Question about my rating and how to improve it.

I started playing rapid on here March 31, so not even 1.5 months.  I am very much a beginner, until 3 months ago, I didn't know much more than how to move the pieces.  Anyways, my first ~50 or so games was not very good and tanked my rating from the start of 1200 which I believe every begins with to under 800.  

However, recently, I feel like I have been playing much more competent chess and am winning ~70% of my games.  So far, I've played 200 games and won 45%.  If you take the last 100 games I would say the win rate is definitely over 50%, possibly closer to 60%.  So long story short, I feel like my first bunch of games set me back considerably and it feels like even reaching 1000 is a lot to ask, let alone anything above that.  So do people on here genuinely feel like their rating is a true reflection of how good they are?  For example, if I started my account today, I don't think I would have dropped so low and therefore may be treading above 1000 (who really knows though).

Dear CrownTheKing11,

I am a certified, full-time chess coach and International Master, so I have seen it and tried it all.
There are so many ways to get better and I know it can be overwhelming.
You can learn from free videos on youtube, there are books at your disposal that can all help, but they are not tailored to your needs.

One of the most important things you can do is to analyze your games! You must learn from your mistakes! That is a priority. You can't really move on to a new, different topic and learn new ideas if you still make the same mistakes over and over again!

This is where a chess coach comes into the picture. A good coach can show you how to study, what to study, gives you the material YOU need. Naturally, it takes time to use everything in practice, but if you are relentless and persistent you will succeed!
You should learn the main principles in every area of the game (opening, middlegame, endgame).  Don't focus on only one part! You should improve your tactical vision as well as it is part of all areas!  
This how I built my training program for my students. We discuss more than one topic during a lesson so it's always interesting and they can improve constantly. I give homework too and the right tools to make practicing enjoyable and effective!
Don't worry about your rating and the ups and downs! Just keep on playing and practicing!

I hope this helps.  I wish you good games and 100+ extra ratings

The aim of the rating system is to match you against similar opponents so you can enjoy playing chess against someone of roughly equal ability. It is only a general reflection of your chess skill and knowledge. For example, a player may have good positional knowledge but keep losing games by blundering material to simple tactics, once that area improves their rating jumps. I think a player's rating often jumps through a series of winning streaks because a weakness in a specific area holds back progress. Once this is identified and fixed, their rating goes up and they are matched against stronger opponents which exposes the next weakness, and so on. Quite normal.

If you win about 50% or even 60% against 700-800 rated players you will be around 850-900, but definitely not much higher rated. Your current results count and if you still lose to 50 % or 40 % of players in this rating range you cant expect to have a much higher rating.

Rating indicates your playing strength. To improve your rating, improve your playing strength. Analyse your lost games to learn from your mistakes. If you win 70% of your games that only indicates that you played against too weak opponents. You should aim for a 50% win rate. For progress even lower than 50% is better: that indicates you play against stronger opponents which enables you to learn more and improve more.