A few clarifications.
Hidden Words: I'm right to think that all words have to be placed in a straight line, readable from left to right or top to bottom. It's not mentioned in the instructions, but otherwise the example isn't unique.
Sigma Snake: The given letters aren't necessarily the head and tail of the snake. In the Snake Variations Contest they were.


Edited by Para 2012-11-13 5:48 PM

Yes, you are right.




Two letters in grey cells represent head and tail of the snake. Some other letters may be given (e. g. like number 23 in classic snake). Those letters are not in grey cells and they are part of the snake. I hope it's clear now.

Hi, I have also few questions.

Will be the proper answer rows marked in the PB?
Is it possible that we may cover 2x2 square only with a path (without any letters) in the puzzle no. 7 - Word Connection?
Is Slovakia one of the countries used in puzzle no. 12 - Word Search?

Thanks

Answer rows will be marked by an arrow(s) in all puzzles except in ABC Decoder and Word Connection.



Yes, it is possible. There is no condition about 2x2 squares.



Slovakia is one of the listed countries, of course.

Edited by Nikola 2012-11-14 1:49 AM

Thank you, Nikola!

This seems to be one of my favourite tests

One small correction
Probably, there is one sentence missing from the instruction of puzzle no. 4 - Snail´s nest: ... Firstly replace one of the states with another state and then write the names into its own snail ... (E.g. Nebraska - New York)

I have a question about FULL TAPA.

There is a sentence in the Answer key paragraph - "in each answer key indicated by an arrow there will be at least one letter".
I wonder why this sentence doesn't appear in other puzzles.
Does that means we should use this condition to reach a unique solution at FULL TAPA?

The given word list is not correct.
2 practice puzzles from Indian Puzzle Championship 2011 attached.



Attachments
----------------
IPC2011_Finals_Round3_Four_Snails.pdf (28KB - 16 downloads)

Thank you, Yuhei. Sorry, I should note that in the general instructions. This is not a condition, just an information, obviously bad placed. I tried to predict the possible question "what if there is no letters in answer row?"

This is what happens when you do not pay enough attention for the instructions using copy-paste technology only. Sorry.

Thanks Nikola, that makes a sense.

I'm really looking forward to this kind of test; it's a chance in a million for me to beat Hideaki and Kota

Edited by Yuhei Kusui 2012-11-15 5:46 PM

Links to lot of practice materials from Bram's blog and following Serkan's comment - http://puzzleparasite.blogspot.in/2012/11/puzzle-139-abc-decoder.ht...

Well my goal of leading the test at one point worked by taking it right at the start. I had fun. I enjoyed what I managed to solve.

So I'm not used to word puzzles -_-

Nice test and tribute to WPC 2012.

3 letters away from the word search (last puzzle) with one minute to go... and I discover after the test that my missing letter set was wrong, which explains why I couldn't finish it. Ouch. And for what is probably my new greatest oops in puzzle competitions, I missed the word stairs because I forgot to put my own name in.

Having the same word set for all puzzles was a nice touch, even ignoring that my name was in it. Meant that you could start picking up speed in the middle of the test as you got more used to the quirks of that particular word bank. Word Nurikabe for example seemed impossible when I tried it at the beginning, then not all that hard when I came back to it at the end.

Certainly a nice test, a good mixture of intuitive word placement thinking and some more working puzzles. Even if my name was "included". :D Was surprising to fail on the Scrabble even after spending a few minutes on it - am not used to that. Great stuff.

What a Good test! Nikola, Great Job!
But, I had a sad feeling because my place at WPC was 11th. If I had performed little better, my name would have been listed in the puzzles...

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?	Just right
What did you think about the puzzle quality of the test?	Very nice
What was your opinion about the answer key extraction?	Mostly perfect answer keys
How did you feel about the length / time limit for this test?	Just right
What was your opinion of the booklet formatting and printing?	Just right

am I the only one which has replied to this questionaire?

Edited by forcolin 2012-11-18 6:41 PM

I believe you're the only one who's posted it on the forum so far. I'm sure others have voted.

How balanced do you think the puzzle types of this test were?	Very skewed
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?	Below Average
What was your opinion about the answer key extraction?	Perfect answer keys
How did you feel about the length / time limit for this test?	Way too many puzzles (too little time)
How fair do you think the rankings were?	Most players got scores that did not reflect their performance
What was your opinion of the booklet formatting and printing?	Just right

Should we say "first one", and "not only one"?

"so far"

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
What was your opinion about the answer key extraction?	Mostly perfect answer keys
How did you feel about the length / time limit for this test?	A bit too many puzzles
What was your opinion of the booklet formatting and printing?	Just right

I had mixed emotions leading up to this one. I don't really like Word Puzzles and I know they're easily my biggest weakness. On the other hand, I usually like Nikola's puzzles, so was curious to see what he can do with these.

My performance shows emphatically how bad I am at these. But I did enjoy them at my own pace and solving the rest later. I especially liked Hidden Words and Word Connections. They both took me a lot of time, but were the most enjoyable logically. Word Nurikabe was a bit too difficult in my opinion. The rest were all nice.

Thanks for the test, some much needed Word Puzzle practice.

re: the questionnaire. I was a bit confused by the novelty. perhaps did not pay attention to other forum posts. I found the puzzle very integrated to each other and the idea of having always the same names very intriguing. I can understand the frustration of Kota.
I have solved now all the puzzles i did not solve in the competition and can appreciate their quality. Only one thing could be improved, the distribution of the points. The Wordsearch was not difficult but very time consuming and should have paid more than 12 points; on the other hand the nurikabe was paying very generously because, once gone through the difficult step (and the puzzle has only one) the solution is immediate; definitively not the most difficult puzzle of the set as the 24 points seem to suggest.