Casual and Word - 11th-15th May- Puzzle Ramayan and IPC Qualifier
@ 2018-05-06 7:12 PM (#24866) (#24866) Top

Administrator



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Country : India

Administrator posted @ 2018-05-06 7:12 PM




Link for rules and other details about Puzzle Ramayan: http://logicmastersindia.com/PR/2018pr.asp
Instructions for Casual and Word: http://logicmastersindia.com/PR/201805/
@ 2018-05-07 2:50 AM (#24867 - in reply to #24866) (#24867) Top

auroux



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auroux posted @ 2018-05-07 2:50 AM

I think you mean May 11-14 :-)
Denis
@ 2018-05-07 7:37 AM (#24868 - in reply to #24866) (#24868) Top

devarajand



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100
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devarajand posted @ 2018-05-07 7:37 AM

Make it May 11 -15 without any extension.
@ 2018-05-07 6:17 PM (#24873 - in reply to #24866) (#24873) Top

Administrator



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Country : India

Administrator posted @ 2018-05-07 6:17 PM

Instruction Booklet


The Instruction Booklet is now available on the contest page. The test will run till 15th May.

@ 2018-05-09 1:02 PM (#24879 - in reply to #24866) (#24879) Top

Administrator



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Country : India

Administrator posted @ 2018-05-09 1:02 PM

Points Table

@ 2018-05-10 11:22 AM (#24889 - in reply to #24879) (#24889) Top

Administrator



20001000500202020
Country : India

Administrator posted @ 2018-05-10 11:22 AM

(Updated) Instruction Booklet


The updated Instruction Booklet with points is now available on the contest page.

@ 2018-05-10 6:03 PM (#24891 - in reply to #24889) (#24891) Top

Administrator



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Country : India

Administrator posted @ 2018-05-10 6:03 PM

NOTE: The answers to puzzles 2, 3, 5 and 6 (count triangles and knight paths) must be 2-digit numbers.
@ 2018-05-10 11:16 PM (#24893 - in reply to #24866) (#24893) Top

Administrator



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Country : India

Administrator posted @ 2018-05-10 11:16 PM

Puzzle Booklet


The Puzzle Booklet is now available for download.

@ 2018-05-11 12:04 AM (#24894 - in reply to #24866) (#24894) Top

An LMI player



An LMI player posted @ 2018-05-11 12:04 AM

 What was your opinion of the distribution of easy/hard puzzles? Just right
 What did you think about the puzzle quality of the test? Very nice
 Which set of puzzles did you like the most? Scrabble
 What was your opinion about the answer key extraction? Perfect answer keys
 Of the puzzles you solved/attempted, how well did the point values reflect the difficulty? Most puzzles were worth the right amount
 What was your opinion of the booklet formatting and printing? Just right


@ 2018-05-11 11:10 AM (#24895 - in reply to #24866) (#24895) Top

RbDrache



Posts: 1

Country : Australia

RbDrache posted @ 2018-05-11 11:10 AM

 What was your opinion of the distribution of easy/hard puzzles? Too many hard puzzles
 What did you think about the puzzle quality of the test? Very nice
 Which set of puzzles did you like the most? Scrabble
 What was your opinion about the answer key extraction? Perfect answer keys
 Of the puzzles you solved/attempted, how well did the point values reflect the difficulty? Most puzzles were worth the right amount
 What was your opinion of the booklet formatting and printing? Just right


Note about the first question : maybe it's because I'm not familiar with those word puzzles.
@ 2018-05-11 1:23 PM (#24896 - in reply to #24866) (#24896) Top

vopani



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vopani posted @ 2018-05-11 1:23 PM

 What was your opinion of the distribution of easy/hard puzzles? Too many hard puzzles
 What did you think about the puzzle quality of the test? Fairly Nice
 Which set of puzzles did you like the most? Regionless Meandering Words
 What was your opinion about the answer key extraction? Perfect answer keys
 Of the puzzles you solved/attempted, how well did the point values reflect the difficulty? Many puzzles were worth too much or too little
 What was your opinion of the booklet formatting and printing? Just right


@ 2018-05-11 1:39 PM (#24897 - in reply to #24866) (#24897) Top

An LMI player



An LMI player posted @ 2018-05-11 1:39 PM

 What was your opinion of the distribution of easy/hard puzzles? Too many hard puzzles
 What did you think about the puzzle quality of the test? Fairly Nice
 Which set of puzzles did you like the most? Curve Data
 What was your opinion about the answer key extraction? Mostly perfect answer keys
 Of the puzzles you solved/attempted, how well did the point values reflect the difficulty? Many puzzles were worth too much or too little
 What was your opinion of the booklet formatting and printing? Just right


I found the Curve Data answer key a bit difficult to understand without the Instruction Booklet.
@ 2018-05-11 8:00 PM (#24899 - in reply to #24866) (#24899) Top

