Thanks for an interesting set of puzzles.

I will be interested to see the answer for Rank Killer as I think I must have misunderstood the rules. I got stuck three times in the bottom left corner (a delay which later meant that I missed out on typing the answer for Holt/Cold Thermometer by about five seconds ). In case there is a problem with Rank Killer, I'll explain my logic.

r9c1 was the 5 of 1/2/3/5. The vertical 1/2/3 meant r5c2 had to be 4 rather than 3 with r7c1 as 8 to be third and r5c1/r6c1 as 6/9. r9c6 had to be 4 because r9c1 was already 5, which also gave 7/8/9 from r9c7 onwards. On r9, that left 1/2/3/6 to place. r9c4 had to be at least 3 to be third but could not be 6 because 6 plus a higher number in r7c4 would be too much for a four-cage total of 14. So, r9c4 is 3. That makes r8c4 and r9c5 1/2. 1+2+3+8=14 making r7c4 8 which clashes with r7c1.

Hope that made sense. Thanks again, David.

Hi David,

Sorry to read that you had a lot of problems with the rank killer.

I have planned to write some lines about each puzzle as soon as the test is over, with at least the first important steps in the solving process. I hope that will help.

Thanks Richard. I enjoyed the puzzles - thank you for all the work you have put into creating them. David.

I think you'll find you eliminated another possibility here itself, for R5C2 :)

Oh, now I see - thank you !

How balanced do you think the puzzle types of this test were?	Fairly balanced
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
How did you feel about the length / time limit for this test?	Just right
Of the puzzles you solved/attempted, how well did their point values reflect the difficulty/time spent?	Most puzzles were worth the right amount
What was your opinion of the booklet formatting and printing?	Just right

How balanced do you think the puzzle types of this test were?	Fairly balanced
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
How did you feel about the length / time limit for this test?	Just right
Of the puzzles you solved/attempted, how well did their point values reflect the difficulty/time spent?	Most puzzles were worth the right amount
What was your opinion of the booklet formatting and printing?	Just right

Can I get a Mulligan? Really nice puzzles, except my brain wasn't in the mood. Broke both the Clones and Greather than X 3 times. Knew my submission for the second one would be wrong, but had no time left, so thought. you never know.

How balanced do you think the puzzle types of this test were?	Fairly balanced
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
How did you feel about the length / time limit for this test?	Just right
Of the puzzles you solved/attempted, how well did their point values reflect the difficulty/time spent?	All puzzles were worth the right amount
What was your opinion of the booklet formatting and printing?	Just right

A beautiful test.Many thnks to the author for this wonderful test.I had great fun solving the test.
Got a deja vu of the masyu puzzle in puzzle marathon after seeing the primes without any dots.It is a good way to take the players by surpise.The conventional thinking gets disrupted totally.I was hoping to tackle this puzzle by making pencil marks of 1379 at the end of the dots. Because of the surprise factor this puzzle took me more time to solve than the hot/cold thermometer!
Hope to solve the remaining puzzles some time later.
One thing i would love to add here is the practise puzzles that the author posted before the test laying the foundation for the test beautifully.
Excellent test!!!I really enjoyed it!!

Thanks a lot for your kind words!

I will be happy to post full feedback on (practise) puzzles after the test is over.

What do the instructions mean, in Perfects Squares and Primes, when they say "This constraint is not valid for vertically adjacent cells"?

Does it mean vertically adjacent cells aren't constrained, so they can even have or not have the pattern? (square or prime)

Or does it mean no two vertically adjacent cells can have the pattern? If the latter, kropki-like puzzles usually handle that by the presence or absence of a square or diamond, without a confusingly worded rule.

...without a confusingly worded rule...

Of course I don't want to confuse solvers, but I thought this was the best way to clarify the rules. Sorry if it's not...

What I mean is that it doesn't matter what digit combination appears in the columns, primes, squares, doesn't matter, so your first interpretation Does it mean vertically adjacent cells aren't constrained, so they can even have or not have the pattern? (square or prime) is correct.

