I did use the connectivity break forced by the 1-1-2, which meant the Tapa must travel via the last two columns. Knowing this, out of the two configurations for the 3-1-1 clue, the one where the "3" is "above" it basically forces the 1-2 clue to be used twice before it goes up which contradicts things for the 7.

Scrabble was quick for me because I took a gamble and mainly focused on drawing lines dependent on size of words, starting with 4 being minimum. This actually ends up solving most of the puzzle to a point where you get both the 4-length areas which means you can do two things, extend the others to at least 5, and also get some words in. I just filled in the letters in the connection spots and was able to complete it this way.

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?	A bit too many puzzles
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 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
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

My two complaints about the layout is that I thought the Tapa-Like Loop puzzles were a bit small. Especially because clue numbers get smaller the more you put in a cell.
The other is that I get why the words were organised this way, but I don't really like disorganised lists. Preferably organised by size and alphabetical for me.

I did a lot on instinct this round. The general connections of the Tapa Connection, the words in Tapa Scrabble, the 4x4 Tapa, the Tapa with Borders. Everything I thought should work out this way was correct. A bit weird of an experience for me.

I didn't mind that so much, but fixed width would really be nice.

If have a typing error in a submitted answer, it's possible to correct from admin, after the ending from test ? I wrote 5 and not 6. Thanks. Prezensky (Romania)

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
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 think I find them much more difficult, with not a lot of logical paths going on; I distinctly recall bifurcating several times, and taking many leaps of faith, especially for the second Tapa LITS. Although that might also be because I did it while somewhat tired.

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
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

Darn. I lost 200 points from answer key mistakes, dropping from 10th to 19th. (at the time of writing this.)

I really should probably dedicate the last few minutes of these tests to very carefully checking it because that is the most annoying way to lose points.

Other than that, the puzzles were really fun again to solve, and Para's puzzles always are really good to prepare, especially for intuition on types like Not Alone and Dissected.

Edited by Jacoblance 2016-01-20 1:54 AM

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
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

I was getting most of the puzzles. But then I broke 3 puzzles. And lost lots of time, as well as points. Puzzles were all really cool. Have to try remaining though yet. My favorite were Tapa Connection, Different Tapa and Black hole from among the ones i solved so far.
I wasted Borders Tapa like 14 min and was getting wrong grid every time, and realized i am doing something wrong. I started over again, and just took 1 min to do it. Somehow i eliminated the possibility in 1st step itself, don't know why, but at the end that was the answer. No wonder, even after 14 min I could get nothing.
In last 15 min, I broke 4x4 Tapa. which I couldn't recover from my mistake. So Almost in such short test, I wasted like 20-25 min. So could have done lot better.
Black Hole tapa, i was afraid of, but looking at puzzle during contest, I thought I can attempt it, and well luck favors the brave, it solved logically and flawlessly.
Anyways, wonderful test and beautiful puzzles.


Edited by swaroop2011 2016-01-20 4:40 AM

Thanks for the puzzles!
Decided to go for the three-highest pointers and it took most of the solving time :(

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
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

I like the 75-minute limit.

How balanced do you think the puzzle types of this test were?	A bit skewed
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?	Fairly Nice
How did you feel about the length / time limit for this test?	A bit too many puzzles
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 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?	Just right
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

I did not receive credit for the "tapa-like loop" problems I did because I put the answers in the wrong format. Requiring us to read the directions AGAIN after we have already read the original instructions seems excessive. Even if I received credit for my answers, I think I would still be annoyed at the principle of the matter.

We didn't have a chance to review the claims yet. If the answer is wrong format, but otherwise correct and sufficiently demonstrates that puzzle is solved correctly, you will get points.

Solutions booklet uploaded (Link)