Circle 5.3 Begun

My performance went from 69 to 92 percent correct between Circles 5.1 and 5.2, a 23 point increase (compared to the 14 point increase between circles 4.1 and 4.2). I'm convinced the improved learning is because of the solution-oriented way I attacked the problems.

During 5.2, the problems from 5.1 that I had approached with the stare-for-ten-minutes method, I had that locked-in syndrome, remembering the position and incorrect moves that I thought about way too much. This didn't happen with the problems I had solved with the solution-focused approach. Strangely, the locking-in did happen for those problems in which I combined the approaches! So for those who want to learn a set of problems, don't spend too much time staring. Spend a tiny bit staring, the majority of time thinking about the solution. Unless your goal is to build your calculation muscle. (And assuming my results are representative!)

I did about 50 problems from Circle 5.3 today, and for the majority of the problems I was already at the 'move without thinking' stage! This usually takes me until the sixth circle on a set of problems. It's awesome! I expect to get around 97 percent correct in 5.3.

Goal: finish the Circles within five weeks.

	# Circles	Percent Correct
Problem Set 1	14	98-99-100-100-100-100-100 100-100-100-99-100-99-98
Problem Set 2	15	90-93-96-99-99-99-99-99 99-99-99-99-99-99-100
Problem Set 3	8	85-93-97-99-99-99-99-100
Problem Set 4	13	73-87-93-96-98-99-99 99-99-99-99-99-100
Problem Set 5	2	69-92

NOTE: Circles undertaken with CTB.