Since outside sudoku variations will normally not have too many inner cells filled, sometimes it is difficult to decide where to start. Below are some general tips on starting (I presume many of us already know these):

Outside: Try to look out for common numbers in the clues, starting with the four corner boxes. These can help place or eliminate some cells.

Skyscrapers: Try to place the 9s and 8s first. Also look out for bigger clues first.

Next to 9: If all clues are given, then you should look out for single clues which mean that the 9 is on the edge.

Distance: Remember that the numbers in the clues are in order (top to bottom, or left to right). Start with bigger distances.

Descriptive Pairs: Try to look for same set of numbers on one side. Also try to look for the same number in the clues on opposite sides of a row or column. Many times you should be able to eliminate one of the two possibilities (example: since X cannot be in the Yth cell, Y MUST be in the Xth cell).

How well did the variants represent the theme of the test ?	variations represented the theme well
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
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

Awesome Puzzles Rakesh,
My favourite were Descriptive Pair both and Distance Big.
I thought so that i will have tough time in Skyscraper so kept it for last and this strategy helped me. Fortunately at last moment just few min before could complete the whole test.
Thanks Rakesh and LMI :)

How well did the variants represent the theme of the test ?	variations represented the theme well
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
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?	I have a different complaint

Losing 20 minutes to the website going down a few times while solving online hurt so I didn't finish as many as I should have, especially with finishing Descriptive Pair 9x9 right after time expired. Beyond that, excellent test.

How well did the variants represent the theme of the test ?	variations represented the theme well
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
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

How well did the variants represent the theme of the test ?	variations represented the theme well
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
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

How well did the variants represent the theme of the test ?	variations represented the theme well
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
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 for excellent set of puzzles.....

How well did the variants represent the theme of the test ?	variations represented the theme well
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
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

How well did the variants represent the theme of the test ?	variations represented the theme well
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
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

How well did the variants represent the theme of the test ?	variations represented the theme well
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
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

How well did the variants represent the theme of the test ?	variations represented the theme well
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
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

How well did the variants represent the theme of the test ?	variations represented the theme well
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
Of the puzzles you solved/attempted, how well did the point values reflect the difficulty?	Most puzzles were worth the right amount

Amazing puzzles.. Enjoyed solving them..
haven't understood the skyscrapper sudoku.. so couldn't attempt
I would really love to have a book of the different variants.. need more practice..
Just read about the beginner's contest..should try that i guess..

Anyway Thank you for this interesting round.

You can look at the Downloadable archives for more Sudokus from previous contests. There's many of them -
http://logicmastersindia.com/lmitests/downloads.asp?testType=1
http://logicmastersindia.com/lmitests/downloads.asp?testType=10

How well did the variants represent the theme of the test ?	variations represented the theme well
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
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 you so much.

Thank you so much.

Dear Purvi

Congrats for your awesome performance especially when you have joined LMI just a month back. Be a regular visitor to this website and you will have fun throughout.
Please go through previous tests (all the puzzle booklets are available) which are here on the website on the following link

http://logicmastersindia.com/forum/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=60&st...

All the best

Regards
Neeraj Mehrotra

How well did the variants represent the theme of the test ?	variations represented the theme well
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
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

How well did the variants represent the theme of the test ?	variations represented the theme well
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
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

Superb puzzles. Great work Rakesh. Other than Outside and Skyscrapers, other three types were new to me. I really enjoyed the test though could not try the 9x9 puzzles within time. I will definitely try the 9x9 puzzles during free time.

How well did the variants represent the theme of the test ?	variations represented the theme well
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
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

I have always found the outside variations of sudoku to be a weakling in my sudoku repertoire.
This test served as a good practice to tackle them head on and gain some confidence.

Unfortunately, the higher valued skyscraper puzzle ended up being broken which cost me quite some points as well as time.I spotted the erroneous logic only at the very end with no time to rectify .

In spite of that, I found this to be an excellent test with some brillantly constructed puzzles.My favourites were the Next to 9(10) and the Outside Sudoku(9).I found the latter to be under-weighed for its difficulty.But then again,it might have to do with my own limitations
when it comes to solving these outside variants.

Overall an enjoyable test.Thanks a lot Rakesh! and I sincerely hope that you get the time to author tests more frequently in the future.

How well did the variants represent the theme of the test ?	representation could have been better
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
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

Descriptive pairs and Distance aren't my favourite variants in the world, as they can be made cumbersome by not seeing the wood for the trees, and I certainly went into bookkeeping mode for the 9x9 outside. A bit like hitori I suppose, you either get the flow or you don't.

Nevertheless this was quite a fun test from an expert point of view, even if I didn;t quite get the flow of all the puzzles. Putting myself in a beginner's shoes, for this reason it was probably a little too challenging for my tastes.