previously; if someone can point me in the right direction to my question, I'd appreciate it. Bottom line: I have no bloody idea how the Tactics are scored.

The most recent Tactic that I played – # 30413 – I had gotten the first two moves correct, and then incorrectly moved for the third move. All moves were done within 15 seconds. And yet I get a score of -6 for that particular Tactic.   For getting the first two of the three moves correct, and doing so quickly, why is this scored so negatively? I really have no bloody idea how these are scored, and it frustrates me more than whatever I learn from playing them.

Please Help me understand. And please tell me I'm not alone in not understanding…

You got -6 because you played the wrong 3rd. move.  You have spent over 220 hours doing tactics, and youre still in the 1300's.  

At some point, you need to learn that its not about speed, but understanding.

The best way to do tactics is to
#1.  Forget about the rating, it will catch up as new patterns are absorbed and solidified.
#2. Try to solve the puzzle to the end before making the first move (look at all relevant legal responses)
#3. Last but probably MOST important, spend a couple of minutes on EVERY puzzle you fail (even ones that you may have guessed right but don't fully understand) figuring out what was wrong with your line, aka what you miscalculated, and absorbing the pattern/idea that was unfamiliar to you.

TIP: Talk aloud to yourself while solving the puzzle and while analyzing it afterward, using chess notation and tactical terms. (https://www.chess.com/article/view/chess-tactics--definitions-and-examples)

Example:  "ahh I missed that the queen is overloaded and after Nxe6, the pawn has to take, exposing the king on the diagonal" or "I thought I could play this attacking move that wasn't a check, but they have a counter threat due to my bank rank weakness" 

If tactics puzzles are not causing mental strain and fatigue, then you are doing them wrong and likely not doing much to improve your calculation.

For FishEyedFools: If it wasn't about speed, then the score would not be based upon speed.

Thanks for the tips, Antonio

You have to learn to crawl before you can walk, before you can run.  

When you learned to read, did you start with the basics, or speed read?

Finally, I'd like to point out that nobody's answered my question. I would very much like to know how these scores are tabulated yours

Not quite sure the exact algorithm but the harder a puzzle is, or the lower the pass rate is of a certain move from the puzzle, the more you are rewarded for getting it right.  And you really shouldn't worry about the SPEED in a tactics puzzle.  (Even if you take 10 minutes and get it right I think you still get +1 anyway) The puzzles are truly are for learning new patterns THAT should be your focus, the speed will come naturally when the puzzle is easy or familiar for you.  Worrying about your rating just gets in the way of maximizing your learning.

Amen!

For those that think the score is the most important thing of all, and bemoan how they lose 100 points, and only gain 1 point:

https://support.chess.com/customer/portal/articles/1444811

My former coach said to always use a real board, and pieces when studying.  You want to duplicate real tournaemnt conditions as much as possible.  When i asked him about studying tactics online?  He said to take no more than 2-3 minutes.  If you still cant figure it out, then its a pattern you dont know.  Set it up on a real board, with real pieces, and study it again.  Its amazing how much more i see on a real set, as opposed to an online 2D board, and pieces.

Thanks to all

 How do you find the number of a specific tactic puzzle?  The OP mentioned tactic #30413.

Thanks

Answered my own question:

From a recently completed Tactics puzzle, click on Stats.  This shows a list of recently completed puzzles.

More generally, you can go to https://www.chess.com/tactics/problems and get a list of all the tactics puzzles and can filter it based on themes.

For the record, I adore the chess puzzles in Tactics.  What I greatly dislike is the scoring method, which remains largely unknown.  For example: I understand that the perfect combination of moves gets you the highest score, but lowered based on the time spent.  But, is that the time spent on the first move, the entire collection of perfect moves, or some other factor? 

Also, the maximum negative score is achieved if you mis-play the first move.  But why isn't this negative score decreased over time, as the maximum positive score is also decreased over time?  And why do so many puzzles give a rather large negative score when you get all but the last move in the combination correct?  

As I said -- I adore the puzzles in the chess Tactics.  But the scoring drives me batty, and often I have to put down the tactics just so I can stop focusing on the unknown, irrational, and seemingly unfair scoring method.  

Let the score go, and concentrate on the learning.