Am i getting better?

Hi guys, i just want to know am i getting better or it's just an illusion?

for a 1-2 months i was playing pretty actively bullet games, which i find very funny and also interesting.

when i started i was like 1200 and now i am 1600, so i want to know did i get better or it's just a fast hand thing?

because i am gamer and my mouse skills are at least decent, so i wonder is it just fast playing?

also i am very happy to hit a 1600

it was very high to me for a couple of months ago

i was feeling very proud when i hit 1400 and to be honest, i still think 1400 is a good spot and you can be kinda proud.

also i play 5+ minute games, but i do it very rare and my rating is not accurate, because of lots of factors. i play them very late like a 3 or 4 am and i am just doing it to sleep well  and not to win, but when i found, that in one of my latest games i had 0 blunders and if i remember 0 mistakes, i was like omg i am a fucking GM. we should learn how to be excited in a good way with a just a little improvement, but question is: is "improvement" really improvement? or just a some kind of lie which i tell to myself?

i don't even know if someone will read this.

are you even hearing yourself? 

"HEY GUYS, LIKE MY RATING IMPROVED 400 POINTS.. MMM LIKE WHAT DOES THAT MEAN? LIKE DID I IMPROVE OR WHAT DOES THE RATING INCREASE MEAN? THX."

Of course you freaking improved dude, regardless of wether it is just a shameless fast hand or you actually stopped hanging pieces... doesnt matter, you improved because a fast hand and no shame matters just as much as not hanging pieces in bullet. 

GREETINGS AND CONGRATULATIONS CAMARADA.

Oh, and if you posted this so people tell you how great you are for improving in bullet. YOU ARE WRONG DUDE. this thing is about to get derailed.

Not true. I think OP is great.

Hell no dude. i did not post this to someone said am great or something. i was really curious, because i play a lot of chess for a someone who has other work to do and i am really happy if it's real. ok, happy to hear that. my aim is 2000+ like a lifetime aim, because even 1600 was pretty UNbelievable, and if i ever get to 2000 i'll be very very glad

Ok, makes sense. You definitely improved in online chess. Wether you improved in classical chess where there are no mouses and no time constraints, I am not sure, you probably did, but not by 400 points. 

it's all relative - but to me I'm chuffed when I hit 1300 in bullet (I often dip back down)....if you look at the stats and what proportion of people who play are at that level you can judge whether the improvement is relatively good or not...

that's in bullet, but in blitz i don't really improve. i just can't concentrate on a longer games. i find it boring. i can focus but only on one game, then i am just tired, so i am just losing there. 

Congratulations!  If you're making no mistakes or blunders in most games, you've definitely improved in that important aspect of the game.

I would suggest that your Tactics Trainer rating - and missing 2/3 of them, and your Rapid and Daily ratings indicate you - as is true of me as well - need to improve on recognizing tactics patterns and strategic planning.

I keep working tactics problems here and elsewhere and each time, I consider which tactics were involved in solving the problems: having a name to apply to a tactic helps with future pattern recognition.  Here are two interactive lists where you should be able to describe each tactic - memorize them if you can't:

https://www.chess.com/article/view/chess-tactics--definitions-and-examples

https://chesstempo.com/tactical-motifs.html

Strategy books like Fred Wilson's Simple Attacking Plans, Yasser Seirawan's Winning Chess Strategies, Keres' and Kotov's The Art of the Middlegame and, in my opinion, the best, Jeremy Silman's How to Reassess Your Chess and The Amateur's Mind are worth studying.

A great page of Positional Motifs you should build your plans around (backward pawns, file control, good and bad bishops, etc.) is here:

https://chesstempo.com/positional-motifs.html