How over-rated are tactics trainer ratings?

I'm not at all certain that the ability to solve tactical problems says anything at all about one's ability to calcuate in actual game situations. 

Yep, my TT rating reached 2500 once...

You have to look at a player's rating AND accuracy in Tactics Trainer.  Also, a lot of the problems have "problems".

The tactics trainer is very close to my ratings on here and chessmaster, but its the chess mentor rating that is 300 points higher.

I think I am very weak in openings and positional play. Those things lead to better opportunities for tactical play. I think that is actually my weakest link. That is why I am taking a step back and for the first time, making it a point to study those things. I think if I understand why certain moves are made in the opening, I would do better to see opportunities for tactics that aren't so obvious, like decoy combinations, and learning how to overload defenders, without leaving myself vulnerable.

Tactics Trainer helped me get away from siungle threat attacks.

Tactics Trainer has a lot of quirks that need to be worked out before you could take the TT rating seriously.   For more on this subject, try this thread:

http://www.chess.com/forum/view/suggestions/tactics-trainer-quirk?lc=1#last_comment

I am very pleased that you posted that. It is in exact opposition to what another person posted about players rated below 1800  being bad at tactics.

That affirms what I believe about people who are better positionally and with strategy, having a better base for learning other facets of the game.

I figured out that you can be great at the end game and tactics, but if you never can get into the right positions to execute those things, because you are already in dire straits,after a poor opening, while you have had to except a weak position in order to not lose material or the game itself, then those skills don't mean as much.

I have the same problem. This is why I disagree with the amount of time you get. There are other puzzles that will have a fork of two power pieces after a sacrifice. If you study more deeply you'll see a five move checkmate after a sacrifice. It will always be they are looking for the sacrifice. They also have puzzles with alternate right moves and I even found one puzzle in which you had to match the exact moves of the players who played. One of them made a mistake. I could see the best move, but I couldn't find the move the player played that was technically wrong. I think that if I was truly being rated properly, I should get credit for alternate correct moves instead having to find something obscure, that might not even be the best move.

The ones with alternate checkmates really irk me. Why should I have to find a tricky sacrifice, that I could be wrong about, when I have an obvious force situation? If I am playing for a world championship, I am taking the sure win. I am not there to show off.

I want the instituion of an opening trainer and a postional trainer.

(cough) Chess Mentor (cough)

To me, it isn't specific enough to each of those individually. When I read what my lessons covered, it will say things like:

tactics,strategy,endgames,etc,etc.

So therefore a hodgepodge, like any good coach would try to put you through the rigors of all of the facets of chess.

they have feedback for errors 

Here's my experience and my explanation for what's going on with TT: tactics are probably my strongest area in the game, yet my rating on TT is much worse than on every other server (chesstempo, chess.emrald, etc.) and software I use (CT ART, etc.).  Much of the reason has to do with the fact that I get anxious, because TT deducts for time used, and the about of time deducted per unit time seems to vary among the problems; so I am very amped up about answering as soon as I see anything.  The problem is that TT has LOTS of problems in which winning lines that are not the best score no points.  If there were a single winning line, I would be scoring much better.

In my opinion, the fact that some people think that TT is super overrated, while others are (or think they are) tactical players scoring badly, indicates that one has to get used to this particular server.  I think one has to learn how to game the system.  I am so used to jumping on any winning line in a timed situation that I am not doing particularly well.  I think this changes as one gets acclimated to the game, that is, TT.

Just my thought and my rationalization in trying not to get frustrated with it.

If you think the tactics trainer here is too fast, wait till you see the Chess24 tactics trainer. You only have something like 10 seconds to solve each position. The clock winds down the moment you begin the puzzle. More than that, and you get ZERO points even though you solved it.

I think it is fast given that there are multiple options to be looked at.  Chess.emrald.net allows for 3-5 seconds, in most cases.  My rating here is not much better than that one, and they are the only two tactics servers and programs that my tactics rating stinks at.  The big difference, and the reason I think TT is harder than emrald is the multiple attractive choices faced under time pressure that leads to wrong answers.  This is more of an irritation than anything for me, because I SUCK at blitz and chess at any shorter-than-classic time control.

Forget the rating

Forget the timer

Solve the puzzle and learn something.

Hello, look what I have noticed in my rating. I play regularly and solve tactics less than a year. 50 daily chess (1500) and 80 blitz (800) and I have tactics for 40 hrs (20-30 min a day) with rating 1200. I think it is mooving but too slowly and this is mine problem. One of my friend has tactics more than me, but he is solving only 5 a day (vs me 30-40). But again, I have to work more.

I've used that. I don't like it. My blitz rating on chess24 has been higher even than my inflated blitz rating on Lichess. Of course, I was able to inflate my blitz rating here on chess.com last week, too, until playing four hours after a few cocktails.

I agree that your rating in TT is just an indicator related to how you are imporving (or not).  But how do you factor in the TT rating itself.  That is, the TT that are rated 11XX are certainly not as difficult for me as those rated at 12XX?