Out of practice

[rhu]

The first-ever Boston Crossword Puzzle Tournament is in three weeks, and they were kind enough to schedule it for a Sunday, so I can actually participate in a crossword tournament for the first time ever. Not that I expect to do particularly well, but I'm curious how far behind my friends I'll finish.

But I've done all of two crossword puzzles since the flight back from Israel two months ago. I've done plenty of other puzzles --- Mystery Hunt, P&A, the Enigma --- but only two standard American puzzles. So I've got to find the time to get back into practice and get unrusty.

Speaking of which: aside from using a lowercase 'e', what speed tricks are there? Should I omit the crossbar from my 'A's? How exactly does one use "Ripstein marks"? I assume that as soon as one's paper is complete, one looks at the clock and if there are only a few seconds left in the minute, one signals immediately, but otherwise one takes until the end of the minute to double-check?

Comments

[qaqaq.livejournal.com]

God, that damn "lower-case e" myth just refuses to die. Seriously, does anyone do that? I think the reverse-3 is the standard tournament "E".

General advice: don't overthink it. Just solve the way your normally do; it's errors that kill a competitor more than anything, and the way you make errors is by being careless.

Ripstein marks: if the entry you're unsure about is on the side of the puzzle, make a tick mark by it just outside of the grid. If it's on the interior of the puzzle, put a tick mark outside of its column/row, except put a slash through the tick. The idea is that when you're done, you can quickly locate anything you were unsure about and can give it some more thought in the remaining seconds you have available before you raise your hand.

[thedan.livejournal.com]

Also, assuming Will is using Pleasantville rules (which I think he does for all tournaments except the ACPT), there's no "minute" scoring; first person to finish each puzzle that hasn't already made the playoffs gets into the playoffs. So if that's the case, the "clock" strategy is irrelevant.

[thedan.livejournal.com]

Oh wait, I lied. The website says ACPT rules, so disregard my blabbering. (And no onstage finals? What's the point of that??)

[cazique.livejournal.com]

Others may disagree, but here's my two cents as someone who is by most objective measures a top solver but by "our" measure just a pretty decent B. And I've been thinking about this a lot, particularly in the last couple of weeks.

If you're not a top-25-ish solver, the only real speed trick is to solve the clues faster.

I've tried to figure out how to shave any time off my solving, and I keep coming back to the fact that any little things like the e and the A (writing answers faster) are going to pale in comparison to becoming a faster solver overall and closing the gaps in between writing things at all.

"Ripstein marks" and such may help your bookkeeping, but that's more of a tactic to make sure you finish correctly, not faster. If you're in a timed tournament, then looking at the clock as you enter your last or 2nd to last entry may tell you whether you have the decision to make of whether to roll the dice at x:02 without doing a final check (hint: don't), but it won't help you fill in those last 2-3 boxes any faster. And if it's a Pleasantville-style tournament, don't look at the clock at all, just make sure you're complete and correct, as fast as possible.

Again - everyone else's mileage may vary, and maybe this is just me projecting. But I really feel that unless your last name is Bryant or Brume or Kedlaya or Katz (or other New England Names that don't have the nice alliteration above), actual speed of regular old solving is the only speed trick that matters. And remember, I'm talking to myself as much as to you.

[ennienyc.livejournal.com]

Forget about special tricks. Do old NYT puzzles (since these will be unpublished NYT puzzles), move move move without stopping, go to another corner if you're stuck, and don't panic.

Don't do anything different with handwriting than you normally do. This is a myth, and I don't think any of the top people do lowercase or anything like that. Forget not crossing A's; you'll just annoy the judges. Letters have to be completely readable.

Ripstein marks just remind you of areas where you're in doubt. They don't work when you don't realize something's doubtful (see my puzzle 2 this year).

[fauxklore]

For some of us, if we didn't do anything different with handwriting than we normally did, the letters would not be completely readable. That alone slows me down a few minutes, though it is, overall, less significant than my not ever having successfully completed a Saturday NY Times puzzle.

Since it looks like the Boston tournament is Monday through Thursday level puzzles, that may be less of an issue.

[mabfan.livejournal.com]

My plan is to come in dead last, but legitimately.

[530nm330hz.livejournal.com]

Maybe Sax will wear a "Team Burstein" windbreaker :-)

[530nm330hz.livejournal.com]

I made the same mistake in replying to Hooligan's post the other day.

[530nm330hz.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the good advice. Reverse-3 is how I do my "E"s normally (the Palm changed my handwriting forever, I fear). And thanks for the clear explanation about how to use Ripstein marks; that makes a lot of sense.

[530nm330hz.livejournal.com]

Point taken. Take care of the minutes, and the seconds will take care of themselves. :-)

Thanks.

[lunchboy.livejournal.com]

Whatever, haters, I use lowercase E's. (Curls fingers into e-shaped gang sign.) I agree there's no difference in speed between a lowercase E and a backward 3 (neither involves picking your pencil up from the paper), but aesthetically speaking, I prefer the way lowercase E's look. What can I tell you, I'm a dork like that. And yes, I solve all crosswords that way; obviously you should never change your solving style for a tournament, because that will screw you right the hell up.

[toonhead-npl.livejournal.com]

I doubt that: if it's anything like the ACPT, there will be people who quit after just one puzzle. Good luck beating that!

[toonhead-npl.livejournal.com]

As someone who was asking the same questions 10 years ago before I went to my first tournament, I agree with the general opinion here and say most tricks will have little effect on your results. Practice is the main thing. When you improve enough that you know you're a pretty top contender then you can fret about Ripstein marks, reading two clues at a time, etc.

But to this day I write my crossword E's as backward 3's because back then I was still using a Palm Pilot and got very proficient with their character recognition software.

And as far as I know (and I'm not 100% certain), the puzzles will be the NYT Mon-Wed puzzles two weeks following.

[elainetyger.livejournal.com]

I do the backwards 3 for E. I can also do each letter except X without removing the pencil from the paper. I practice guessing by only solving with the down clues for at least 6 months of the year. These are longterm, though; Trip is right not to change anything for now. It's your rookie outing.

In Pleasantville, the first 3 puzzles are Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday NY Times puzzles, so they are not as difficult as most ACPT puzzles.

Advice: Just make sure you don't have any blank squares when you turn in your paper. Ellen is right to just do puzzles puzzles puzzles. If you can buy a book or two of NY Times puzzles and do them over the next two weeks, timing yourself on each one so you can both see how you do and get used to solving for speed, you will get used to how Will clues and edits and you will have built up your mental "muscle" for the sprints.