An LMI player



An LMI player posted @ 2018-05-11 8:00 PM

 What was your opinion of the distribution of easy/hard puzzles? Just right
 What did you think about the puzzle quality of the test? Very nice
 Which set of puzzles did you like the most? Letter Scrabble
 What was your opinion about the answer key extraction? Mostly perfect answer keys
 Of the puzzles you solved/attempted, how well did the point values reflect the difficulty? Many puzzles were worth too much or too little
 What was your opinion of the booklet formatting and printing? Just right


somehow I found the triangles the hardest XD nice puzzles overall!
@ 2018-05-11 10:36 PM (#24900 - in reply to #24866) (#24900) Top

chaotic_iak




Posts: 241
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chaotic_iak posted @ 2018-05-11 10:36 PM

 What was your opinion of the distribution of easy/hard puzzles? Just right
 What did you think about the puzzle quality of the test? Very nice
 Which set of puzzles did you like the most? Arithmetic Square
 What was your opinion about the answer key extraction? Perfect answer keys
 Of the puzzles you solved/attempted, how well did the point values reflect the difficulty? Most puzzles were worth the right amount
 What was your opinion of the booklet formatting and printing? Just right


Okay, now I know counting puzzles will forever be my bane.

Even though the puzzles are "casual" (and in fact that makes them unusual for most competitive puzzlers), they are still of a very good quality.

I think the counting puzzles need some way for us to be sure of our answer, since unlike other puzzles, if you make a mistake there you essentially have to redo it. (That also means counting puzzles should probably get more points.)

The twist in Arithmetic Square is very interesting, although I question whether it's a good idea to connect different puzzles; different puzzles are meant to be solved independently (otherwise they count as a single puzzle), and I certainly had to work back and forth there.

I felt I got stuck in Puzzle 12 for a very long time; 9 minutes for 2 points doesn't seem correct. The other puzzles felt they were worth the right amount, though.
@ 2018-05-12 8:36 AM (#24901 - in reply to #24866) (#24901) Top

kiwijam



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kiwijam posted @ 2018-05-12 8:36 AM

 What was your opinion of the distribution of easy/hard puzzles? Too many easy puzzles
 What did you think about the puzzle quality of the test? Very nice
 Which set of puzzles did you like the most? Letter Weights
 What was your opinion about the answer key extraction? Perfect answer keys
 Of the puzzles you solved/attempted, how well did the point values reflect the difficulty? Many puzzles were worth too much or too little
 What was your opinion of the booklet formatting and printing? Just right


I found the 1/2/3 point puzzles to be much slower than the points suggested. Did the average test solvers really solve the final Word Search in less than 2 minutes? Or #11, or #12? I am worried that the points are based on the fastest correct guesser, and ignore the wrong guesses...
I did enjoy the medium and large puzzles though, and I'm glad I did them first.
@ 2018-05-12 8:37 AM (#24902 - in reply to #24899) (#24902) Top

rakesh_rai




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rakesh_rai posted @ 2018-05-12 8:37 AM

An LMI player - 2018-05-11 8:00 PM

somehow I found the triangles the hardest XD nice puzzles overall!

The first one was straightforward. The only thing you could possibly miss was the 4 triangles without any horizontal lines. The second one was a a little tricky, because of the gaps in the centre. Many participants got a count of 32 on this first.
@ 2018-05-12 8:47 AM (#24903 - in reply to #24900) (#24903) Top

rakesh_rai




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rakesh_rai posted @ 2018-05-12 8:47 AM

chaotic_iak - 2018-05-11 10:36 PM

...The twist in Arithmetic Square is very interesting, although I question whether it's a good idea to connect different puzzles; different puzzles are meant to be solved independently (otherwise they count as a single puzzle), and I certainly had to work back and forth...

Valid point. Agree with this. In this case, you either get zero or ten. (Although if someone attempts this in the end he/she may still get 5 points).

Actually these were supposed to be independent initially. And even without the given letters in squares. But it was turning out to be much tougher then. So I decided to link and also give the letters inside the squares later.
@ 2018-05-12 9:00 AM (#24904 - in reply to #24900) (#24904) Top

rakesh_rai




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rakesh_rai posted @ 2018-05-12 9:00 AM

chaotic_iak - 2018-05-11 10:36 PM

I think the counting puzzles need some way for us to be sure of our answer, since unlike other puzzles, if you make a mistake there you essentially have to redo it. (That also means counting puzzles should probably get more points.)

I agree that counting is tedious - for everyone. The intention was that participants solve it completely logically (actually count the possibilities). That is the reason "close" answers were not considered correct. I think the points for counting puzzles are correct. Possibly #3 could have one more point.

