Cleaning Up My Study Habits at The Internet Go School

 

I hit a nice round number of days in a row for the Internet Go School last week, and I am building up my Vacation Days as well, yet I need to do more work on my study habits in regard to this web site.

Recently I have been trying to make sure that I do the minimal number of problems to avoid losing vacation days, but I have ended up accruing large numbers of due problems, which I periodically clear by clicking "hard" on all problem to gain a clean slate. It has become obvious to me that this is a waste of my subscription, so I am working on trying to do more problems each day, and set up some better study habits.

I started by doing more than the minimal ten problems.  You'll see that I was averaging about 45 problems a day from 5th through the 12th of the month, but that wasn't enough to avoid the accumulation of a backlog of problems that was continuing to get larger.  I finally bit the bullet on the 13th, and actually completed my entire backlog rather than clicking the problems away.

The last three days on the chart above represent completing all due problems each day, which results in a 50 point bonus. The dark segment on the 9th shows that I spent some time watching a new video. The image below shows the details.

I ended up adding 8 problems to the training system from that lesson.  The yellow segment that day represents the use of the Quick Look feature of the site. That allows one to solve all of the problems from a lesson outside of the Training System.  This is a great way to preview problems before watching a lesson, but it is also a good way to revisit problems from a lesson as a unit, after they have become separated from each other within the Training System.

Not long ago I came upon a problem which, if I had marked easy, I would not see it again for 29 years. I don't expect to live that long, so I marked it as hard, so I will see it again in 14 years if I am lucky enough to still be alive. I'd like to see this bulky five again some day.  Maybe I will revisit it through Quick Look.

I had to laugh about the problem I encountered a while back that wouldn't be seen again for another 81 years.

On the 16th I decided to do some Quick Look review of problems from the Easy Life and Death category of lessons, which can be found under the Basic Course main category.

I started to review some of the earlier problems using Quick Look.  I then discovered that additional shapes had been added since I first worked through this category.  I am going to have to watch those lessons. I worked my way through shapes 1, 2, and 3, and started with shape 4 on the 16th. I see that I had not yet watched the C-1 lecture.

I'm definitely going to have to start marking more of the problems as easy to push them farther ahead in time. This will make room for new problems, and keep the number of due problems at a reasonable level. I would consider that between 40 and 60 problems daily.

Reflections on attending the Princeton Go Club:

I've attended The Princeton Go Club for two weeks in a row now.  It is the first time in many years I have attended a club.  I am really enjoying it.  I have been very socially isolated in recent years. My social life is pretty much entirely online, and my husband and I very seldom have visitors in the house.  We rarely leave the house except for appointments with doctors.  We don't go places anymore. I think going to club is going to be good for my go, but more than that, I think it will be good for my brain, and for my mental health.  They say that social isolation is very bad for your brain.  My general practitioner was very happy when I told her about going to the club.  I play go not only because I love it, but also because I am hoping that it will help prevent dementia, but I never thought about the fact that the social interaction that comes with go might be just as important as the game itself.  During and after club it feels like parts of my brain are lighting up that don't light up from playing online. It is hard to describe, but it feels real.

I wore this shirt to go club this week.

Now for my weekly Go Activities Report:

It was a moderately active week for go activities. I played five important games this week.