yes, my weakest style of puzzle...any way to generally improve that intuitive aspect, i'd welcome any suggestions on book or video to help improve intuitive thinking, does everyone have to go through a 6-10 year learning curve to excel?

For some maybe ;). It really doesn't have to be.

Yea, should've said that's how I generally approach it.

I haven't gone through 6-10 year learning curves (only been solving for 5 years in total), so maybe its just about solving more such puzzles. When I was starting out, I would avoid my weakest puzzle for multiple contests and it just stays a weakness.

For Multiple Snakes, is it really "multiple snakes of different lengths", not "multiple snakes of possibly different lengths"?

i wanted to mention that your article on slitherlink patterns is awesome

Could anyone please suggest me how to start and proceed for 'Horse snake' and 'Summed snake'?
In the given example of 'Horse snake' on IB I only can find the positions of the Knight capturing cells. Can't proceed after that. And, can the numbered cells be a part of a snake?

horse snake i have attached a PDF for you to proceed. and for the sum snake. the numbers inside the grid is head and tail of the snake. 1 is the starting point and 21 is the end point indicating the length. the numbers outside indicates the total sum of the snake cells for the particular row it indicates if you draw from 1-21 in the grid.



Attachments
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snake.pdf (27KB - 31 downloads)

it is possibly different lengths.

Does that mean there could be more than two snakes with some having equal lengths?

Ya there can be more than 2 snakes with same length

Updated IB - Rule for Multiple Snakes removes the statement about lengths of the altogether

>>
? Apply Snake rules; however multiple snakes are there in the grid.
? Head and tail of all snakes are given.
? Different snakes do not touch each other, even diagonally.
>>

i'm at 2 years solving, and still not consistent... i try to practice puzzles as events dictate, but there are always new ones, which i like, but still a lot to learn, i admire you guys so much for your abilities.. normal people have no idea what you guys know and do, amazing... anyway, i will keep practicing, thanks for all you guys do;

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?	Horse Snake
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

In graffiti snake, can there be 2x2 squares of black cells ?

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
Which set of puzzles did you like the most?	Toroidal Snake
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! I had a bit of trouble getting started, and struggled with two or three puzzles (the large standard snake in particular; I had something very close to the solution quickly, but had to get there again slowly). Now to wait and see how much faster other solvers can go.

Yes. (Note in Graffiti Snake, black cells refer to non-snake parts. The white cells refer to snake parts, so 2X2 squares of white cells are not allowed)

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?	Graffiti Snake
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 suck at snakes, though I do think I did better this time around then I do on average.

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?	Average
Which set of puzzles did you like the most?	Graffiti Snake
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?	Summed Snake
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'm personally not sure why Snakes is a theme by itself (and isn't considered a subtheme of shading or something), but eh. I'm not very sure either whether the variations represented the theme, but considering I can't think up of decent Snakes variations myself, I'll just say it's good.

The puzzles themselves are great. I think some of them have superfluous clues, but then this is aimed to beginners so I'm okay with that. Scoring I'm not very confident, but I think they are roughly correctly scored. Some 1-2 pointers took slightly more time than 3-4 pointers, but not big enough to say it's wrong. I'd probably give the Multiple Snake a bit more points though; it's easily the one that took the most time for me (10 minutes; the other big pointers are 5-6 minutes).

I made stupid mistakes on the first Summed Snake. The first mistake was genuine (note to self: 3+4+5+6 is as 18 as 5+6+7); the following four mistakes are silly typoes from reading the wrong columns. That might mean the answer key markers can possibly be larger... or it might just mean that I suck.

Good question.

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
Which set of puzzles did you like the most?	Standard Snake
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 enjoyed solving even though am quite a beginner :) Just found it a little hard. Expected considering its a qualifier round for IPC.

Was wondering how everyone else solves these puzzles. Would love to know about it!

Thanks!

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
Which set of puzzles did you like the most?	Horse Snake
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

Don't like Snakes in general, but I found this hard. Couldn't get any of the Toroidal ones going.

I think the puzzles are excellent, top-notch quality, but not suitable for beginners.

Thanks Ashish!