Tragedy Tuning
For my first precircle in the Divine Tragedy, I have been working through Tasc Chess Tutor (TCT) for about a month now: great stuff so far, if humbling. I have decided to tweak how I work through TCT, partly inspired by the many Knights who enjoy working minicircles. I am going to do TCT in 200 problem chunks instead of 400 problem chunks, which I have been doing. (What this means is that at the end of 200 problems I have to go back and redo those sections in which I scored below 80% on any test.) As I approach the end of the second set of 400 problems (Step 2 in TCT), I realize I have started to lose some momentum. Hopefully this addendum will help me stay motivated and perhaps even to learn the material faster. I'm sure that 8 out of 10 learning theorists would agree :)
To those of you who did Circle 1 by working through all of CT-Art with no stops, no mini-circles: my hat's off to you. I don't know how you kept motivated in the higher Levels!
Incidentally, I have been thinking about getting a chess tutor. I am an abject beginner, so it could help a lot. However, I am committed to the Tragedy and am worried he would want me to do a bunch of work that would steal time from MDLM. I work full time, am married, have a puppy (no kids), and really don't want to spend more than 90 minutes a day using this chess drug. Perhaps I'll wait until the Tragedy is over and see how I feel then.
To those of you who did Circle 1 by working through all of CT-Art with no stops, no mini-circles: my hat's off to you. I don't know how you kept motivated in the higher Levels!
Incidentally, I have been thinking about getting a chess tutor. I am an abject beginner, so it could help a lot. However, I am committed to the Tragedy and am worried he would want me to do a bunch of work that would steal time from MDLM. I work full time, am married, have a puppy (no kids), and really don't want to spend more than 90 minutes a day using this chess drug. Perhaps I'll wait until the Tragedy is over and see how I feel then.
posted by Blue Devil Knight at 6/03/2005 01:23:00 AM
3 Comments:
I have experimented with several chunking techniques.
The best technique I have found is to start off small - maybe 10 problems a day - and every day go back and cumulatively redo all the problems I previously did.
By the end of the level, I have all the problems down cold.
It seemed to have helped to increase my chunks - I'm up to 50 problems a day.
I posted a long response to Tempo about the chunking and spaced repetitions I use on my blog comments if you are interested. . .
Mini-Circle pros: manageable, easier to stay motivated as you always have the next chunk to look forward to solving
Mini-Circle cons: you bloody well might forget what you learn in the first mini-circle set by the time you finish you last mini-circle set. This is why it's important to follow mini-circles with Uber Circles.
Blue Devil,
I've also considered getting a tutor. However, I don't feel I have plateaued with regard to my knowledge and in my mind a tutor is best used to break through plateaus. Now, I'm sure some would disagree, but I've always done my best learning on my own. So, until I get to the point where I "just don't seem to get it," I will continue to self-teach.
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