| Kwon-Tom-Slump... |
Envelope
Kwon-Tom Addict
Puzzles: 307
Best Total: 33m 49s | Posted - 2006.08.16 18:14:34
I can't seem to do anything any more.. I use to be able to finish most of the weekday puzzles in under 3 minutes... Over the past week I can't seem to get under 5 minutes.. And that's if I am even able to finish the loop...
Any advice to get out of this slump? Has anyone else experienced a time where you just couldn't do puzzles for a whole week? |
procrastinator
Kwon-Tom Obsessive
Puzzles: 1083
Best Total: 12m 56s | Posted - 2006.08.16 21:45:39
Relax and enjoy it? That's been the secret for me, but it's much easier to said than done. I do best when I can dissociate my conscious mind from my mouse pointer - clicking on autopilot - enough that it's free to consider the whole board (when should I look elsewhere for new starting points? Where is promising? Have I left any loose ends I need to go back to? Should I give up and Fix Position). When I'm too worked up I tend to get stuck on local complications and miss easy things elsewhere. And I can read so much further ahead if I have some of my mind free to keep an intuitive idea of where I've been and go back to check contradictions if I feel like I've found one, rather than try to hold the whole thing exactly in my logical, conscious brain.
But your mileage will probably vary a lot; different things have been important to my performance at different stages. Closest to the level you're at (who knows if that makes it more relevant?) I broke out of my first slump by slowing down and being thorough because I was making too many mistakes. After just concentrating on being consistent for a week or so, my speed started to ramp up to beyond where it was before - that was when I got my first #1 ranking. |
m2e
Kwon-Tom Obsessive
Puzzles: 607
Best Total: 16m 43s | Posted - 2006.08.17 02:32:37
I find that whenever i get too confident i get slower. Also when im too unconfident i go slower. So yeah, relax and put some music on that you can sing along to. That tends to give me my best times. |
procrastinator
Kwon-Tom Obsessive
Puzzles: 1083
Best Total: 12m 56s | Posted - 2006.08.17 04:43:50
Quote: Originally Posted by m2e I find that whenever i get too confident i get slower. Also when im too unconfident i go slower. So yeah, relax and put some music on that you can sing along to. That tends to give me my best times. |
I second the music idea to induce relaxation, but I find I'm slower if I sing along. My instrumental stuff is all too downbeat, so I usually borrow a drum and bass CD from my brother if I can find one without annoying vocal hooks or jarring synths - So far I can strongly recommend Exit Planet Dust by Chemical Brothers. |
m2e
Kwon-Tom Obsessive
Puzzles: 607
Best Total: 16m 43s | Posted - 2006.08.17 06:56:31
Oh and another quick tip, try doing half of yesterday's puzzle. I find that when i start my click speed is quite slow so i sometimes use this as a warm up. |
astrokath
Kwon-Tom Obsessive
Puzzles: 3258
Best Total: 13m 42s | Posted - 2006.08.17 08:12:44
I'd agree with the warm-up suggestion - I use that quite often if I'm in a slump.
It does happen, to all of us. Sometimes you just get a bad week. |
mathmaniac
Kwon-Tom Obsessive
Puzzles: 1293
Best Total: 20m 57s | Posted - 2006.08.18 23:02:04
I dont know if you mean that you try them and fail or you just dont do them. ever since last saturday I have slowed down a whole lot and not done as many puzzles. right now I havent completed the weekend puzzles and totally screwed last friday's. I must be some sort of contagious kwontomsickness |
Envelope
Kwon-Tom Addict
Puzzles: 307
Best Total: 33m 49s | Posted - 2006.08.19 13:08:53
Well, I get about half-way into the puzzles and can't finish without random guessing... It takes over 10 minutes to disprove one thing... I get tired of it and just close the browser.. My best time for the past week has been a 4-minute time on Thursday... |
procrastinator
Kwon-Tom Obsessive
Puzzles: 1083
Best Total: 12m 56s | Posted - 2006.08.19 18:04:10
Quote: Originally Posted by envelope Well, I get about half-way into the puzzles and can't finish without random guessing... It takes over 10 minutes to disprove one thing... I get tired of it and just close the browser.. My best time for the past week has been a 4-minute time on Thursday... |
First of all this has been a week where most of the puzzles required a degree of reading ahead/Fix Position, but apart from Wednesday they were all in fairly obvious places.
That said, if you're taking 10 minutes (or even 4, really) on this week's Monday puzzle, then you're missing basic patterns that you almost certainly know but haven't spotted.* Some days that happens to me, and I find a warm-up puzzle helps (or if it doesn't help, maybe just leave the puzzle 'til later). When I don't see any more patterns on a live puzzle I put in the Xes I've left out. This a) forces me to reconsider parts of the board I'd ruled fruitless, and b) gives me a slightly different view of things. I'm guessing you put most of the Xes in first time through, but maybe as a last resort (before guessing, anyway) you could take them all _out_. If that doesn't work, maybe putting them back in one by one will.
On the other puzzles, I guess it's your instinct for where to start guessing that's lacking. Are you remembering hone in on things like:
Lotsa numbers clustered together
Clusters of 3s and 1s
2s along diagonals
Places where a loop is nearly closed
Ways you can consider adding more than one thing: two Xes on a 1, two lines on a 2-in-a-corner, two or three lines on a 3
* Do you see the easy way to solve it if you go back afterwards? Or are there some patterns missing in your repertoire that don't usually come up? If you still can't solve it without guessing you should post where you get up to so we can work out what you're missing. My tip for learning new patterns is to concentrate on just one or two at a time, and especially remember to look for those when you get stuck. |
mathmaniac
Kwon-Tom Obsessive
Puzzles: 1293
Best Total: 20m 57s | Posted - 2006.08.20 01:48:59
Quote: Originally Posted by envelope Well, I get about half-way into the puzzles and can't finish without random guessing... It takes over 10 minutes to disprove one thing... I get tired of it and just close the browser.. My best time for the past week has been a 4-minute time on Thursday... |
That's exactly what happens to me. I get really far and realize that I have made a mistake. So I restart and try to find my mistake and get to a point that I cant get any farther and just keep guessing until I contradict myself. I get so bored that I just close my window. |
m2e
Kwon-Tom Obsessive
Puzzles: 607
Best Total: 16m 43s | Posted - 2006.08.20 06:46:08
Quote: Originally Posted by mathmaniac Quote: Originally Posted by envelope Well, I get about half-way into the puzzles and can't finish without random guessing... It takes over 10 minutes to disprove one thing... I get tired of it and just close the browser.. My best time for the past week has been a 4-minute time on Thursday... |
That's exactly what happens to me. I get really far and realize that I have made a mistake. So I restart and try to find my mistake and get to a point that I cant get any farther and just keep guessing until I contradict myself. I get so bored that I just close my window. |
I used to do this on the weekend but i found when i started to relax more i did less mistakes and when i did do mistakes i didn't get too frustrated. When i get frustrated i do more and more mistakes so try not to be like that! |
Envelope
Kwon-Tom Addict
Puzzles: 307
Best Total: 33m 49s | Posted - 2006.08.20 23:46:44
Well, I skipped the weekend puzzles so I wouldn't have to think about them. I did Monday's puzzle and got right at 2 minutes.. Maybe I just needed a small break? Let's see what this week has for me.. |
