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
What is your opinion about rules, points and scoring for this test?	Very fair
What is your opinion about the solving interface?	Fairly Nice

I'm quite sure both my solutions for B2 (JOC Repeated Neighbours) and E5 (JOC Killer) are correct.

B2: Possible places for digits 3 are R1C4/6, R2C1/3, R6C1/3, R5C4/6. R6C1 implies R2C3, R1C6 and R5C4; R6C3 implies R5C4, R1C6 and R2C1. Not sure what the intended solution is, but both R1C6=3 and R5C4=3 should work.

E5: R1C3=6 would imply R6C4=6, which is impossible due to the 13 cage; therefore R1C4=6.

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?	Fairly Nice
How did you feel about the length / time limit for this test?	A bit too many puzzles
What is your opinion about rules, points and scoring for this test?	Fair
What is your opinion about the solving interface?	Fairly Nice

I found some of the A puzzles hard, but some of the E puzzles easy (particularly Search 6 and Arrow) -- I'd run out of time by then though! I'm not clear what determined which section puzzles went into.

Time limit per puzzle was great; overall time limit seemed a bit tight given that there's bonus scoring for quick people anyway.

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
What is your opinion about rules, points and scoring for this test?	Very fair
What is your opinion about the solving interface?	Very nice

I think the puzzle B2 (JOC - Repeated Neighbours) doesn't have any valid solution (one that can fullfill the given rules through whole grid)

I think that my answers for B2 and E5 are good :

B2 : in row 5, 3 is not in columns 1 and 3 because R5C2 is not shaded and 3 is not in column 6 because R5C4 is shaded. so 3 is in R5C4.
E5 : in row 1, 6 is not in columns 1,2,5,6 because of sums 7 and 8. If 6 is in column 3 so R6C4=4 and sum 13 is impossible. So R1C4 = 6.

I also think that B2 has no solution.

Edited by caudmont 2013-11-15 7:55 PM

@Gotroch: How can you distinguish 5 and 6? ;)

Anyway, yeah, some of the JOCs seem to have multiple solutions; I suppose I won't comment about that, as they are already answered. Next time, try making a solver or something that iterates over all possible grids to check validity :P

I'll comment on E4 instead, where the rules in the applet is not complete (no "converse rule applies", no "only three cells in the same region are counted").

Gah, missed E8 by 13 seconds. I should have skipped some of the puzzles earlier. Wonderful puzzles as always :) even though I'm stuck in some of them for the entire five minutes. :P

I also think that there is no solution for E5.

I agree with both.

I got really annoyed when I spent a lot of time on the first two JOCs and missed the first one because I couldn't figure out what "JOC" stood for (I really wasn't expecting such a puzzle type), and the rule written in the margin did not mention "just one cell" either. I know it's my fault for not bothering to read the booklet, assuming the types would be easy and classical as in the previous screen test -- but come on, would it have been too much to write "Just One Cell" instead of "JOC" in the problem name or to put it somewhere in the instructions??? (After getting the second one wrong, at least I read carefully the message before submitting and noticed it said "one cell" instead of "all cells" as I had thought, and so I could go back to solving it.

Otherwise, this would have been a good test, but I was so upset after hitting those first two JOCs that I really couldn't focus on the rest the way I would have wanted. At some point I was so out of it that I started hitting "show" to reveal the puzzles without even bothering to read the rules and lost more time because of having to understand what the puzzles were AFTER they were displayed... :(

Oh well, really largely my fault for not reading the booklet, in spite of the above complaint.

Denis

Oh sh***: 3 mistakes !

I don't know if B2 has a valid solution... If that's the case I'm sure that L5C4 contains a 3

----> Oh sh***: 2 mistakes !

Are time bonuses already computed on the score page?

I think you can imagine why I ask this question?

Well, I think these puzzles with no solutions should be cancelled. Because any digit in any cell can be considered as correct. You can allways eliminate other candidates for that cell because of contradictions :)

Yes, of course, I agree.

The good news for the organizers is that it'll not be too hard to cancel these puzzles as we know exactly how much time each player spent. The only problem is the 60 minutes time limit.

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?	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
What is your opinion about rules, points and scoring for this test?	Fair
What is your opinion about the solving interface?	Fairly Nice

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?	Way too many puzzles (too little time)
What is your opinion about the solving interface?	Very nice

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?	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?	Just right
What is your opinion about rules, points and scoring for this test?	Very fair
What is your opinion about the solving interface?	Fairly Nice

...I have an urge to rate the puzzle quality as below average due to the cooked puzzles. D:

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
What is your opinion about rules, points and scoring for this test?	Fair
What is your opinion about the solving interface?	Fairly Nice

Its given in the guide that the categories were done according to familiarity/accessibility more than difficulty.

About the evil JOCs, firstly, I'm really sorry We're looking at a way to fix the problem. We're thinking of going with canceling B2 and E5, and awarding [points scored over remainder / seconds spent over remainder * seconds spent on B2,E5]. We would like to know general thoughts on whether this is fair.

This was mainly because of the rules being too long. The rules have now been shortened to be accommodated on the applet. Thanks for the notification.

Heh, I think that may have bitten me. When I was solving E4, I don't think the "No arrow means no sequence" part had been added. I looked over my solution, glanced at the rules summary, saw no contradiction, and submitted and moved on. Not sure I would have had time to find the correct solution even if I had the right rules, but oh well. Much happier with my performance regardless of the issues. I still wasn't going to finish, but it was great to get so much closer. Thanks for the cool puzzles!

I'm curious whether people actually continue solving after the time is up or not. If they do, you can try removing the seconds spent in B2 and E5 and count the unofficial time for the length of time spent on B2 and E5? (For example, in my case, I spent 300 seconds in B2 and like 50 seconds in E5, so I gain an extension of 350 seconds, counting the first 350 unofficial seconds as official.)

(Ok this suggestion is a bit biased since with an additional of 300 seconds or so I would have finished the test. :P )

Edited by chaotic_iak 2013-11-16 9:23 AM

This would be ideal if everyone continued solving after time. But thats not the case, so its unfair to those who stopped.