If you attend my Steps classes, you will know that I always assign three pages of homework from the workbook every week. There are 12 problems on one page, so total 36 problems. If you go to other coaches' classes, often you will get one page of homework, 2 or 4 problems, sometimes you don't get any homework. Why the big difference?
What I believe is that the more problems you have worked on, the more exposure you will have to chess, and the less chance you would make the same mistakes in your games. It's better to make mistakes when solving tactics problems than to make the same mistakes in your games and lose your games. 36 problems in fact is not much, only 6 problems a day. For a diligent student, it may only take 5 to 10 minutes. That's the minimum. I prefer to assign one page a day. That's more appropriate for a student who aspires to improve. But in that case, most students will fail to complete their homework.
When my daughter began to learn chess, she did 30 to 50 tactics problems a day, that's how she finished the 1000-problem software in a month. The problems in the Steps workbooks are less difficult than the problems in the software. So finishing one page a day should not be problem for anyone.
On the contrary, if I don't assign the homework, almost none of my students will work on those problems by themselves, although they already have the workbook. That's a sad waste.
I only compromise in the middle. So after 10 lessons, we might cover at least half of the workbook. For my private students, I ask them to work on every page, that's double the workload.
What I believe is that the more problems you have worked on, the more exposure you will have to chess, and the less chance you would make the same mistakes in your games. It's better to make mistakes when solving tactics problems than to make the same mistakes in your games and lose your games. 36 problems in fact is not much, only 6 problems a day. For a diligent student, it may only take 5 to 10 minutes. That's the minimum. I prefer to assign one page a day. That's more appropriate for a student who aspires to improve. But in that case, most students will fail to complete their homework.
When my daughter began to learn chess, she did 30 to 50 tactics problems a day, that's how she finished the 1000-problem software in a month. The problems in the Steps workbooks are less difficult than the problems in the software. So finishing one page a day should not be problem for anyone.
On the contrary, if I don't assign the homework, almost none of my students will work on those problems by themselves, although they already have the workbook. That's a sad waste.
I only compromise in the middle. So after 10 lessons, we might cover at least half of the workbook. For my private students, I ask them to work on every page, that's double the workload.
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