Studying

Vincent asked to share more about my studying, so here goes.

I would like to say that I am a very organized person, and have a wonderful study plan, but I have to admit I am not. Just like in playing, focus and discipline are the main issues in my studying. I will study for a bit, check some email, study a few minutes, surf some links, study a bit, make some tea, remember that I was studying, and so on. I often end up not studying as much as I wanted.

As a very concrete example, just played through some recently studied pro games and now am writing this blog entry. Could have played through more games instead. It is something I'll need to work on, have to find what works for me.

But even with all the distractions (including the seven handicap stones I have running around ^^), I still get quite a lot of studying in most days. I always start with replaying some pro games, usually a few recently memorized ones, and I will take one older one and look at it again. Yesterday, I looked at the Yuzo - Shusaku game. I often see new things in old games when I look at them again a few weeks / months after studying.

I do go problems every day, a lot of easier ones, and usually some harder ones (but don't always get to the harder ones). My goal used to be 50 a day, but I don't really keep track anymore. I think I do at least 20 on a typical day, and often still reach 50 or more. It depends on how much car I spend in the car, waiting for my kids. Those problems are easy ones though, working through volume 1 of the semeai book of the Korean Problem Academy now, and whatever else I have laying around.

I have wondered whether it would be better to do a lot of easy problems, or a few harder problems when studying. I have read conflicting opinions on this. Last week, I asked sendol about this, and he said both are good.

I go through game reviews and recent lessons, to see again where I went wrong and where I consistently missed a big move. (still ^^) I also am slowly working my way through the lectures on the audiogolessons web site, it's a wonderful resource.

I have no idea how much time I would spend on an average day, since my study time is interrupted often by real life. But I hope this gives some idea of the things I study. I enjoy all of those, replaying pro games has a meditative aspect to it. And there is a thrill when I finally find the correct answer to a more difficult problem.