You can suggest if you think there is a good way to achieve the above objective - "some way for us to be sure of the answer"
@ 2018-05-12 10:27 AM (#24905 - in reply to #24866) (#24905) Top

An LMI player



An LMI player posted @ 2018-05-12 10:27 AM

 What was your opinion of the distribution of easy/hard puzzles? Too many hard puzzles
 What did you think about the puzzle quality of the test? Fairly Nice
 Which set of puzzles did you like the most? Letter Weights
 What was your opinion about the answer key extraction? Mostly perfect answer keys
 Of the puzzles you solved/attempted, how well did the point values reflect the difficulty? Many puzzles were worth too much or too little
 What was your opinion of the booklet formatting and printing? Just right


@ 2018-05-12 11:47 AM (#24906 - in reply to #24900) (#24906) Top

rakesh_rai




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rakesh_rai posted @ 2018-05-12 11:47 AM

chaotic_iak - 2018-05-11 10:36 PM

I felt I got stuck in Puzzle 12 for a very long time; 9 minutes for 2 points doesn't seem correct. The other puzzles felt they were worth the right amount, though.

This puzzle was different from the other two but, in essence, it only needed the remaining Os (for OBOE and OCTOPUS) to be correctly determined. (Two out of five possible places). After that it was easy to complete. During testing we found this to be roughly of the same level of difficulty as the other two. However I have observed the preference for 13 and 14 over 12, for most participants so far. So, post-event, its possible that it may actually be slightly (~1 point) undervalued.
@ 2018-05-12 12:16 PM (#24907 - in reply to #24866) (#24907) Top

An LMI player



An LMI player posted @ 2018-05-12 12:16 PM

 What was your opinion of the distribution of easy/hard puzzles? Too many hard puzzles
 What did you think about the puzzle quality of the test? Very nice
 Which set of puzzles did you like the most? Arithmetic Square
 What was your opinion about the answer key extraction? Mostly perfect answer keys
 Of the puzzles you solved/attempted, how well did the point values reflect the difficulty? Most puzzles were worth the right amount
 What was your opinion of the booklet formatting and printing? Just right


@ 2018-05-12 2:31 PM (#24908 - in reply to #24866) (#24908) Top

swaroop2011




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swaroop2011 posted @ 2018-05-12 2:31 PM

 What was your opinion of the distribution of easy/hard puzzles? Too many hard puzzles
 What did you think about the puzzle quality of the test? Fairly Nice
 Which set of puzzles did you like the most? Letter Weights
 What was your opinion about the answer key extraction? Mostly perfect answer keys
 Of the puzzles you solved/attempted, how well did the point values reflect the difficulty? Most puzzles were worth the right amount
 What was your opinion of the booklet formatting and printing? Just right


Never give a test in hurry. But not an option for me this time, since I am traveling. Messed up lots of puzzles. And should have attempted all word puzzles first, as they were high points and much easy to solve than casual stuff.
This might be my discard mostly. Let's see.
But very hard test in my opinion. Hardest of all so far.
I enjoyed solving, whichiver i solved.
Answer keys. I got confused, as some letters were combined and i was not sure how to enter it. May be i missed instructions somewhere, but eventually i figured it out.
Thanks Rakesh and LMI.
@ 2018-05-12 2:41 PM (#24909 - in reply to #24866) (#24909) Top

An LMI player



An LMI player posted @ 2018-05-12 2:41 PM

 What did you think about the puzzle quality of the test? Average
 Which set of puzzles did you like the most? Shortest Distances
 What was your opinion about the answer key extraction? Answer keys were horrible
 What was your opinion of the booklet formatting and printing? Just right


@ 2018-05-12 3:06 PM (#24910 - in reply to #24909) (#24910) Top

rakesh_rai




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rakesh_rai posted @ 2018-05-12 3:06 PM

An LMI player - 2018-05-12 2:41 PM


Can you elaborate which answer keys were horrible, so that we can work on improving on it in future.
@ 2018-05-12 5:01 PM (#24911 - in reply to #24866) (#24911) Top

EoHeongMat



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Country : South Korea

EoHeongMat posted @ 2018-05-12 5:01 PM

 What was your opinion about the answer key extraction? Answer keys could have been better


@ 2018-05-12 5:43 PM (#24912 - in reply to #24866) (#24912) Top

Gyuszi13



Posts: 17

Country : Hungary

Gyuszi13 posted @ 2018-05-12 5:43 PM

 What was your opinion of the distribution of easy/hard puzzles? Just right
 What did you think about the puzzle quality of the test? Very nice
 Which set of puzzles did you like the most? Arithmetic Square
 What was your opinion about the answer key extraction? Mostly perfect answer keys
 Of the puzzles you solved/attempted, how well did the point values reflect the difficulty? Most puzzles were worth the right amount
 What was your opinion of the booklet formatting and printing? Just right


