Competition Question and Plea for Tips

[LadyParsnip]

Hi everyone - newbie here.
I thought I was super fast at wordsearches - i’m certainly faster than everyone in my family - but it wasn’t until I got here that I realised how slow I actually am compared with you lot! I’m averaging about 8/14. For some reason, the words just swim in front of my eyes because I’m in a rush. I would love any tips you have on how to get faster and also I’m a bit confused about the competition aspect. Are we automatically entered in? I mean, not that I’m gonna place anywhere I’m absolutely no threat to anybody at the moment! Just wanted some clarification on that if possible. Thank you

[kokilvr]

Hi,
I started out here similarly to you. I always enjoyed solving word searches, started looking for a competitive platform, and found this site. I did also think I was pretty fast, compared to the people around me. When I first started on here, the timer counting down definitely stressed me out. I couldn't fill the whole board on time, most of the time. It just took practice. I kept practicing on the unlimited time mode. When I started to set more and more new records on there, I moved to competitive. I would do some everyday. I did so many that month I placed first. One tip I can give is to look at the whole. I like to zoom out (I just decrease the page zoom/magnification in my settings). That way, the words are smaller and closer together. Then I don't have to scan everything. I can find it in my peripheral. If I can't find it in my peripheral, I look more closely. I select a few letters of the word and look for them. For example, if the word I'm looking for is amazonite, I look for either ama or nite. Shorter words like noun, I just have to look for the whole. That's all. I hope this helps.