Tactics Trainer Blues

I have done 15,000+ tactics and still hover around 1200. I'm wondering what I'm doing wrong or is it that I just can't "see" the game the way better players do.....and help or advice would be appreciated.

Tactics are important, as they can immediately spell the difference between life and death.   You must recognize them in your games and also must be able to steer the position in such a way that tactics "should" be in your favor -- meaning to say if you exert more and more pressure on certain areas of the Board, good possibilities / tactics should be present in the position.

A famous player once said, that given winning positions to find tactics, top notch players will find them.   It's getting to those positions that takes a lot of talent !!

How about easing away from tactics for awhile and concentrating on games AND getting them analysed by chess.com to go over -- going over what you and your opponent missed.   That will go a long way towards improvement !

I've done something like 35,000 ... still pushing up and beyond 1800!! Takes a lot of time and patience. Its one of the most frustrating experiences ever as well drives me crazy sometimes haha ;)

Interestingly the site says I've done 27,000 but the email I get monthly with my stats says I've done over 40,000 ... can't figure out which one is correct .. ;)

I find I have to stay really calm and focused and try to recognise the pattern first before moving .. + also the most obvious forcing moves and combinations. I'm also prone to not stopping after 2-3 and resting for a few minutes .. it's easy to just start another one (and invariably fail!) rather than waiting for a few minutes and resting! 

What tactics trainer are you using?  As a learning tool, I find the one on chess.com rather deficient.  You might try chesstempo and you will see what I mean.

On your personal TT stats page, you are able to review your last 25 problems.  Perhaps it would be beneficial to review each of your failed problems. You can even download the PGNs and create files for ongoing study of your weak areas. 

This may be less interactive and therefore a little less "fun" but should improve recognition and increase move accuracy.  

Perhaps you have tried this.  Chess is tough but we shouldn't give up.  The challenge makes it meaningful.