@ 2018-05-12 8:34 PM (#24914 - in reply to #24866) (#24914) Top

Kithyane



Posts: 49
2020
Country : France

Kithyane posted @ 2018-05-12 8:34 PM

 What was your opinion of the distribution of easy/hard puzzles? Just right
 What did you think about the puzzle quality of the test? Very nice
 Which set of puzzles did you like the most? Double Letter Scrabble
 What was your opinion about the answer key extraction? Mostly perfect answer keys
 Of the puzzles you solved/attempted, how well did the point values reflect the difficulty? Most puzzles were worth the right amount
 What was your opinion of the booklet formatting and printing? Just right


@ 2018-05-13 12:16 PM (#24915 - in reply to #24866) (#24915) Top

kishy72



Posts: 419
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kishy72 posted @ 2018-05-13 12:16 PM

 What was your opinion of the distribution of easy/hard puzzles? Too many hard puzzles
 What did you think about the puzzle quality of the test? Below Average
 What was your opinion about the answer key extraction? Answer keys were horrible
 Of the puzzles you solved/attempted, how well did the point values reflect the difficulty? Most puzzles were worth too much or too little


Worthless test and simply waste of time.
@ 2018-05-13 12:37 PM (#24916 - in reply to #24904) (#24916) Top

chaotic_iak




Posts: 241
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chaotic_iak posted @ 2018-05-13 12:37 PM

rakesh_rai - 2018-05-12 12:00 PM

chaotic_iak - 2018-05-11 10:36 PM

I think the counting puzzles need some way for us to be sure of our answer, since unlike other puzzles, if you make a mistake there you essentially have to redo it. (That also means counting puzzles should probably get more points.)

I agree that counting is tedious - for everyone. The intention was that participants solve it completely logically (actually count the possibilities). That is the reason "close" answers were not considered correct. I think the points for counting puzzles are correct. Possibly #3 could have one more point.

You can suggest if you think there is a good way to achieve the above objective - "some way for us to be sure of the answer"


Oh, I definitely solved them all logically, but it's *extremely* prone to miscount, which is the problem. If you get a single miscount somewhere, you must check your whole work, essentially redoing it; in more standard puzzles, you can scan for the error and find it quickly (even if fixing it might be harder).
@ 2018-05-13 12:39 PM (#24917 - in reply to #24906) (#24917) Top

chaotic_iak




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chaotic_iak posted @ 2018-05-13 12:39 PM

rakesh_rai - 2018-05-12 2:47 PM

chaotic_iak - 2018-05-11 10:36 PM

I felt I got stuck in Puzzle 12 for a very long time; 9 minutes for 2 points doesn't seem correct. The other puzzles felt they were worth the right amount, though.

This puzzle was different from the other two but, in essence, it only needed the remaining Os (for OBOE and OCTOPUS) to be correctly determined. (Two out of five possible places). After that it was easy to complete. During testing we found this to be roughly of the same level of difficulty as the other two. However I have observed the preference for 13 and 14 over 12, for most participants so far. So, post-event, its possible that it may actually be slightly (~1 point) undervalued.


I noticed that but had trouble locating where those two words could be; it took me ~8 of those 9 minutes. That's why I thought it was undervalued.
@ 2018-05-13 8:30 PM (#24919 - in reply to #24866) (#24919) Top

An LMI player



An LMI player posted @ 2018-05-13 8:30 PM

 What was your opinion of the distribution of easy/hard puzzles? Just right
 What did you think about the puzzle quality of the test? Fairly Nice
 Which set of puzzles did you like the most? Scrabble
 What was your opinion about the answer key extraction? Mostly perfect answer keys
 Of the puzzles you solved/attempted, how well did the point values reflect the difficulty? Many puzzles were worth too much or too little
 What was your opinion of the booklet formatting and printing? Just right


@ 2018-05-13 8:52 PM (#24920 - in reply to #24866) (#24920) Top

WA1729




Posts: 65
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WA1729 posted @ 2018-05-13 8:52 PM

 What was your opinion of the distribution of easy/hard puzzles? Just right
 What did you think about the puzzle quality of the test? Very nice
 Which set of puzzles did you like the most? Curve Data
 What was your opinion about the answer key extraction? Mostly perfect answer keys
 Of the puzzles you solved/attempted, how well did the point values reflect the difficulty? Most puzzles were worth the right amount
 What was your opinion of the booklet formatting and printing? Just right


Thank you!

