motris (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} motris) wrote,@ 2008-05-08 09:59:00 |
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USPC training - 2001 edition
I'm behind in my blogging (I particularly mean to write up more thoughts on Coed Astronomy's BAAG before this weekend's Shinteki event further adds to the puzzlehunt backlog, and also post some more after-thoughts about the WSC), but I've begun my USPC training. For the next month, I will only solve sudoku where required in an actual test, as I try to get back to full speed on other puzzle types. I've decided one thing I will do is retake all the available US practice tests to get a sense of my current speed and my current point/minute bests and worsts. This recording here is meant more for me to remember in future years, but some readers will undoubtedly want some measuring stick to compare against although I must say its a difficult measuring stick to use.
Today, I did the 2001 qualifying test.
Note: While I've done these tests before, not all are fresh in my memory and on each test I figure there is at most two puzzles on which some part of the answer is spoiled to me.
In this year, I actually had forgotten the two harder Common Touch language puzzle things, but remembered the first, and the Sum Place, so those are the spoiled puzzles and could add another 5-10 minutes to this time.
Completion time: 1h 13m 8s
Score: 345 out of 345
Total points/minute: 4.714
Best puzzles (enjoyment): This test had a lot of math puzzles that fell to good analysis, like 22. High Five and 20. Have Sum Fun!. 19. Retrograde Battleships is an interesting alternative we don't see too often. 11. Club Sandwich was a nice variation on the criss-cross formula, with a good golf theme worked out (and I always appreciate themed puzzles).
Best puzzles (points/minute basis): Missing Dominoes (20), Great Divide (9.1), Alice Maze (7.9), Meandering River (7.1)
Worst puzzles (points/minute basis): Crisscross (1.9), The Common Touch (2.8), Bad Math (2.9)
I really struggled to get started on that crisscross, and just trying to figure out what to do in Bad Math (not how to do it, but what to do!) was time consuming.
Other comments: There were a couple puzzles with non-unique solutions (Number boxes, crisscross) that would likely not show up today in the Google USPC; at least the entries in the submission box are clean. There is a language puzzle in "The Common Touch" which I greatly enjoyed as a puzzle but would not appear in a USPC/WPC today.
This test has probably the best of the word search fill-ins of all the years I've seen, with a non-square region to it, but my point/minute score on it is way high. One of the things I will track is if the word search is ever "below average". I don't know if I'd be a word search champion, but this has always seemed not just easy points, but really fast points.
Aside from a single end-view, there is no real Latin Square puzzle here. Boy will that change in several years. But it means this test has a refreshing number of other kinds of puzzles than that sue-doh-kue thing.
I'm behind in my blogging (I particularly mean to write up more thoughts on Coed Astronomy's BAAG before this weekend's Shinteki event further adds to the puzzlehunt backlog, and also post some more after-thoughts about the WSC), but I've begun my USPC training. For the next month, I will only solve sudoku where required in an actual test, as I try to get back to full speed on other puzzle types. I've decided one thing I will do is retake all the available US practice tests to get a sense of my current speed and my current point/minute bests and worsts. This recording here is meant more for me to remember in future years, but some readers will undoubtedly want some measuring stick to compare against although I must say its a difficult measuring stick to use.
Today, I did the 2001 qualifying test.
Note: While I've done these tests before, not all are fresh in my memory and on each test I figure there is at most two puzzles on which some part of the answer is spoiled to me.
In this year, I actually had forgotten the two harder Common Touch language puzzle things, but remembered the first, and the Sum Place, so those are the spoiled puzzles and could add another 5-10 minutes to this time.
Completion time: 1h 13m 8s
Score: 345 out of 345
Total points/minute: 4.714
Best puzzles (enjoyment): This test had a lot of math puzzles that fell to good analysis, like 22. High Five and 20. Have Sum Fun!. 19. Retrograde Battleships is an interesting alternative we don't see too often. 11. Club Sandwich was a nice variation on the criss-cross formula, with a good golf theme worked out (and I always appreciate themed puzzles).
Best puzzles (points/minute basis): Missing Dominoes (20), Great Divide (9.1), Alice Maze (7.9), Meandering River (7.1)
Worst puzzles (points/minute basis): Crisscross (1.9), The Common Touch (2.8), Bad Math (2.9)
I really struggled to get started on that crisscross, and just trying to figure out what to do in Bad Math (not how to do it, but what to do!) was time consuming.
Other comments: There were a couple puzzles with non-unique solutions (Number boxes, crisscross) that would likely not show up today in the Google USPC; at least the entries in the submission box are clean. There is a language puzzle in "The Common Touch" which I greatly enjoyed as a puzzle but would not appear in a USPC/WPC today.
This test has probably the best of the word search fill-ins of all the years I've seen, with a non-square region to it, but my point/minute score on it is way high. One of the things I will track is if the word search is ever "below average". I don't know if I'd be a word search champion, but this has always seemed not just easy points, but really fast points.
Aside from a single end-view, there is no real Latin Square puzzle here. Boy will that change in several years. But it means this test has a refreshing number of other kinds of puzzles than that sue-doh-kue thing.
