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

Really fun variations. Thanks for monthly diversions.

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

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

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

Phew ! That was a nice ,interesting and a really hard set.Some of the ideas both from a solving perspective and a construction point of view were really novel.The bunching of clues in Group sum 6X6,the really neat layout of Tiles in Killer(7) to name a few....

I feel compelled to describe my experience of the test a bit in detail as it was something of a roller-coaster ride.

I started with the Division 6X6,slipped on it and after that it was smooth sailing through Sum Frame and Killer until I hit the vicious Equal product(13).

I was one of the poor victims of missing the possibility that a 6 can be in Box 9 in R7C7.I proceeded by missing that possibility and broke much later and was left wondering where I might have gone wrong.Kept starting again,kept missing that possibility and kept wondering until eventually I came to the conclusion that I needed to be workman-like and eliminate digit by digit.That's when to my devastation and amusement (to a little extent) that I
realized that I had missed 6 in R7C7.With these kind of sudokus, I realize that it might be much better to have pre-prepped notes of all possibilites of Equal products...

So that was it! 28 mins lost on a single sudoku.Then I rushed through the Classics without much difficulty albeit with a lot of panic after having lost a lof of time.

Came to the Group Sum genre at last and was as lost as a blind man in a dark forest at night time.Was utterly clueless where to start seeing that bunch of clues in between.Kept shuttling between Group sum(15) and Group sum(7)as if I were playing a simul chess game like a Grandmaster.

Realizing that, that is a highly futile attempt which will yield me little in the way of points ,I decided to confront the 'bunch sudoku' and had a highly lucky guess going right my way the second time.I convinced myself that either R3-4/C3 or R3-4/C4 had a total of 11 (a 5-6 pair).I had no clue why I assumed that way :) Call it intuition :-p.....Started with the wrong guess the first attempt and the second time got it right.

I also observed that in my case the 6X6 sudokus had a lot of sting equal to if not more than 9X9 .

To conclude, a test with beautiful and really hard sudokus coming back just on the heels of a difficult Evergreen round but knowing now that the scores are aligned to the best scorer,I must state that it seems perfectly fine to have hard tests like this to learn some new stuff .

Thanks a lot Rohan!A delightful test with some really novel ideas in solving and construction in particular.I had great fun!!

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

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

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?	Below Average
Of the puzzles you solved/attempted, how well did the point values reflect the difficulty?	Most puzzles were worth too much or too little

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

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

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

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 medium difficult 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

Thanks for the nice test !

I really enjoyed !

My mistake was to think it would just be a small tournament with easy/medium sudokus, so I don't have to print the pdf (some cartridges of my printer are empty and I was too lazy to replace them), playing online should be ok. So I started the test while a bit tired and thinking it would just be relaxing time.

I'm not a big fan of sum frame sudoku, as I think it's globally always the same logic, it's impossible to have a real surprise with this variant.

On the contrary, I think group sum sudoku has big potential of being really interesting. I created my first group sum sudoku last year for the WSC swiss qualification and I think it's possible to create very nice group sum. One may think it's just about the same as killer sudoku, but I think some aspects are really different. And I must admit I haven't been disappointed during the test. Both 6*6 and 9*9 group sums were 10-stars sudokus. I think I was very efficient on the 6*6, I was quite fast at noticing the pairs 12 in rows 2 and 3. I had the beginning of the 9*9 quite fast, too. But unfortunately made a mistake, and had to start again. Then I eventually learnt a new trick on this 9*9 group sum sudoku. Very nice, thanks Rohan for this one !

Then came the equal product sudoku, and on the 9*9 I had hard regrets not having printing it. Not being able to write notes outside the grid was fatal for me. I made lot of very stupid mistakes by forgetting some possibilities for products many times while solving (it finally took me more than 30 minutes to solve it, haha !)

The only little critic I could make is that the tournament was perhaps a bit hard for the intended purpose. I was a bit surprised, but it was a very nice surprise for me ;)

Fred

Thanks Kishore. I had predicted you would score 85 before the contest began :-)

Thanks Fred. I'm glad you enjoyed.
I agree the test is a little hard, and that was intended.

I really loved the 6x6 Group Sum, it was my personal favourite of the set. The 9x9 Group Sum has a very narrow solving path, but logical.
The Equal Product 9x9 is tricky. I think if you do your homework well, it is a Medium-difficulty sudoku. It uses a lot of deductions from the crosses.

I definitely agree. I solved it like a dilettante and had to face a lot of contradictions while solving because I was too lazy to really take it in a logical way, that's why I wasn't efficient on this one.

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 medium difficult 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

Ah really? That's interesting.Next time,if you do, predict that I complete the test in 'X' number of mins :-p

Haha! Well, I can only predict in tests that I author! So, next year :P

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

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 too much or too little

How on earth are the small puzzles worth that many points? I solved quite a few of them quite a bit faster than I solved the classics.

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?	Fairly 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

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

Got a bit stuck initially, but enjoyed solving post hoc. Good 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

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

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?	Many puzzles were worth too much or too little