On Scoring

[Applemania]

I've been doing these puzzles for years and have only once achieved a 'better than average' score! Now i'm no expert, but it seems that the scoring system is just a bit unrealistic, unless you're dealing with nothing but geniuses, lol! It makes me feel kinda dumb, but i know i'm not with an IQ of 151 (maybe the scoring was off) Maybe the samples aren't large enough or something. Anyways, maybe some kind of explanation could be made on your behalf? i almost always get through the puzzles without any help now, but i'm thinking that anyone who can average in the 'above average' category should maybe consider signing up for Jeopardy, lol!

[imported_Tica]

Been there, done that! July 6, 2006.

[jugl11]

I did audition for Jeopardy once, in 1974, when Art Fleming was the host. No such thing as the Internet then, of course, so I went to NYC to take the initial screening test. Never heard back from them.

[DogMa]

Applemania, my IQ is a few points lower than yours and I am not a fast typist, but I almost always score higher than average unless I'm interrupted or distracted while solving. I've always been a reader and I worked as a proofreader and editor, so I have a large vocabulary and am attuned to the patterns of letters in words. Try, if you can, to pay attention to what your brain and your fingers are doing while you're solving. Maybe you have a habit of looking away from the screen while you're thinking and you get distracted, or you keep your fingers moving and tap a key accidentally, then have to correct (speaking from experience).

[LorenaBobbitt]

I don't think there is necessarily a direct correlation between IQ and either word game ability or Jeopardy-style trivia knowledge. I'm very into word games and I auditioned for Wheel of Fortune! I made it through the whole audition and they took down my information and everything, but sadly I never got the call

[Molasses]

LorenaB, I agree completely. I wouldn't be surprised to find out that Stephen Hawkings was horrible at Acrostics.
I think that being intelligent and well read helps with Acrostics, but there is also a requirement for general trivia knowledge. As well as skills at filling in the puzzle quickly, and memory of frequently used clues/answers.
I think the ability to finish puzzles that have only been finished by 60% of those who attempted it says more about your skill at this game, than how fast you solved it compared to other successful players.
The trick is to remember that you're playing this for fun, and stop worrying about how fast the puzzle is solved.
The stats given bring out the competitive side in me, and I assume others, but it's more fun to do these puzzles if you aren't caught up in being the fastest.

[oddcouple]

I've been doing these for about three years. I seem to have a knack for solving them, but not very fast. I play 25-30 puzzles a month. About 90% of the time, I can solve without the hints. I'm seldom very fast, but congratulate myself when I get into the fast zone. I have surprised myself twice by setting a record time, but never got back to either puzzle to see if I'm still the record holder. And frankly, I don't pay much attention to leader boards as I don't play often enough to get any recognition. They're fun, but I'm not obsessed with them.

[LorenaBobbitt]

Is there any way to see a list of puzzles that you have the high score on?

[OldManInNNV]

Is there any way to see a list of puzzles that you have the high score on?

That would be a great feature. But I don't think it's available. (Hoping the board moderators pass the hint on to the developers .)

[hootmon]

Have you ever wondered how maximum points are determined. At some point, I thought it must be some algorithm. However, I have discovered it is much simpler than that. It is determined solely by the number of clues in the puzzle. Every puzzle that has 26 clues is worth a maximum of 1360. 24 clues/1254 etc. Maybe most of you have already figured this out, but I thought it was interesting.

[RedEnoch]

I sent an answer to the Clue Crew. Stumped Ken Jennings, and the other two contestants. Never got a call-back. Ken did come visit my hometown. “Where is Stevens Point” was the correct response.

[briang]

About a year and a half ago, when I was MUCH more active on this site, I wrote the post quoted below explaining my methods for getting very high scores. I never did the volume of puzzles that the people at the top of the leaderboard did, but looking at the top averages, I was usually about 100-150 points better on most new puzzles than everyone else.

Incidentally, I actually was a contestant on Jeopardy back in 2008, but lost in final. In my game, I was very close to doubling the eventual winner going into final, but she got it right, and I didn't, so alas, I was only on one episode. Frustratingly, it was the only final clue I didn't know in that day's tapings (they do a week's worth at a time). C'est la vie. From chatting with he producers at the tapings, they select contestants for TV more based on personality/how you'll come across on TV than your performance in the mock games during the tryouts.

There are a handful of very fast legitimate solvers as well as a handful of people who "cheat" or at the very least have a database of clues/puzzles they refer to or multiple accounts on which they play so they can familiarize themselves with the clues. You can identify the latter group by the fact that they hold a bunch of insanely fast records, but whenever a new batch of puzzles is dropped, their average times increase drastically. I've named some of them in the past, but will refrain from here, as they know where they are.

I don't say this to brag, but I consider myself an extremely fast solver and I can say that I am probably among the fastest legitimate solvers on the site (hat tip to sionnach57, who, humility aside, I also believe is a legitimate solver and is among the best players here). I also only ever play the very longest, hardest puzzles (potential score 1300 and up). Currently, my average time for the month is 359 and my average score 1138 with 76 puzzles played. My very best times have been sub-200 on 25+clue puzzzles, but low 300s is a much more common score for me. I do not do the absolutely massive volume of puzzles that the top players on the leaderboard do (40+ puzzles a day!), but I do consider myself a pretty regular player, so I think these averages speak for themselves.

