rating just jumped 48 points?

I just received a ratings boots of 48 points after winning a game on time against an opponent rated about 100 points lower than me. I've never seen a jump or drop higher than around 35 points I don't think, and if I have, it was for a major mismatch where the underdog won.

Did settings change that I'm not aware of, did I get lucky, or was this an error?

Thanks for any insight - it doesn't really matter but I'm curious now!

I see what you mean, but I have no explanation. Have you recently helped an old lady across the street, or rescued a kitten from a tree? It's Karma, I think....

Haha!  Maybe so my friend...

Well, it looks as though recently you have finished very few games (2 in the past week?) and that would cause the rating change per game to increase. This is because the equation factors in frequency of games finished into its calculations - the less frequently you finish a game, the bigger the rating change. This, coupled with your previous rating changes for a comparable ratings difference, should be enough to explain the 48 point jump.

rating boosts don't occur because of the time it takes to finish games. only within the first 20 games i believe do they spike really high. the big boosts only come during that time so that it can help establish ratings without making someone play 50 games to reach a high rating

I agree Vincey, I've had plenty of stretches with unfinished games that didn't lead to this kind of jump. The bigger jumps do seem to only apply to those with a "provisional" rating so that they can attempt to find a more correct rating quicker.

Again, I'm not complaining, but I can't help but feel I got way more than I deserved...especially from a timeout win :)  Fortunately, though, I'm donating pawns right and left and will soon donate the points as well!

 Sorry, but you are wrong on this. The glicko rating system (which chess.com uses) factors into account the number of rating periods (aka hours, or days or whatever chess.com decided to use) since the last competition (aka game). This means that the more frequently you finish games, the less your rating will fluctuate. The less frequently you finish games, the more your rating will fluctuate. You have not been finishing games with a high frequency lately, therefore your rating will fluctuate more per game that when you were finishing games more often.

If you want to argue some more, please read this website beforehand: http://math.bu.edu/people/mg/glicko/glicko.doc/glicko.html

guess i should've looked into the rating system more. assumed chess.com was still on the elo rating system

Ryan is correct, Vincey is wrong.

Nytik has once again restored order and justice prevails in our forums for another day.

Nytik away!

Thanks for the info and link Ryan, I'll read that now...