Tactics Training - how to best improve your rating?

I've done nearly 900 problems over the last 6 weeks and I am not seeing much improvement in my tactics rating or standard live chess rating (almost all my live chess games are 30|0 and I have played over 100 rated games).  My tactics rating seems to be consistently lower than my standard live chess rating which I find a little odd (~100 points lower).

I also notice that many comments posted with the problems in the tactics trainer are by people with significantly higher ratings. Why are they doing problems in the 1100 to 1200 range when their ratings are 1400 to 1800 in some cases.

Can anyone help me with techniques for improving my performance with the tactics trainer?  Obviously brute force in terms of number of problems attempted isn't getting it done.

More important is your percentage rating. Also because of the timer, and not knowing what tactic you are looking for represents more board like circumstances, and makes it much harder than the actual rating of the problem. If you ever checked any of the games many of those tactics come from are from master, or GM games. They are not necessarily easy to find the right answer too. 

Keep doing them, that is the only way you will master them. I grit my teeth on some of them as well. Lol, but overall they will help you. Its like doing pushups with your mind. Good luck.

Thanks for your helpful comments. The clock has caused me to make some bad guesses in an attempt to beat it but I am going to start ignoring it and concentrate on solving the problem without worrying about the negative points for using too much time.

I would agree, TT is more fun for me as well. It also will help you become a better player.

Knowing those tactics, helps you to create them in your own games. It also helps you see them when they are there, granted it might not be an identical position, but that doesn't mean the tactic isn't there, in particular on setting up knight forks, and skewers, etc. So I would disagree with, on it doesn't help. I believe it helps in all phases of the game also, and will help one to become a better player.

I would suggest that you understand the nuances of the position first. There are many kinds of tactics so before you calculate anything, scan the board looking for things like unprotected pieces, forks & pins, weak back rank, mate threats etc. Look also at what your opponent is threatening as Borg mentioned. This article is a must read for all beginner/intermediate players in my opinion... http://www.chesscafe.com/text/heisman05.pdf

Sometimes you get to a plateau where you can't seem to make any progress. Keep at it, and study to make sure you understand fully what is going on in the problems. Also, look outside the tactics trainer/chess.com for help. I recommend this site, it helped me get over a couple plateaus in tactics training:
http://www.chesstactics.org/

I didn't say you should not learn anything else ? You are implying my comments meant that. So to end it here and now, I didn't imply that.

Yes positional understanding is important, I never implied otherwise in my posts, lol you want to say other things that imply my posted comments mean more than they say ? Understanding tactics is a fundamental part of chess is it not ?  Also tactics include defense, not just traps and attacks.  

You said tactics won't really help in the opening, but many openings actually rely on the pinning tactic ? So how is knowing more about the pin not helpful ? You should always be mindful and watchful on your opponents counterattacking resources and chances, which again I never implied otherwise in my posted comments. That should go without saying.

You are free to believe tactics aren't helpful Borgqueen, I don't have a problem with that, but don't start stating things I meant or implied that aren't in my posts please. Thank you, and the best of luck to you.

BorgQueen, thanks for your warning about too much focus on TT. Like others have stated above it is rewarding to solve tactics problems at chess.com on a daily basis but I have seen some of the short comings you have mentions in my games recently and need to expand my learning in other areas.  I often get killed in the end game and my opening are pretty weak too.

I'll go so far as to say that the chess.com Tactics Trainer is un-helpful for chess improvement. 

Practising tactics with a timer can probably help you to get better at blitz, but it won't make you a stronger player (especially in regular tournament games).  If your goal is to become a generally stronger player  all the training literature says to play slow games, and take your time doing tactics problems.  If you're relying on intuition/guessing to get tactics right, you're probably not improving.

If you want to improve your rating, guess quickly. I don't agree this will teach you nothing, this is what I did to get to 2250. And now doing them slowly I recognise most pretty quickly.

But I think success rate is important. I got a high rating but reset it because my pass rate was below 50%.

BorgQueens list is good, and what I do. Glancing at the material count is key so you are clearer what the aim is. Winning a piece when you're a queen down will fail the tactic.

Apology accepted BQ, no problem. I agree with your advice BTW, its pretty good. I just don't agree that TT isn't helpful to newer players. However everyone learns differently, and certain aspects such as the short amount of time given in many of TT's problems, may be viewed more useful to Blitz training, it can help on other areas that are timed, not just Blitz, which BTW I do not play, never have, and never was good at it. I need time to calculate just like most people. However I am an old man and in my past I have had to take timed tests in other areas (other than chess).

Being quick and accurate was very important, yes more important is accuracy. However sometimes you do not have the luxury to have plenty of time, whether its chess or life. Thats where thinking fast and accurate can help, and I believe, which appearently I am in the minority on this, TT can help in that area if you use the timer as well while solving the problems.

I also believe TT helps newer players recognize Tactical patterns, and situations, that can crop up in all phases of all games. Not that they shouldn't learn about pawn structures and the importance of them, which IMO is one of the biggest factors on how many games you will either, lose or win by. Which is within the parameters of positional understanding. You covered that, and I definitely agree with that.

You still need to know about Tactics, and TT helps teach people many.

I had all types of tactical books ( as well as other books like positional, and openings etc) in the past, but they always were about mate or stated what the tactic was, it is much harder to spot them, when you don't know the tactic. That IMO can help you recognize them easier when they do crop up in your own games. Thats my opinion at least on TT, as far as tactics go in general OTB, one needs to understand them to play chess competively unless he wants to get creamed. They are in all phases of the game, they may vary by type, and position obviously has a lot to do with it. Best of luck to the OP, and my goal was to help him.

I am a beginner by anyones measure (rating ~1250) and I have definately been helped by TT. I appreciate the good advice above and look forward to getting past the beginners stage and tactics training. I have had half a dozen wins recently that were directly related to employing tactics I learned from TT.  Being down material and time and then being able to successfully execute a winning tactic against a 1300 player is very rewarding.

I've seen this enough times on TT that I've decided to refute it as often as a I see it.

"The goal of studying basic tactics repeatedly is not to be able to solve them; we assume most players can do that easily. The goal is to be able to quickly and accurately recognize them when they show up in a game, unannounced."

- Dan Heisman

My favorite analogy is the multiplication table and math.  You can't get good at algebra and calculus if you're still solving 7*8 instead of just knowing it.  Well, I guess theoretically you could (since calculators exist) but you'll be spending time on the "easy" stuff instead of on the bigger ideas.