I think puzzle 19 has multiple solutions about the connection of black circles.

What did you think about the puzzle quality of the test?	Average
What was your opinion about the answer key extraction?	Mostly perfect answer keys
Of the puzzles you solved/attempted, how well did the point values reflect the difficulty?	Most puzzles were worth too much or too little
What was your opinion of the booklet formatting and printing?	Just right

This test was problematic in several ways.

First, managing to mess up a 6x6 sudoku is quite unfortunate. Errors do happen, but I lost at least 5 minutes trying to understand my error when the error was in the PB. Having a test-solver work on the actual PB would have idetified this issue. I also second the above post pointing out that #19 has two solutions.

More importantly, the point values and difficulty levels of the puzzles were completely ridiculous. The kakuro puzzles were very advanced while everything else was extremely easy.

It was as if this set was written for kakuro experts who have never seen any of the other puzzle types. The B&W, thermometers, and hitori puzzles were quite easy (as they should be for PR) and inexplicably given large point values, while the kakuro puzzles were quite abrupt and required advanced reasoning (I am normally quite good at kakuro, so either I am having a terrible day or the author really mis-judged the respective difficulty levels of the puzzles).

Edited by auroux 2020-01-24 9:27 PM

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?	Kakuro
What was your opinion about the answer key extraction?	Perfect answer keys
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

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?	Thermometer
What was your opinion about the answer key extraction?	Mostly perfect answer keys
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

Well, this test was Kakuro round? :P

Edited by Joo M.Y 2020-01-24 10:39 PM

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?	Thermometer
What was your opinion about the answer key extraction?	Mostly perfect answer keys
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 agree with above posts about puzzle 19 : there are two solutions, and one is not accepted (I submitted a claim for that).

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?	Thermometer
What was your opinion about the answer key extraction?	Perfect answer keys
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 don't know how I feel about this test. Puzzle quality is overall nice; it's other things that bothered me.

For a round titled "Classics", genre balance feels off. There's no object placement, loop, or region division (Numberlink feels like its own category as "intuitive puzzles"), and a lot of the high-pointers are the Kakuros (7,8,9 vanilla and 8,9 Kakurodoku?), putting too much emphasis there. I'd include things like Simple Loop or ABC Block, and make one of the Kakuros much easier.

Also, I believe the first BWG has multiple solutions.

EDIT: Oh, also, the last Kakuro has an obvious aesthetic defect.

Edited by chaotic_iak 2020-01-25 12:38 AM

Edited by An LMI player 2020-01-31 8:04 PM

Those extra solutions in puzzle 19 threw me for a bit of a loop, particularly since I seem to have managed to typo on the alternate solution, thus was convinced I'd made an error elsewhere myself.

Also I tripped over the limited kakuro number set once again (even though I took note of this when first reading the instructions...).

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?	Kakurodoku
What was your opinion about the answer key extraction?	Perfect answer keys
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

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
Which set of puzzles did you like the most?	Sudoku
What was your opinion about the answer key extraction?	Perfect answer keys
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

Thank you!

I'm getting the same multiple solution problem in 19 that other people have mentioned. Also, the points felt too skewed towards the Kakuro puzzles.

Favorites:

6 Black and White
15 Kakuro
18 Sudoku

I was not allowed to submit my final answer for my final problem in the final minute of the exam. It did not register that I had 8 digits in place, though I did, and thus I was unable to click the submit button. I don't know what can be done to rectify this situation at this moment, but I would really like to be able to submit my result.

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
What was your opinion about the answer key extraction?	Answer keys could have been better
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

And now I see what happened. I know that I should have fully paid attention to the instructions and whatnot, but having the N = so far to the right made it obscured, and I didn't recognize that rule until pretty much just now. So now I'm mad at myself for having missed that, especially because I could've probably finished the test. Ugh. Edit: Perhaps it could be placed on both the left side and the right side, so that it's not obscured by right-handers' writing hands.

Edited by Timjamiller 2020-01-25 9:48 AM

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
Which set of puzzles did you like the most?	Black and White
What was your opinion about the answer key extraction?	Perfect answer keys
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

Echoing what others have said, it's frustrating to have puzzles with multiple solutions (19, and it sounds like 16 based on the correction).

And also like others said, it took me far too long to recognize that the Kakuro and Kakurodoku use 1-N instead of 1-9. Definitely my fault for not noticing, but since Kakuro nearly always use 1-9, it could have been nice to have a more glaring message like "THESE PUZZLES DO NOT USE 1-9" since I imagine many other more experienced folks also tend to skim the rules, especially when the contest is labeled as "Classics".

And agreeing with others that too much weight was placed on Kakuro, and number placement puzzles generally (both in terms of points, and puzzle type selection).

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?	Kakuro
What was your opinion about the answer key extraction?	Mostly perfect answer keys
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

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?	Kakurodoku
What was your opinion about the answer key extraction?	Mostly perfect answer keys
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

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?	Kakuro
What was your opinion about the answer key extraction?	Perfect answer keys
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

Enjoyable test.Should have completed it... Had a good amount of time for the 2 Black White and Greys but wasnt able to figure them out

Kakurodoku 1,Kakuro 2 and 3 and Thermometer 2 and 3 were my favourites of the lot
Felt that Thermometer 2 was harder than 3
Answer keys were reasonably good
Thank you Rakesh for the smooth start to PR 2020!


Edit :On seeing above comments,I have to say that BWG 1 seems to have 2 solutions and i cant find the mistake in mine.I thought mine was wrong and spent the rest of my time on it without trying BWG 2 deeply enough because of this!.Chance for bonus points missed! :(

Edited by pranavmanu 2020-01-25 7:04 PM

That was nice and relaxing test, despite the mistakes. Thanks Rakesh.

I am positively surprised to see three classic sudokus in a puzzle contest. I don't remember ever seeing that. Hope this is the beginning of sudoku's return to puzzle competitions in all its appearances.

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?	Hitori
What was your opinion about the answer key extraction?	Mostly perfect answer keys
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

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?	Thermometer
What was your opinion about the answer key extraction?	Perfect answer keys
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

not able to download the puzzle

What did you think about the puzzle quality of the test?	Very nice
Which set of puzzles did you like the most?	Thermometer
What was your opinion about the answer key extraction?	Perfect answer keys
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

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?	Kakuro
What was your opinion about the answer key extraction?	Perfect answer keys
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