Thanks, that was my guess. Perhaps "constraint does not apply" instead of "constraint is not valid"?

Also, working the IB examples clarifies the question. Thanks!

How balanced do you think the puzzle types of this test were?	Perfectly balanced
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
How did you feel about the length / time limit for this test?	Just right
Of the puzzles you solved/attempted, how well did their point values reflect the difficulty/time spent?	Most puzzles were worth the right amount
What was your opinion of the booklet formatting and printing?	Just right

How balanced do you think the puzzle types of this test were?	Fairly balanced
What was your opinion of the distribution of easy/hard puzzles?	A bit hard
What did you think about the puzzle quality of the test?	Very nice
How did you feel about the length / time limit for this test?	A bit too many puzzles
Of the puzzles you solved/attempted, how well did their point values reflect the difficulty/time spent?	All puzzles were worth the right amount
What was your opinion of the booklet formatting and printing?	Just right

Thanks for this great test. I really enjoyed solving it.

How balanced do you think the puzzle types of this test were?	Perfectly balanced
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
How did you feel about the length / time limit for this test?	Just right
Of the puzzles you solved/attempted, how well did their point values reflect the difficulty/time spent?	Most puzzles were worth the right amount

Thank you for this wonderful test !

The set was really enjoying, well balanced, and all sudokus were perfectly constructed.

On a personal note, I broke the thermo-sudoku 2 times and hadn't enough time the 3rd time (there was 3 minutes left). It's a pity, because without these mistakes, I think it was within my reach to solve all sudokus in 120 minutes.

Fred

P.S.: and I forgot to say that I look forward to solve more of your sudokus during the next DSM (and I hope without mistake)

Edited by Fred76 2013-03-24 7:36 PM

That is interesting co-incidence.

Phew !

I didn't remember that ! Perhaps next time I'll skip the thermo until I solved all other puzzles !

Fred

I went straight for the Greater Than X and systematically tried X=1,2,3,4,5. None worked for me. Can't wait for the answers and the intended solving path.
Basically this was a 100 minute test for me because that first puzzle took away 20 minutes with no points. :(

Great sudokus from Richard as usual. I liked how there's plenty of practise puzzles that are available before the test.

How balanced do you think the puzzle types of this test were?	Perfectly balanced
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
How did you feel about the length / time limit for this test?	A bit too many puzzles
Of the puzzles you solved/attempted, how well did their point values reflect the difficulty/time spent?	All puzzles were worth the right amount
What was your opinion of the booklet formatting and printing?	Just right

How balanced do you think the puzzle types of this test were?	Fairly balanced
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
How did you feel about the length / time limit for this test?	Just right
Of the puzzles you solved/attempted, how well did their point values reflect the difficulty/time spent?	Most puzzles were worth the right amount
What was your opinion of the booklet formatting and printing?	Just right

I hesitated to write that the Greater than X was overvalued, because I found it not so hard...

Here is a way you can find X:

-box 4: there are 4 pairs: the only possibilities are 1,2,4 or 5.
-you can eliminate the 2 with the 4 and 6 in Row 9 (4 cannot be next to the 6). It remains 1,4 or 5
-you can eliminate the 5, because in box 8, 1 has to be "X-consecutive" and it cannot with the 6, already present in the box. ->1,4
-It's a bit more difficult to eliminate the 1: If you place the 2 in R1C6, then you have 1 and 2 in R78C4, then it's impossible to place the 3 in box 8 (cannot be next to 2 or 4, and it cannot be consecutive to another digit).

So X=4 !

Hope that helps !

Fred

Actually, I got X=4 very easily, but found the remaining Sudoku very difficult.

I have written a full walk through for this puzzle, that will be published immediately after the test is over. The puzzle has a perfectly logical solve if you know the way.

But I like to publish the notes to all puzzles at once, so I ask for a little bit of patience...