It's all about pattern recognition. As an example, if you keep missing forks in your games, you will start noticing them more often than not by practicing to look for them. 
Bear in mind that it's a "Training tool". Don't take the rating too seriously. Just keep at it and you will see improvement in your games. 
Tactics Trainer
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Jul 26, 2012
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#2
Hi QTipPoker,
I think there are two things that might help you improve if you keep at training with the tactics trainer:
- After you did an incorrect move and had that "Oh...I see that now" moment, ask yourself why you didn't see that move in the first place (Did you consider that move and chose another one? This would mean that you should reconsider your evaluation of the position. In case you didn't consider the correct move, again ask yourself why. There seems to be a blind spot in your thought process.). Adjust your thought process so that you won't miss considering the move the next time around. Then adjust your evaluation process such that you select the move as best candidate the next time.
- By doing the same puzzles time and again, you'll learn their solutions by heart. Although many people think that chess is a game you have to understand (and not just learn by heart), many underestimate the value of knowing solutions to easy tactics puzzles inside out (without having to think or calculate hard). You might read some of Dan Heisman's "Novice Nook" articles in order to get that piece of advice from a first-class chess instructor.
I wish you all the best for your improvement!
Kind regards,
Valentin
Thanks for the kind, helpful responses. I'll take that to heart and keep at it. Perhaps I'm a bit spoiled from the chess mentor as well because it's just so amazing.
Valentin: I'll check out those articles. Thanks.
You may learn more if instead of revealing the answer you struggle with the problem until you get it. I would say ignore the time and don't make your move until you're confident it's best.
Yeah, the time makes me panic. Thinking about moves takes me a long time right now.
I like to have the timer hidden. My feeling is that I want to take the time I need and not worry about the time I have been given. Often you need several minutes and you will lose points for being slow, but that's ok. All that thinking was good training and the next time you see a similar problem you will do it faster.
I've always just re-did them untill I get it right. Sometimes it takes a while though. I think I might have "cheated" on some really long ones though.
The suggestion to ignore the time is really good too. Much better to really think whats the best move than trying to improve ones rating.
(I do hate that they are timed, especially on the Ipad app when I see how many seconds I have left I also realize if that if I have a longer time I will need many moves)
Just wanted to report back to this thread. I've been doing about 15-20 minutes a day on the tactic trainer, and I do think I'm noticing a difference during games now.
I don`t know if it`s just me but I really enjoy tatic trainer but when I make a move and even if it is a correct move nouthing else happens except the clock keeps running. To progress I have to go somewhere else on the site, for example to on-line chess and if I go back to tatic trainer it allows me a few puzzles then bang! The clock runs but nouthing else happens, please post if you know how to remedy this.
So...good chance I'm just a moron here, but here's the question.
I'm wondering if I'm using the tactics trainer correctly. It gives me a situation, and I try a move...and then after it shows me the correct move, I say, "Oh...I see that now."
My question is just how is this making me better? Am I going to get better just by seeing a move I missed over and over? I just feel like I keep saying, "Oh..." and don't really improve. Maybe I'm missing something.