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Well, if you're doing some form of self study, it is very likely that you have no idea where your strengths and weaknesses are.
That puts it a little strongly, but it is common not to be aware of where your problems lie. That is one reason that I say to study everything. You can also get good feedback about your relative strengths and weaknesses from goproblems.com, where the problems are all rated. Another way is to use the GoGoD software to play over pro games and guess the next move. What plays and positions give you the most difficulty?
Generally people will get the most benefit per effort expended by focusing on weaknesses and problem areas. There is a kind of law of diminishing returns at work. In general, the better you are at something, the more difficult it is to get even better. OTOH, the reasons that one is poor at something may be such that they are difficult to overcome.
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Let's move on to study camps or things like that, such as people who say "i have a few months, i'm going to really put forth the effort to improve"
I have snipped the criticism here. Go camps and study groups are highly motivating to participants. And do not underestimate the value of training and studying with other people. There is a synergy that amplifies the benefits for everyone, as a rule. The very fact that people have different strengths and weaknesses means that players of the same rank can learn from each other.
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Which leads me to my next point, actually learning the things that you've been taught.
For the easiest example, let's take a very basic life and death book. If you can go through them and finish them relatively quickly, most peoples approach is to think that you can just go on to the next go book as you've "finished it". Many pros advice is the opposite, which is to go back and start the book once more, until playing the right move becomes instant and second nature. This goes along with an important lessons that you learn from a Go game. It isn't enough to just simply say "oh this is what I did wrong" and get on with playing. You must go back and re-review the review to really understand what you need to do to get better. Without that, the effort you put in usually has pretty poor results.
For the easiest example, let's take a very basic life and death book. If you can go through them and finish them relatively quickly, most peoples approach is to think that you can just go on to the next go book as you've "finished it". Many pros advice is the opposite, which is to go back and start the book once more, until playing the right move becomes instant and second nature. This goes along with an important lessons that you learn from a Go game. It isn't enough to just simply say "oh this is what I did wrong" and get on with playing. You must go back and re-review the review to really understand what you need to do to get better. Without that, the effort you put in usually has pretty poor results.
There is no question that there is value to overlearning. Reviewing and cementing the basics is always good. There is a problem with review until you see the right answer instantly, which is that you may be recognizing the problem based upon only a few cues, which are not enough to guarantee that the answer is correct. Another question is that of diminishing returns. Problems that you can solve with confidence may not be the best place to put your efforts. More difficult problems can be more rewarding. (It is true that reducing the time to solve a problem can make it more difficult, but that is a different question.
)This is like a problem that I ran across some years ago. I got it wrong.
I thought that this was the answer. Ko.
Ignoring the common advice, I looked at the answer.
OC, I felt stupid. But here is my point. That one time was all it took for me to get the point. (I did overlearn it by solving it again, months later.) I understood it well enough that it took me hardly any time at all just now to recreate the key position. The actual problem probably had a somewhat different layout, but that does not matter.
Understanding gives you speed.
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A huge issue with a lot of players (myself included) is to tackle very difficult things, be it go problems, books, joseki, etc. However, that typically can give poor results.
Indeed.
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A typical thing my teacher has told me is that if it takes too long to answer a go question, just look at the answer and go to the next question. The reason being that the effort that you're putting in, while commendable, is on something that might very well be out of your league. What's better is to do the things that you can easily understand until they become second nature until you can easily find the answer. This goes along with Joseki (see my previous post for that discussion).
Going on to the next question may not be a good idea if it is also too hard.
Also, the answer to the problem of tackling a learning task that is too hard is not to tackle tasks that are too easy. It has been a long time since I studied learning theory, but I am reasonably sure that this advice still holds up. Tackle learning tasks of medium difficulty, neither too hard not too easy, problems that you can solve about half the time.