Favorite Puzzles:

9 Curve Data
14 Regionless Meandering Words
15 Scrabble
17 Letter Scrabble
18 Double Letter Scrabble
@ 2018-05-13 10:19 PM (#24921 - in reply to #24866) (#24921) Top

Gotroch



Posts: 83
20202020
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Gotroch posted @ 2018-05-13 10:19 PM

 What was your opinion of the distribution of easy/hard puzzles? Just right
 What did you think about the puzzle quality of the test? Fairly Nice
 Which set of puzzles did you like the most? Scrabble
 What was your opinion about the answer key extraction? Perfect answer keys
 Of the puzzles you solved/attempted, how well did the point values reflect the difficulty? Many puzzles were worth too much or too little
 What was your opinion of the booklet formatting and printing? Just right


@ 2018-05-14 2:25 AM (#24922 - in reply to #24866) (#24922) Top

bob



Posts: 59
2020
Country : United States

bob posted @ 2018-05-14 2:25 AM

 What was your opinion of the distribution of easy/hard puzzles? Too many hard puzzles
 What did you think about the puzzle quality of the test? Average
 What was your opinion about the answer key extraction? Perfect answer keys
 Of the puzzles you solved/attempted, how well did the point values reflect the difficulty? Most puzzles were worth too much or too little
 What was your opinion of the booklet formatting and printing? Just right


I'll be honest--this is my least favorite category even before starting. To me, "casual" puzzles seem to me to be all about guessing, trial and error, counting and hoping, and more tiral and error. So I was really looking forward to the word puzzles which I thought would at least be logical but found them staggeringly difficult. I started with the last page. Missing Letters OK, kind of fun. Word Search I spent almost 40 minutes on a 2-point puzzle and could not even finish it. Several possibile locations for many of the words leads to dozens and dozens of combinations to avoid overlap. I could not find the right one and finally gave up. Final Double Letter Scrabble another 30 minutes trying to place my last word LATUR to no avail. May be just a bad round for me but very discouraging.
@ 2018-05-14 12:28 PM (#24923 - in reply to #24866) (#24923) Top

pranavmanu



Posts: 55
2020
Country : India

pranavmanu posted @ 2018-05-14 12:28 PM

 What was your opinion of the distribution of easy/hard puzzles? Too many medium difficult puzzles
 What did you think about the puzzle quality of the test? Very nice
 Which set of puzzles did you like the most? Letter Scrabble
 What was your opinion about the answer key extraction? Perfect answer keys
 Of the puzzles you solved/attempted, how well did the point values reflect the difficulty? Many puzzles were worth too much or too little
 What was your opinion of the booklet formatting and printing? Just right


@ 2018-05-14 3:55 PM (#24924 - in reply to #24866) (#24924) Top

rob



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rob posted @ 2018-05-14 3:55 PM

There were some really nice puzzles in here, but the misleading point distribution broke the contest for me. (To a large part I feel I should just have realized this and not sunk so much time into the undervalued puzzles.)

Edited by rob 2018-05-14 3:55 PM
@ 2018-05-14 6:49 PM (#24925 - in reply to #24866) (#24925) Top

Para



Posts: 315
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Para posted @ 2018-05-14 6:49 PM

 What was your opinion of the distribution of easy/hard puzzles? Too many hard puzzles
 What did you think about the puzzle quality of the test? Fairly Nice
 Which set of puzzles did you like the most? Double Letter Scrabble
 What was your opinion about the answer key extraction? Mostly perfect answer keys
 Of the puzzles you solved/attempted, how well did the point values reflect the difficulty? Most puzzles were worth the right amount
 What was your opinion of the booklet formatting and printing? Just right


This seemed much harder than the previous sets. It required a lot of right insight from the start to even begin too many puzzles. I find this slows solving down a lot more in a full set as it is harder to get into a solving flow. It also leads to problems with point values as they can severely increase solving times if you don't get it from the start. It's always hard to rate these puzzles though.

Also, I will never learn how to properly count, no matter how hard I try.
@ 2018-05-14 11:52 PM (#24926 - in reply to #24866) (#24926) Top

rvarun



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rvarun posted @ 2018-05-14 11:52 PM

 What was your opinion of the distribution of easy/hard puzzles? Too many hard puzzles
 What did you think about the puzzle quality of the test? Very nice
 Which set of puzzles did you like the most? Letter Weights
 What was your opinion about the answer key extraction? Mostly perfect answer keys
 Of the puzzles you solved/attempted, how well did the point values reflect the difficulty? Most puzzles were worth the right amount
 What was your opinion of the booklet formatting and printing? Just right


Thanks Rakesh and LMI for the high quality test. Though the puzzles were difficult on the whole for a PR round, I found the puzzles which I solved to have a logical start or logical solve.

