I want to be clear about the time period to take the test 'Regions' : Will it be possible to take it on 30th Nov or not ?

Yes. The contest will end at 23:59 GMT on 30th November, so you can take it anytime before that.

One clarification on the answer keys: If parts of the same region come more than once in the answer key, they need to be mentioned separately in the answer key.

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 easy puzzles
What did you think about the puzzle quality of the test?	Very nice
Which set of puzzles did you like the most?	Spiral Galaxies
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
Which set of puzzles did you like the most?	Area Division
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 easy puzzles
What did you think about the puzzle quality of the test?	Fairly Nice
Which set of puzzles did you like the most?	Fillomino
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 found this to be very easy. Some of the puzzles are simply too guessable.

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
Which set of puzzles did you like the most?	Spiral Galaxies
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
Which set of puzzles did you like the most?	Spiral Galaxies
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 for awesome set of puzzles. It were really nice, especially Spiral Galaxies.
Happy to finish the set, after disappointing performances in last 2 rounds. Could have done lot better.
I finished All puzzles except 5 Galaxies in 40 min. Then took another 23 minutes(I know I am slow in galaxies,, so kept for last) to complete this 5 until I broke Spiral Galaxies 4/5. I had to again and again and end up no solution at center. Later I finally realized my mistake, somehow in the bottom right corner where there are 2 horizontal I's of size 4 and 1 of size 4. I was drawing it as 2 of size 5 and 1 of size 4, don't know why. But none the less finally realized and completed just in time.
Looking forward next round Snakes. :)

Thanks Swaroop. Yes. The Spiral Galaxies were a bit trickier compared to the rest of the puzzles. Good to see you completed the set, which I expected as well.

In the last puzzle, in the bottom right corner, one 'I' pentomino and one 'I' tetromino were obvious. The third one could be a 5 or a 4 length 'I'. If you make it 5 there is no solution in the center area. But I think this becomes clear once you proceed from the left area.

Yes you are correct, it becomes clear when approached from left. But the problem was I took it 5 by default , don't know what made me. Anyways waiting for others performances. :)

Edited by swaroop2011 2015-11-28 10:27 AM

I enjoyed this set. Thank you so much.
BTW, why did the author make a new rule "There cannot be a circle at the intersection of four cells." in Spiral Galaxies 4/5?
In original Spiral, I think it has no problem that there appear such circles.
In fact, The puzzle in this set has multiple solutions if it permits such circles...

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
Which set of puzzles did you like the most?	Fillomino
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
Which set of puzzles did you like the most?	Fillomino
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

A nice set of puzzles. I liked the Spiral Galaxies set as well, but the Fillomino set was also nice; since I like Fillomino puzzles in general, I go with that choice.

Particular favorites: Spiral Galaxies 4, Shikaku 4, No-Rectangles Fillomino, Spiral Galaxies 4/5.

I find Shikaku 4 to be overvalued (I did it in 2 minutes), and Spiral Galaxies 4/5 as well (6 minutes, compared to Spiral Glaxies 4 which took 14 minutes). Maybe that's just because I suck at Spiral Galaxies, and Spiral Galaxies 4/5 is closer to object placement (only 5 possible shapes) than region division.

Thanks Kota. Yes. The original spiral galaxies has no restriction but, even in the spiral galaxies set of four puzzles, I did not include any such circles. And, as you said, the spiral 4/5 may have multiple solutions if we allow the 2x2 shapes.

The main reason for me to exclude the 2x2 shapes was that, for some reason, I found it difficult to determine uniqueness with them as a possibility. Also, since this was an exploratory version, I took the liberty to set the rules as per my comfort level. I hope it did turn out ok in the end.

Thanks Ivan!

(1) The first three shikakus are straight forward. Shikaku 4 is also not difficult, but there are a couple of points where you need to take the right decision. Some of the testers also spent fair amount of time on this puzzle. But, if you get the right start, it flows smoothly.

(2) Most of the solvers are definitely taking more time on Spiral Galaxies 4/5. So, as of now, it seems to be rightly valued. The main reason is that after the initial givens, the way to proceed is not explicitly obvious. A decision needs to be made - top/left/bottom. Time is spent there. Also, this one should be little unfamiliar, so I expect people would again read the rules while solving.

(3) I would say you took a bit more time on Spiral Galaxies 4 (and Spiral Galaxies 3 as well). It is supposed to be easier than spiral galaxies 4/5.

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 easy puzzles
What did you think about the puzzle quality of the test?	Fairly Nice
Which set of puzzles did you like the most?	Area Division
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?	Just right
What did you think about the puzzle quality of the test?	Very nice
Which set of puzzles did you like the most?	Yin Yang
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
Which set of puzzles did you like the most?	Domino + Coral + Japanese Sums
What was your opinion of the booklet formatting and printing?	Just right

Very nicely balanced round, after the hard Numbers round and very hard Evergreens.

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
Which set of puzzles did you like the most?	Spiral Galaxies
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

Neat set. Hard to choose between Fillomino and Spiral Galaxies. Loved both.
This is one of my better performances in puzzle tests, I was able to race through the puzzles without an error. Few of my guesses directly hit the solution, probably because they are very intuitive.

Thanks Rakesh, really enjoyed solving puzzles authored by you. I think its been a long 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?	Just right
What did you think about the puzzle quality of the test?	Very nice
Which set of puzzles did you like the most?	Fillomino
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

The grid lines in Fillomino, Area Division and Shikaku were missing from my print-outs. Yn Yang and Spiral galaxies were OK. Very strange.

Edited by peluri 2015-11-28 4:49 PM

How did you open the pdf file and print?
Directly from browser (like Chrome)?
OR
Saved the pdf file on your laptop/desktop and then open/print?

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 easy puzzles
What did you think about the puzzle quality of the test?	Fairly Nice
Which set of puzzles did you like the most?	Spiral Galaxies
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

That was fun, thank you! Most of this was just quickly drawing in the solution. I guessed on the large Yin Yang, and the 4/5 galaxies was an "exploratory" solve.

I could see that one being quite frustrating for players who breeze through everything and then get stuck...

Regarding the puzzle quality: I felt that for a lot of the types, the puzzles didn't really cover the available logic as well as on previous instances, but that may just be a consequence of the puzzles being so easy that they didn't all force a solving path.