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How is my progress, and what can I expect going forward?

WaffleCake

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Feb 15, 2009
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At my school I'm generally regarded as somewhat of a whiz when it comes to math, riddles, puzzles and the like. So, when someone bet me I couldn't solve a rubik's cube, I was obligated to prove him wrong. I had a cube sitting around my house that I had never learned to solve, so it hadn't gotten much use. I picked it up and it broke apart on the first turn. So I went and bought one at a local toystore. That was exactly one week ago (Feb 7, 09). I hit up some good ol' Dan Brown wisdom, and solved my first cube. 2 days later I got a time of 1:42. Today, I got a 1:07.83 solve, and a 1:26.27 average of 5. I'm still using layer by layer. I tried out keyhole, but I didn't seem to be doing it any faster using that. Maybe I just wasn't used to it enough. I found myself thinking a lot, which I don't do with the regular beginner's method. I've looked at Petrus, but that's going to take a lot of practice before I'm getting good times with it. Same with the Fridrich. I know I'm going to have to learn one or both of these if I want to progress. So where should I start? Also, how is my progress? Can I expect my times to keep going down the way they have, or will I hit roadblocks?
 

bbplaya7821

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For starting a week ago i would say that is very good. Yes soon you will hit a roadblock abd it will take longer to get new records. For now i think you should keep practicing and then look into Fridrich
good luck!
 

anderson26

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I didn't even bother with the keyhole. I just solved the cube many many too many too count times at first with the beginners method and then started with fridrich f2l with help from badmephistos videos on youtube, and I'm now learning all plls and olls.
 

Gparker

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yea, search badmephisto and look at his f2l, and 2look olls and pll videos. your times will be under a minute soon. you may think your slow at first but then youll see
 

mazei

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Tell me, do you play RPG games? Isn't it easy to level during the start and then as you progress the leveling slows down? Kinda same here just that there will be a limit(I think it is 9 second average). And for a week, quite okay. Also depends on how much you play with it. Just keep using the Dan Brown Method if you want(I did until around 45-55 secs).
 

*LukeMayn*

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I'm going with and against mazei here.

I would recommend you do cross on D instead of U

and then just do either RUR' or URU'R' to put the corners in the the rest as usual. just doing that will help you A LOT!

You want to get out of the habit of cross on U asap!
 

teller

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I tried out keyhole, but I didn't seem to be doing it any faster using that. Maybe I just wasn't used to it enough. I found myself thinking a lot, which I don't do with the regular beginner's method.


Edge insertion: 8 or 9 turns
Keyhole insertion: 3-4 turns

Obviously if you give it five minutes to get comfortable there is an advantage here.
 

felix

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I tried out keyhole, but I didn't seem to be doing it any faster using that. Maybe I just wasn't used to it enough. I found myself thinking a lot, which I don't do with the regular beginner's method.


Edge insertion: 8 or 9 turns
Keyhole insertion: 3-4 turns
QFT. With keyhole you just align the pieces and do the three turns. I find myself thinking more with edge insertion trying to recall what the 8 moves were.

I got the cube last week and am getting 1:16 average and 1:10 pb. I still get a new pb every time I time myself. The other day I got six new pb's with just an hour of cubing. :p
 

mazei

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I'm going with and against mazei here.

I would recommend you do cross on D instead of U

and then just do either RUR' or URU'R' to put the corners in the the rest as usual. just doing that will help you A LOT!

You want to get out of the habit of cross on U asap!

Well its his choice really. I just suggested that he stick with it for a while longer so that he can understand the cube further. Although it is quite recommended that you learn a better Last Layer system. And as for the corners, there is 1 case you left out Luke, RU2R'U'RUR' for the corner case where the D color is on top but that's just logic.
 

blgentry

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You'll probably hit the wall with that method when your averages drop to around 1 minute. If you're like a lot of the speed demons here, in terms of raw dexterity, you can get as low as 40s or maybe even 30s with that method, but you'll be turning ultra fast to get there.

I find that method to be bone headed though. I don't think it teaches you much about the cube, and it's not a good transition to other methods, as you get very few transferable skills. If you want to get faster, I'd consider dropping that method as soon as possible in favor of a better beginner's method. Take a look at a few of these:

Jasmine's tutorial
Joel Van Noort's method
Joel's shorter explanation
Bad Mephisto's Video tutorial of Joel's method

Once you get fast with one of those (or another good beginner method), you'll probably want to transition to Fridrich, Petrus, Roux, or another popular speed system. Like most here, I like Fridrich, but everyone is different; check them out and see what you like.

Brian.
 

WaffleCake

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Feb 15, 2009
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I got the cube last week
Then why did you join in January?
What he said.
I checked those out and they seem to be the exact same thing that I'm doing, other than suggesting to start with cross on D. I don't think going from one beginner's method to another would be beneficial for me, because they're really all the same thing.

My actual speed is horrible. I spend virtually no time thinking but my actual turning of the faces is really slow. I guess I'm gonna start with 2-look OLL and PLL. Then I guess I'll learn Fridrich F2L and then just practice while learning all PLLs and OLLs.

Thanks for the input guys.
 

mazei

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Well actually LBL can be very fast. Since I can do the Dan Brown method(Although its kinda been optimized as in cross on bottom and last step I do a z2 for faster execution) sub-30 average, I'm sure with 4-LLL it will be faster. But usually people would first learn 4-LLL then progress to 3-LLL(2-LOLL and 1-LPLL) and then learn F2L then proceed to full Fridrich. That's my views.
 

Escher

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I got the cube last week
Then why did you join in January?

this, your improvement, and your accurate and descriptive thread title... i think i am in love with you.

seriously though:

http://www.ryanheise.com/cube/beginner.html

is where i learnt from, and now i can get around 25-30s averages with it.
i urge you to switch to this method right now, and i assure you that your times will drop within a couple of days. its way more move efficient than Dan Browns/aka the rubik's booklet method, and provides a much better transition to f2l than most of the guides i've seen. the last layer system is also very easy to understand, and easy to build up from.

also,
- with that method, try and get the cross right the first time, its faster than correcting it after.

- when you have a 'dot' or an 'arrow' when orienting the edges, use wide f (RUR'U') wide f' instead of using F(RUR'U')F. im sure you'll work out why that works, and what it does :)

- for the corner permutation algorithm, do a cw cube rotation along the x axis (just written as "x") to make execution easier. again, you can probably work out why it makes it easier, and how to do it.

anyway, thats some good improvement you've got there. I'd recommend getting a DIY asap (i dont care what other people say about it 'not being necessary' - its just nicer to use, dammit!). Type As are the most common, but you can really go for whatever you want, just dont get a type B, or an A III (A third model, confusingly, is meant to be quite good).

hope this helps somewhat.
 
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