This may be the round for everyone who dont have to remember confusing and contradicting rules of many other puzzles. Overall a good set and nice experience.
@ 2018-05-15 12:03 AM (#24927 - in reply to #24866) (#24927) Top

misko



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Country : Germany

misko posted @ 2018-05-15 12:03 AM

 What was your opinion of the distribution of easy/hard puzzles? Too many hard puzzles
 What did you think about the puzzle quality of the test? Average
 What was your opinion about the answer key extraction? Mostly perfect answer keys
 Of the puzzles you solved/attempted, how well did the point values reflect the difficulty? Many puzzles were worth too much or too little
 What was your opinion of the booklet formatting and printing? Just right


@ 2018-05-15 1:40 AM (#24928 - in reply to #24866) (#24928) Top

JonaS2010



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JonaS2010 posted @ 2018-05-15 1:40 AM

 What was your opinion of the distribution of easy/hard puzzles? Too many hard puzzles
 What did you think about the puzzle quality of the test? Average
 Which set of puzzles did you like the most? Double Letter Scrabble
 Of the puzzles you solved/attempted, how well did the point values reflect the difficulty? Many puzzles were worth too much or too little
 What was your opinion of the booklet formatting and printing? Just right


So... the guessing round. It was clear from the start that this wouldn't be a strong round for me, as I hate casual puzzles and have only a mild interest in word puzzles. Some puzzles that I attempted during the test were ok, with double letter scrabble #18 being the most memorable one for me. Somewhere in the middle of the test, however, I lost interest in the puzzles and the round, and got tired of all the intuition-based word placements.
Certainly my least favourite round so far :(
@ 2018-05-15 12:24 PM (#24929 - in reply to #24866) (#24929) Top

An LMI player



An LMI player posted @ 2018-05-15 12:24 PM

 What did you think about the puzzle quality of the test? Fairly Nice
 Which set of puzzles did you like the most? Shortest Distances
 What was your opinion about the answer key extraction? Answer keys could have been better
 Of the puzzles you solved/attempted, how well did the point values reflect the difficulty? Many puzzles were worth too much or too little
 What was your opinion of the booklet formatting and printing? Just right


@ 2018-05-15 12:30 PM (#24930 - in reply to #24915) (#24930) Top

rakesh_rai




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rakesh_rai posted @ 2018-05-15 12:30 PM

kishy72 - 2018-05-13 12:16 PM

Worthless test and simply waste of time.

Can you elaborate which answer keys were horrible, so that we can work on improving on it in future.
@ 2018-05-15 8:10 PM (#24932 - in reply to #24866) (#24932) Top

An LMI player



An LMI player posted @ 2018-05-15 8:10 PM

 What was your opinion of the distribution of easy/hard puzzles? Too many medium difficult puzzles
 What did you think about the puzzle quality of the test? Very nice
 Which set of puzzles did you like the most? Scrabble
 What was your opinion about the answer key extraction? Perfect answer keys
 Of the puzzles you solved/attempted, how well did the point values reflect the difficulty? Many puzzles were worth too much or too little
 What was your opinion of the booklet formatting and printing? Just right


@ 2018-05-16 12:19 AM (#24933 - in reply to #24866) (#24933) Top

mstang




Posts: 74
202020
Country : United States

mstang posted @ 2018-05-16 12:19 AM

 What was your opinion of the distribution of easy/hard puzzles? Too many medium difficult puzzles
 What did you think about the puzzle quality of the test? Fairly Nice
 Which set of puzzles did you like the most? Scrabble
 What was your opinion about the answer key extraction? Mostly perfect answer keys
 Of the puzzles you solved/attempted, how well did the point values reflect the difficulty? Many puzzles were worth too much or too little
 What was your opinion of the booklet formatting and printing? Just right


@ 2018-05-16 2:03 AM (#24935 - in reply to #24866) (#24935) Top

ABcDexter



Posts: 50
2020
Country : India

ABcDexter posted @ 2018-05-16 2:03 AM

 What was your opinion of the distribution of easy/hard puzzles? Just right
 What did you think about the puzzle quality of the test? Very nice
 Which set of puzzles did you like the most? Knight Paths
 What was your opinion about the answer key extraction? Mostly perfect answer keys
 Of the puzzles you solved/attempted, how well did the point values reflect the difficulty? Most puzzles were worth the right amount
 What was your opinion of the booklet formatting and printing? Just right


@ 2018-05-16 2:57 AM (#24936 - in reply to #24866) (#24936) Top

ViP



Posts: 4

Country : Cuba

ViP posted @ 2018-05-16 2:57 AM

 What was your opinion of the distribution of easy/hard puzzles? Too many hard puzzles
 What did you think about the puzzle quality of the test? Fairly Nice
 Which set of puzzles did you like the most? Missing Letters
 What was your opinion about the answer key extraction? Mostly perfect answer keys
 Of the puzzles you solved/attempted, how well did the point values reflect the difficulty? Many puzzles were worth too much or too little
 What was your opinion of the booklet formatting and printing? Just right


I think, in my opinion, this was a very hard test.

Not based in my low punctuation. I am not a fast solver, and I am better solving sudoku than other puzzles.
I participate in this contest to learn and enjoy with variations of puzzles. I solved only a few of them in time, and later when test over, I finish others, because the important thing is fun.

