I think some people like to solve and submit a bunch of puzzles together. They're definitely not thinking of letting the grader do the checking, and if say someone submits 14 puzzles together and 4 of the small pointers turn out to be wrong, thats a big cut to the points if they don't end up solving those. There's many other reasons, where it can be discouraging to people who are actually solving without thinking of the grader and stuff, for the sake of stopping a minority of people thinking of taking advantage of the checking.

I maintain that a person can only take advantage of the grader if the answer is submitted eventually, so I think there can at least be a smaller penalty percentage for the puzzles that don't get solved correctly.

Also, the individual penalty cap for smaller point puzzles is a good idea. While its important not to encourage letting the grader do the checking, its just as important to let competitors submit freely instead of thinking about gains and losses mid-competition.

What if the penalty is simply reducing that particular puzzle's value by N% or a fixed amount of point?
In this way:
- submitting a wrong solution without eventually finishing it doesn't decrease your score from other puzzles.
- sort of discourage guessing because guessing usually takes multiple tries (further reducing the profit from guessing) and the value would be so dismal that its not even worth guessing.

tamz29, I think the problem with your proposal is that then you might as well guess on every puzzle -- especially ones that you started but didn't finish -- because the worst you can get on any one puzzle is 0 points.

I lost points due to typing in a solution key to the wrong puzzle blank (annoying! edit to add: I see I got that penalty refunded now, thanks. But maybe all kinds of carelessness in solving/entering should get at least some small penalty?) and due to having made a mistake solving the puzzle (a lot better than getting 0 points for that puzzle!)

Edited by joshuazucker 2012-11-01 2:21 AM

If I ever do a test by myself, I'm tempted to ask Deb to try an instant grading system where entering a correct answer in a wrong blank instantly gives you both the wrong answer penalty and the right answer value. That, or just have one blank that you fill out multiple times and not worry about filling in the wrong blanks.

That's a fun idea. Put your submission in a single box, if it matches any of the real answers then you get points for it and a table is updated accordingly.

What's the point of not including FF2 in LMI puzzle ratings? Since this is going to be held AT MOST once a year, and the first Fillomino-Fillia counted for the ratings, I think that these should be counted as ratings. (Likewise, I think the 4 TVC's should count as one puzzle performance for the ratings). These ratings should determine who is the best puzzle solver for LMI tests, and if one rules out certain competitions, then these will not be as accurate.

When we started a new section for Annual contests last year, I saw them as "additional contests" to monthly contests. And because of that it was decided that annual contests by default won't be considered in ratings since we don't want more than one contest a month to be considered in ratings. There is nothing against FF2 not being included - just that in my earliest interactions with Palmer, I had mentioned to him this will be an annual contest. So even if there was no other monthly test "happened" in October, we didn't change our earlier stand.

Including 4 TVCs as one puzzle performance is something I have often wondered, and we'll try to do that next year. Also, to reduce the number of tests at LMI, we are considering the next annual contest also to be "December Monthly test", which will be included in ratings. But there are more than 1 annual contests in December, and we can not be including everything.

A pack containing all the puzzles on the test and the preview series, as well as 30 additional Fillomino puzzles of various kinds and difficulties, has now been released at my blog:
http://mellowmelon.wordpress.com/2012/11/13/puzzle-pack-4/
This is also intended to serve as the solution booklet for this test, if you were interested in that.