So how did I get so fast? Well, there are a few general factors/skills that help

1) Practice - I've not been on this site for particularly long, but I have been a serious crossworder since I was a teenager, which has helped me immensely, and as I've adapted to the acrostic format, my speed has steadily improved.
2) A very large vocabulary - I've taken vocabulary assessments that put me in the top half percentile of all English speakers for numbers of words known. I also have the advantage of having minored in Classics, which gives me a good base of Latin and Greek cognates upon which to draw.
3) Large knowledge base/quick recall - This connects with point 1. I was the captain of my trivia team in high school, did quiz bowl in college, and have even been on nationally-televised quiz shows, where I have done well. Quick recall and trivia are like muscles - the more you exercise, the stronger they become, and I've been exercising mine my whole life, which helps a great deal.
4) Ability to multitask - Generally, as I am typing a clue, I am already looking ahead to the next two or three clues. This often allows me to type them in immediately as I get to them with little to no pause. If I don't know the answer quickly, I simply skip it immediately tab to the next one instead of wasting time wracking my brain over the answer.
5) Pattern recognition/lateral thinking - the ability to see one or two letters in a word, along with its position in a sentence and suss out what it likely is is a skill that can be developed like any other. So is the ability to look at a cryptic/semi-cryptic clue and figure out the non-obvious meaning. Doing British-style cryptic crosswords has really helped me in this regard.
6) Finally, as a basic practical matter, having a large monitor where you can see the clues and puzzle at the same time without scrolling is extremely helpful, as is using a mouse rather than a laptop pointing device. Getting familiar with the tabbing behavior on the site will also speed things up for you.


There also specific strategies that you can use. Generally, my strategies are pretty similar to Sionnach's, although I don't tend to look at the author/work, since I typically read in different genres than the site admin here and don't find them particularly helpful.
Generally, I follow this order:
1) Fill out as many clues as quickly as possible. Usually I can get about 40-50% on the first pass. A good first pass will drastically speed up solving, as it makes it much easier to fill in the passage. All of my very best scores have come where I knew more than 60% of the clues right off the bat.
2) Where I don't know the answer, but the ending is obvious (gerunds, possessives, plurals, words ending in "ity," "ion," etc.), I fill in the endings. Every little letter helps.
4) Look for contractions. Oftentimes there only only one or two options that work (e.g. _ ' _ _ = "I've" or "I'll")
5) Scan through the passage for obvious words based on filled in letters, as well as obvious/common linking and auxiliary words (and, the, you, a, I, me/my, etc.) and fill them in.
6) Look for landscape words. This is site-specific, as the admin here is VERY fond of passages that are landscape descriptions. Look for words like "sky," "mountain," "sea," "water," "sunset," various weather words, colors, etc.
7) See if the general gist of the passage becomes apparent - if it does, you can often figure out words from context that would otherwise be much more difficult.
8) Once you have more letters filled in, start working back and forth between the clues and the passage. Typically, the further you go along, the faster things will fall into place.

I've been toying with doing a Youtube video series where I screen capture some fast solve times and dissecting my thought process throughout the puzzle. If that's something you'd find interesting, let me know, and I'll start putting one together.

[Applemania]

Been there, done that! July 6, 2006.

About a year and a half ago, when I was MUCH more active on this site, I wrote the post quoted below explaining my methods for getting very high scores. I never did the volume of puzzles that the people at the top of the leaderboard did, but looking at the top averages, I was usually about 100-150 points better on most new puzzles than everyone else.

Incidentally, I actually was a contestant on Jeopardy back in 2008, but lost in final. In my game, I was very close to doubling the eventual winner going into final, but she got it right, and I didn't, so alas, I was only on one episode. Frustratingly, it was the only final clue I didn't know in that day's tapings (they do a week's worth at a time). C'est la vie. From chatting with he producers at the tapings, they select contestants for TV more based on personality/how you'll come across on TV than your performance in the mock games during the tryouts.

very colorful and thoughtful response, briang! Thanks for the valuable suggestions as well. After playing well over a thousand of these puzzles, i do find it very hard to believe some of the times posted! i mean even if you knew all the answers, just typing them in would take most ppl longer to finish than some of those ridiculous scores! the Jeopardy comment was particularly interesting. Do you recall the final jeopardy answer? i was never that good at Jeopardy. i'm smart, but my memory has never been that good, unfortunately. It's a real blessing to have such an amazing memory for all the stuff out there to know and to learn. i'm improving slowly, but at 65 you can only do so much i guess, lol.

[imported_Tica]

I didn't win, either. Got final question right, but so did the previous champ. Came in second. The $2,000 helped heal the pain, though. I may take heat for this, but I wasn't fond of Alex. He made some appalling misogynistic and xenophobic statements during the week's tapings. Still love the show, though.

[DogMa]

I'm not giving you heat, but Alex Trebek was a white man who was born in 1940. I don't know what exactly you heard him say, but really, for his formative years, things were very different from the way they were for those of us born even eight years later. Give him a break. He probably didn't really hold any appalling views.