But, in this case, when I finish, and see Results score, I was surprised that NOBODY obtains 100 points or more as usually. Top 20 to 30 players (I don't say names, you know who they are) solved ALL puzzles in less than 90 minutes. But now NOBODY answers ALL 22 puzzles. I think that this means something.
Also, number of penalties is bigger than other tests. Almost everyone had one or more.

On the other hand, I think that puzzles 7 and 8 (Arithmetic Square) are a little variation with letters instead of numbers as usually. This is one of the puzzles I can solve, but in this case I couldn't. Instruction booklet example could have at least one letter, to prepare to these variation. It is expected that puzzles are bigger and hardest than examples, but not with a different variation, including that two puzzles are connected, like in this case. Is an interesting variation, but for me, hardest than 5 points.
Counting puzzles aren't difficult because logic to solve, but need time to counting all combinations. And in most cases they have a low punctuation. So, if test have several counting puzzles, time is less to solve, including time to write answers in submit page and send it. If you see results score, puzzles 2,3 and 5 had less % correct.

I can tell you Rakesh in a good cuban spanish: "se te fue la mano" (translated literally: your hand went away). This phrase means that you do something above normal.
Anyway I think that test quality is good including answer keys. But to solve in more that 90 minutes.
Thanks anyway Rakesh.

P.D. I solved Word search only after test over because I didn't see second SATE word diagonally on left side.
@ 2018-05-16 4:49 AM (#24937 - in reply to #24866) (#24937) Top

kiwijam



Posts: 187
10020202020
Country : New Zealand

kiwijam posted @ 2018-05-16 4:49 AM

I really don't like that the rules changed between the Instruction Book and Puzzle Book for Arithmetic Square. Three more sentences were added!

There are many non-native-English speakers doing these contests, who may have difficulty or questions.
I found these new rules slightly ambiguous also, if the two puzzles used the same code or different codes, although eventually decided that the reference table with only one empty column pointing to both sides answered that.

I appreciate you maybe didn't want to make another example puzzle, but I think it is better to have full rules and no example (USPC does this sometimes?) then rules and example for a similar type?
@ 2018-05-16 7:54 AM (#24938 - in reply to #24866) (#24938) Top

Administrator



20001000500202020
Country : India

Administrator posted @ 2018-05-16 7:54 AM

Congratulations to Neil Zussman, Walker Anderson, Bram de Laat and James McGowan for taking the top four places. And, a special mention for Ivan Koswara, who got the highest number of puzzles correct (20).

Among Indian participants, Congratulations to Prasanna Seshadri, Amit Sowani and Rohan Rao for taking the top 3 places.

Thanks to the 165 participants. Anzhi Liu (China) was the first to take the test while Anubhav Balodhi (India) was the last person to take the test. The median score of the test was 38.

Thanks Rakesh Rai for the puzzles, and all participants who provided valuable feedback.

Participants may share feedback on the results page and rate the puzzles on the contest page.
@ 2018-05-16 11:45 PM (#24942 - in reply to #24866) (#24942) Top

rakesh_rai




Posts: 774
500100100202020
Country : India

rakesh_rai posted @ 2018-05-16 11:45 PM

kiwijam - 2018-05-16 4:49 AM

I really don't like that the rules changed between the Instruction Book and Puzzle Book for Arithmetic Square. Three more sentences were added!

There are many non-native-English speakers doing these contests, who may have difficulty or questions.
I found these new rules slightly ambiguous also, if the two puzzles used the same code or different codes, although eventually decided that the reference table with only one empty column pointing to both sides answered that.

I appreciate you maybe didn't want to make another example puzzle, but I think it is better to have full rules and no example (USPC does this sometimes?) then rules and example for a similar type?

This is a valid point. Perhaps it could have been handled better. However, the only area of confusion could have been whether the letters have the same value in both puzzles. And we tried to make it clear in words, and also visually. I definitely wanted the letters to be a surprise in the PB, so the IB example was more normal. There was no change in the basic rules though.

On a separate note, if we do a post-test analysis, this puzzle had a 100% correct submission rate, and also had a good 67 correct submissions, which is high in the context of this set. So, I am hoping it was understood right most of the time.
@ 2018-05-17 1:01 AM (#24943 - in reply to #24936) (#24943) Top

rakesh_rai




Posts: 774
500100100202020
Country : India

rakesh_rai posted @ 2018-05-17 1:01 AM

ViP - 2018-05-16 2:57 AM

...
Counting puzzles aren't difficult because logic to solve, but need time to counting all combinations. And in most cases they have a low punctuation. So, if test have several counting puzzles, time is less to solve, including time to write answers in submit page and send it. If you see results score, puzzles 2,3 and 5 had less % correct.

....
I solved Word search only after test over because I didn't see second SATE word diagonally on left side.

