I'm about 4k kgs and yet I find goproblems 9k quite hard to solve in a reasonable playing time (36-60 seconds).

Am I especially bad at reading and I could gain two stones just by doing more problems? (which would be quite good news)

Or is 4k-kgs:9k goproblems about right.

i feel the same way. I'm 3k kgs right now, and i can't get very far in the 3k-4k time trials.

KGS ratings can be somewhat(read very) inflated, especially at the lower kyu ranks. There is a rumor that the upper ranks in KGS can be fairly exact. My hypothesis is that many of the ranks are inflated due to the speed games that the KGS server tends to attract, and that they may actually be that strong, but only at speed games. I don't know if that is true for sure.

I'd be more inclined to trust the kgs ranks than the goproblems.com ones. KGS ranks are based on who wins in a game. I don't know how they pick the ranks for the problems, but it doesn't seem tied to the user's rank in any way.

I still regularly make repeated mistakes on goproblems.com. The 16k might be a little too charitable.

I would point out that the time trial is akin to solving the problems while in byo-yomi, so it's not the same as asking if you'd be able to solve it in a random game situation without much time trouble, and this may correlate to a weaker rank for the time trial.

I have 8k on goproblems.com and 12k time trial doesn't look too hard. Just now I'm EGF 14k and DGS 12k.
I think the most significant thing for me is that in actual game I'm just overlooking many possibilities, which are pointed out in problems.

If I remember correctly, one of my friends was 6d on goproblems while he was 2d KGS and 4d/5d wbaduk.

I'm currently listed as 10k on KGS, though it's more likely about 11 or 12k.

Fro a brief, exciting moment, I once got to 9k on GoProblems.com, but usually hover around the 13k area, or even 18k, when I'm having a stupid day.

I'm about 17k on both.

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Poka King of the south east.

Currently up to about 1.5d on Goproblems since this thread was posted (don't normally spend my time on there) - honest answer, I don't know, but seems similar-ish so far.

My playing rating has always tracked my ability to solve problems on goproblems.com pretty well. Really, almost painfully well. I don't do the time trial, but I do try to solve the problems in my head rather than on a board or by clicking through the problems guessing. Doing the problems this way, the KGS / AGA / GP ratings are about the same and always have been. If I try keeping them all under a minute, I would do a couple of stones worse. I also do a couple of stones worse if I am tired.

More important than the absolute value is the relative one. There are other books that have problems that are marked with approximate ratings, such as Yilun Yang 7p's pocket problem books. Mr. Yang's problems I find hard to do in my head if they are marked the same level as my KGS or AGA rating (which, BTW, have usually been within +-2 stones of each other if keep my account active). Nevertheless, improvement in these is correlated with improvements in my game results to a degree that is either encouraging or cold or unforgiving, depending on whether I'm improving or not.

The good news is that if I improve my ability to solve a variety of go problems by about 2 stones, my playing strength usually improves as well by a similar amount. If I can't improve this reading ability, I will be stuck and no amount of other study or playing will help.

I strongly suspect the answer is yes because you haven't quoted it the other way around (i.e., consistently and quickly solving problems much higher than your playing rating.)

The key word here is "just." As in: "I can develop impressive 6-pack abs just by exercising and watching my diet." Good news, right? Easier said than done, though.

IHMO, for improvements in reading to show up in your games requires 1 more thing: bringing it. I think sometimes we play timidly in certain positions because we can't read them out and we know we can't read them out. But if reading improves, it's important to forget about what one wasn't able to read before and try it fresh in every game. (Maybe it's good to do this even if your reading doesn't improve. After all, what's the worst that can happen? You lose. So what?) So if your reading improves, try that joseki or invasion you know is supposed to work but you used to always screw up. And more importantly, don't just play it and hope for the best, but try to read it out further, broader, quicker, and more accurately if you can. Don't just stop where you used to get into the habit of giving up.

That is something that has helped me get the most out of reading improvements during those precious times when reading improvement is possible. What I need help with is getting those improvements to begin with. Some days I don't think I need a teacher as much as a coach.

My personal experience with goproblems, is that there is a lot of variance between problems. I don't remember if I had a rank there, but I remember that the time trial usually had easy problems followed by hard followed by easy.

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