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Study method: self-made quizzes from actual matches

Posted By: Stick
Date: Thursday, 19 January 2012, at 9:01 a.m.

In Response To: Study method: self-made quizzes from actual matches (Jason Lee)

I thought I shared something similar a while ago. If I did, someone else can locate the post, I'm too lazy. If I didn't, shame on me, and here's my two cents.

Your idea is for the most part good but I don't like how you're going to overload yourself with information. The key to learning is to be able to swallow bits of information at a time and internalize them for later use. If you smack off all these blunders over a certain threshold it's too much information. Here is what I suggest.

Starting now play at least one serious match a day of a decent length. In that match you will for sure make a few blunders, depending on what you define the size of that error to be. Take these positions, try to understand them, analyze them, roll them out if need be and place them in a separate folder. This folder should never have more than a dozen-ish positions in it at one time. You will want to set up variants of certain positions, roll them out. Things you still don't understand you can play out until you see for example why it's a take, where is your counterplay coming from.

Once you have fully understood the position you can then move it out of that folder and make room for another. Repeat the process. If you stick 200 random positions in a folder and go through them you will end up memorizing the correct decision and not learning enough at all. At the end of the month you can have another look at all the positions you moved out of the 'blunder folder' just for recap and be confident not only in your play but more importantly what and why that decision is correct.

This is time consuming. Make no mistake about it but if you want to really improve I think this is one of the best ways. Whenever I play a serious match the first thing I do after it is go through it play by play. If I find anything interesting I will keep it for the daily recaps. If I find anything I don't understand especially I will spend some time with it. People get frustrated on Gridgammon because I play a match and then they want a rematch and I tell them no, I'm going over the match we just played. Then they'll ask me two minutes later like I should be done by now.

In the beginning your blunder threshold will be higher and hopefully over time you'll have to lower it in order to have more positions to study. Make it whatever gets you an ample but not overwhelming amount of positions.

Stick

Messages In This Thread

• Study method: self-made quizzes from actual matches
  Jason Lee -- Thursday, 19 January 2012, at 1:32 a.m.
  • Study method: self-made quizzes from actual matches
    RobertFontaine -- Thursday, 19 January 2012, at 1:36 a.m.
    • Study method: self-made quizzes from actual matches
      mtuhtan -- Thursday, 19 January 2012, at 8:35 a.m.
  • Study method: self-made quizzes from actual matches
    Ken Larsen -- Thursday, 19 January 2012, at 1:41 a.m.
  • Study method: self-made quizzes from actual matches
    Bob Koca -- Thursday, 19 January 2012, at 3:30 a.m.
  • Study method: self-made quizzes from actual matches
    Phil Simborg -- Thursday, 19 January 2012, at 4:16 a.m.
  • Study method: self-made quizzes from actual matches
    Stick -- Thursday, 19 January 2012, at 9:01 a.m.
    • Study method: self-made quizzes from actual matches
      Casper van der Tak -- Thursday, 19 January 2012, at 12:08 p.m.
    • Study method: self-made quizzes from actual matches
      Jason Lee -- Friday, 20 January 2012, at 1:54 a.m.
      • Study method: self-made quizzes from actual matches
        Stick -- Friday, 20 January 2012, at 9:03 a.m.
        • Study method: self-made quizzes from actual matches
          Jason Lee -- Sunday, 22 January 2012, at 4:12 p.m.
      • Study method: self-made quizzes from actual matches
        Timothy Chow -- Friday, 20 January 2012, at 7:45 p.m.
        • Study method: self-made quizzes from actual matches
          Jason Lee -- Sunday, 22 January 2012, at 4:23 p.m.
          • Study method: self-made quizzes from actual matches
            Casper van der Tak -- Sunday, 22 January 2012, at 5:03 p.m.
    • Study method: self-made quizzes from actual matches
      Jeff B -- Saturday, 18 May 2013, at 4:56 a.m.
      • Study method: self-made quizzes from actual matches
        Dmitriy Obukhov -- Saturday, 18 May 2013, at 5:02 a.m.
        • Study method: self-made quizzes from actual matches
          Michael Nielsen -- Saturday, 18 May 2013, at 10:28 a.m.
          • Study method: self-made quizzes from actual matches
            mtuhtan -- Saturday, 18 May 2013, at 11:13 a.m.
            • Study method: self-made quizzes from actual matches
              Michael Nielsen -- Saturday, 18 May 2013, at 12:38 p.m.
      • Study method: self-made quizzes from actual matches
        Phil Simborg -- Saturday, 18 May 2013, at 6:10 a.m.
      • Ctrl+Shift+S *NM*
        mtuhtan -- Saturday, 18 May 2013, at 6:43 a.m.
  • Study method: self-made quizzes from actual matches
    Mislav Kovacic -- Thursday, 19 January 2012, at 12:54 p.m.
  • Study method: self-made quizzes from actual matches
    RobertFontaine -- Thursday, 19 January 2012, at 1:01 p.m.
  • Study method: self-made quizzes from actual matches
    jdg -- Thursday, 19 January 2012, at 3:48 p.m.
    • Smartphone
      KenB -- Friday, 20 January 2012, at 12:14 a.m.
    • HTML is the solution
      Klaus Evers -- Friday, 20 January 2012, at 4:54 p.m.
  • Study method: self-made quizzes from actual matches
    Timothy Chow -- Thursday, 19 January 2012, at 4:13 p.m.