Thanks for a very detailed feedback. I can relate to most of your points.

For counting puzzles, ~10 minutes usefully spent should have given the 12 points. But it required "logical" counting, where the approach does not miss valid cases. But most participants gave up on counting if they got one or two incorrect answers. Some started guessing, and ultimately, counting puzzles ended up as the main contributor to the high number of penalties (39 being the highest), and less accuracy. Maybe, I should have kept only two instead of four counting puzzles.

SATE was the intended start for #22. Unfortunately, many participants did not get enough time to attempt this.
@ 2018-05-17 10:11 PM (#24945 - in reply to #24866) (#24945) Top

Eugene Porter



Posts: 11

Country : United States

Eugene Porter posted @ 2018-05-17 10:11 PM

I enjoyed the test very much. I wonder if there will be a solutions book. I am stuck finding one of the 54 triangles. Thanks.
@ 2018-05-18 2:42 AM (#24946 - in reply to #24938) (#24946) Top

Nilz



Posts: 29
20
Country : United Kingdom

Nilz posted @ 2018-05-18 2:42 AM

Administrator - 2018-05-16 3:54 AM

Congratulations to Neil Zussman, Walker Anderson, Bram de Laat and James McGowan for taking the top four places. And, a special mention for Ivan Koswara, who got the highest number of puzzles correct (20).

Among Indian participants, Congratulations to Prasanna Seshadri, Amit Sowani and Rohan Rao for taking the top 3 places.

Thanks to the 165 participants. Anzhi Liu (China) was the first to take the test while Anubhav Balodhi (India) was the last person to take the test. The median score of the test was 38.

Thanks Rakesh Rai for the puzzles, and all participants who provided valuable feedback.

Participants may share feedback on the results page and rate the puzzles on the contest page.


Very pleased and definitely surprised to get my first LMI win (unless I've forgotten something!) :-) Thanks to Rakesh for the test.

I don't think I have any comments that haven't already been said. I didn't like the Arithmetic Square twist. I think having letters is fine, but having the same letters take the same values across both puzzles was a bit weird, because usually you expect different puzzles to solve completely independently of each other. Until I solved it, I wasn't 100% sure I understood the rules correctly, so I can empathise with any non-native English speakers who were even more confused.
@ 2018-05-18 2:20 PM (#24948 - in reply to #24945) (#24948) Top

Administrator



20001000500202020
Country : India

Administrator posted @ 2018-05-18 2:20 PM

Eugene Porter - 2018-05-17 10:11 PM

I enjoyed the test very much. I wonder if there will be a solutions book. I am stuck finding one of the 54 triangles. Thanks.

There will be a solutions booklet by Saturday. However, we are not planning to include all triangles or knight paths there. To answer your query, we will try to provide a break-up of the 54 triangles for puzzle #2 separately.
@ 2018-05-19 9:10 AM (#24949 - in reply to #24866) (#24949) Top

chaotic_iak




Posts: 241
1001002020
Country : Indonesia

chaotic_iak posted @ 2018-05-19 9:10 AM

Oh, yeah. The fact that there is extra text in PB is a bad thing because some non-native English speakers might first translate the IB to their own language or something to get more understanding. Extra text added to PB means they have to understand the extra text first, which can be a problem for some people that are not fluent in English.

I don't think I have any concern about puzzles being related now, considering that some puzzles in other tests (e.g. WPC) might have multiple grids and also partial points for solving grids, effectively making them "related puzzles" too; the only difference being the multiple grids being numbered as a single puzzle there but multiple puzzles here.
@ 2018-05-20 12:13 AM (#24953 - in reply to #24949) (#24953) Top

rakesh_rai




Posts: 774
500100100202020
Country : India

rakesh_rai posted @ 2018-05-20 12:13 AM

puzzle #2




(PR5 2.png)



Attachments
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Attachments PR5 2.png (18KB - 7 downloads)
@ 2018-05-29 10:35 AM (#24961 - in reply to #24866) (#24961) Top

Administrator



20001000500202020
Country : India

Administrator posted @ 2018-05-29 10:35 AM

Solution Booklet is available now.
@ 2018-05-29 5:50 PM (#24962 - in reply to #24961) (#24962) Top

bskbri



Posts: 34
20
Country : Turkey

bskbri posted @ 2018-05-29 5:50 PM

Administrator - 2018-05-29 8:35 AM

Solution Booklet is available now.


Puzzle 12: E's of OBESE touch diagonally.
@ 2018-05-29 9:53 PM (#24963 - in reply to #24962) (#24963) Top

Administrator



20001000500202020
Country : India

Administrator posted @ 2018-05-29 9:53 PM

An older (incorrect) version was uploaded for #12 in SB. The correct solution is attached.



(PR5 12.png)



Attachments
----------------
Attachments PR5 12.png (5KB - 4 downloads)