Solving Tips

[afulton]

Do you have an interesting solving tip you'd be willing to share for folks new to the site? I have two -

Check your Recent Games every so often in case you somehow missed a puzzle (if you care about getting 100% right).

You can hit the Enter key to have a puzzle checked, but don't hit it and then wander off to get a cup of coffee, or you may come back in 10 minutes and realize you've got one letter wrong and now you can get (yippee ) the new longest time (if you care about how fast you solve).

Anyone else?

[opallady]

Check out "Help for newcomers" in the forum, currently on page 7.

[fishbum]

I find that I delete letters if I am pretty sure they are wrong, which is often. I have a programmable mouse and have programmed one of the buttons to "Delete". Saves having to move my hand from mouse to keyboard and back. Time is not my goal.

[fishbum]

I always start by looking for letter occurances that fit certain patterns like a three letter word with a pattern like 5-2-7. This often leads to 'the'. Also 4 letter word that starts and ends with the same letter is usually 'that' or possibly ''else' or 'dead'. I also try the endings of longer words like 'ing' or 'ion. Also in many quotes words like 'never' or 'people' show up.
I am not a speed solver but do like a high solving percentage.

[staret]

helping hand

Y O S Y = About 95% of the time it will be T H A T in other words a four letter word that starts and ends with the same letter is probably T H A T. I also use a lot of author's quotes when I am really stuck. Your solving time might go very high so you don't want to use them unless you are stuck and are more worried about your solving percentage.

[afulton]

I also like "there are" and "there is". And "it is" is common too. What I hate are proper names. Damn you, Jerry Cole and your sports quotes!

[Barnabas]

Just to echo and maybe complement the last three posts... whenever I start, I begin by examining the three and four letter words. If I see, as locodad points out, a sequence like Y-O-S-Y, I then immediately look at the three letter words, searching specifically for one that begins with "Y-O", so if it is Y-O-J, then it is nearly a 100% certainty that you are looking at the words "THAT" and "THE." I also check six letter words looking for a sequence like N-A-C-N-Z-A. If the "N" has a low frequency of usage in the quote, while the "A" has a high frequency of usage, you're probably looking at the word "PEOPLE," as quotes are usually in very generalized terms and because the "E" is probably the most used letter in the alphabet. I love the words "THERE" and "WHERE"... again, if the first letter has a high frequency of usage I'll plug in the "T", whereas if it is a low frequency of usage, it is probably the "W." When I find the "I", I then check out the long words and look for endings that might wind up with an "ING" or "TION", as Fishbum pointed out. "NOTHING" is good word to look for if you're stumped, as is "SOMETHING" and "SOMETIMES." "WHICH" "TRUTH" are good ones. And sometimes when you think you're looking at "PEOPLE" but the "E's" don't fit, you might be actually looking at "ALWAYS".

I would love to hear from Bansai and Pootie on this subject. Pootie, is it a myth or is it a fact that you have a 100% solve rate? You must be able to offer something the rest of us don't know. And Bansai has lightning fast solve times. Again, what might you add to this discussion?

[pootie49]

Its a myth. Just go to the High Scores Page and click on the All time ranking list.

Im at 98.3 percent. I believe there are a few currently on the all time like Laura
and LLL who are at a hundred percent. That is an amazing feat

I do try to play now for a hundred percent. When I first started I didnt even know that
was an option and frankly for new players its a hard road.
I recommend just playing to get used to the game and not worry about solving each one.
When you feel you are ready to tackle the hundred percent you will know.
And to re iterate to new players wanting to come and be really fast right away...
Its just not going to happen. It takes time and patience and lots and lots of puzzles
under your belt before you notice speed improvement.
I started at about a 150 seconds avg now Im at a little over thirty one seconds.
That was three years of playing alot. And boy, LOL, I used to play A LOT.
The game is fun. We must try and remember that we are competing but to enjoy and
relax and chat a bit in the chatbox and imho, always come to the aid of a fellow player
who will ask for help. I ve been stuck more times than I can count and players have taken
hours out of their playing time to help me solve. Thats a perk of this site.
All of the suggestions here are the same tools I use to solve.
And my suggestion that I can offer is never give up!! All the puzzles can be solved.
If you hit enter or check it and there's an error you have typed something wrong.
Look for the would/could...there is a very large post in this forum entitled "Coulda Woulda" http://www.cryptograms.org/forum/showthread.php?t=228
Its fun to read. Just dont give up and ask for help, go to the chatbox, you will get a response.
Its faster than posting here.
**One last tip: Keep a list of those quotes that you find hardest to solve. If you get the
quote again and keep your list in some kind of order it will help alot

Enjoy!

[afulton]

And it pays to pay attention to the people being quoted. Some of the ancients or biblical ones use THEE, THY and THOU, and get to know the sports people who use proper names.
Political guys use LIBERTY, GOVERNMENT and CONSERVATIVE. And I hate the word LAW - I never think of it! It's always a blessing when it just gets filled in because of other words.

My other little words to look for are "is a" and "no one".

[afulton]

Oops, sorry about repeating about the sports quotes. You can tell they really drive me crazy.

[imported_Lurker]

Odd spellings

For those who could have sworn they typed everything correctly, yet keep coming up with the "you're wrong" page:

Some of these quotes have British spellings (colour, humour). One quote has the word "busyness" in it.

Other times, two words with similar spellings can work in context (could/would; size/side).

Not all two-letter words are real words. "TV", "Mr", and such are in here.

The best way to figure out these is to reset the puzzle, type slowly, and watch the remaining letters line at the bottom. At some point, you're bound to discover the letter you duplicated and fix the problem. Or, if you can decide which is the problem word, just keep trying all the remaining letters until you get it right.

[gryhnd51]

What a lot of good tips....wish I had thought to start this conversation when I first started!

Another tip: longer words ending in a letter followed by 2 letters that are the same (IE ....
ogg, eff, ncc, wpp,etc) are frequently words ending with "ESS" or "ALL"
Like:
happiness
greatness
baseball
football

If the ending is ESS, it is almost always preceded by an "N", but sometimes by an "L".......as in worthless

Hope this helps a bit

PS don't let Pootie fool you....she's an AMAZING solver and the first one to try to help with questions!

[gryhnd51]

I'm not sure if anyone else has mentioned this, but I always keep a window minimized in the task bar, already set to whatever search engine I prefer. If you solve PART of a quote, you can often do a "search" for the rest. Works well if you also add the author or even "hungarian proverb" to the search

for example:
"all men look behind.........."quote by george lucas <enter> or if you only have the end of the quote:
"....... the last days of summer" quote by george lucas

Also, there are many sites you can search for quotes by people, if you have no clue where to begin.IE.....type in.....quotes by george lucas <enter> will give you a list of those sites. Some are easier and quicker than others. Brainyquote is always in alphabetical order so if you have the first few words it's easier.

[fishbum]

The subject of this thread is "solving" tips. Googling up the quote is not "solving".

[afulton]

Oh! and as the end of the month draws near - don't be mid puzzle when the clock runs out! I ruined a perfect 100% last month by not finishing while the clock turned over. How very disappointing. That is, if you care about percentages. :-(