One thing I remember from around that rating bracket is you start to get more than one target in the puzzle, so there might be an easy tactic to win the queen but then a more subtle checkmate in 3. It's a case of look for a move then look for a better one. Keep taking your time. Also puzzle defensive resource gets better and has to be accounted for. Again, take your time and look for moves that might refute your solution. Finally, attraction tactics start to feature more. I have a weak spot for attraction to the point that if I cant see the solution I start looking for attraction, they can be quite subtle and clever.
Improving at puzzles
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Thx for the help! I've scored a few more over 1000 and even an od one beyond 1200-difficulty now. I'll keep at it.
Dear Sam,
I'm a certified coach, so I hope I can help you. 
The quality is more important than the quantity! It's much more useful for you to solve only 10 puzzles per day with at least 80% accuracy than solving 50 puzzles per day with 60% accuracy.
You have to think ahead without moving the pieces and make your move when you see the solution from the start till the end. This is very important! That's how you can improve your visualisation and calculation skills on the most effective way!
And that's why I would never recommend you to play too many Puzzle Rush or Puzzle Battle games because they are time-limited, so you have to make fast and superficial decisions. And this is very harmful if you really want to improve at chess.
But if you really want to improve at chess, you have to discover your biggest weaknesses in the game and start working on them. The most effective way for that is analysing your own games. Of course, if you are a beginner, you can't do it efficiently because you don't know too much about the game yet. There is a built-in engine on chess.com which can show you if a move is good or bad but the only problem that it can't explain you the plans, ideas behind the moves, so you won't know why is it so good or bad.
You can learn from books or Youtube channels as well, and maybe you can find a lot of useful information there but these sources are mostly general things and not personalized at all. That's why you need a good coach sooner or later if you really want to be better at chess. A good coach can help you with identifying your biggest weaknesses and explain everything, so you can leave your mistakes behind you. Of course, you won't apply everything immediately, this is a learning process (like learning languages), but if you are persistent and enthusiastic, you will achieve your goals.
In my opinion, chess has 4 main territories (openings, strategies, tactics/combinations and endgames). If you want to improve efficiently, you should improve all of these skills almost at the same time. That's what my training program is based on. My students really like it because the lessons are not boring (because we talk about more than one areas within one lesson) and they feel the improvement on the longer run. Of course, there are always ups and downs but this is completely normal in everyone's career.
I hope this is helpful for you! Good luck for your puzzles and games!
I'm very new to the game, playing a few games, doing some puzzles (mostly taking my time), watching some lessons. On the whole I feel like I've been gradually learning for the past 2 months. I now seem to be stalling at 1000-rated puzzles. I hardly ever solve puzzles that are higher than that - most mistakes coming in the 800-1000 bracket. That's been about the same for a few weeks now.
I've taken the checks-captures-attacks approach and know of most basic tactics like forks, skewers, discovered attacks etc. I look at the ones I get wrong. For now this doesn't seem to be enough to keep improving.
Some tips from better players and puzzlers would be welcome.