Beginner's method prototype.

[Scigatt]

For the last couple of hours, I've been concerned with developing my own beginner's method, in case anyone asks me to teach them. With the beginner's method I learned,(Solution 2 here.) looking back, there are some things I like about it, and other things that I don't, like the difficulty of transferring to CFOP. Here is a brief summary of my proposed solution, a lot of which was picked up from different sources.

Step 1:Cross
Intuitive

Step 2:3/4 First layer corners(cross on bottom)
Algs.
R U R'
F' U' F
F' U2 F or R U2 R'

Step 3:Middle edges
Semi-intuitive
Algs:
F' Ux(U, U', or U2) F
R Ux R'

(Steps 2/3 are essentially Keyhole F2L. Also, merging steps 3 & 4 possible stepping stone to full intuitive f2l)

Step 4:Last FL corner
Algs:
U' F' U' F U2 F' U' F
U R U R' U2 R U R'
(R U R' U')(R U R' U')(R U R') or (F' U' F U)(F' U' F U)(F' U' F)

Step 5:Edge orient
Algs:
F(R U R' U')F' or R'(F' U' F U)R
U F(U R U' R')F' or R'(U' F' U F)R

Step 6:Corner orient
Algs:
Sune and mirror Sune
(With Petrus-like targeting)

Step 7:Corner perm
Algs:
(R U R') F' (R U R' U') R' F (R2 U' R') or
U (F' U' F) R (F' U' F U) F R' (F2 U F)

Step 8:Edge perm
Algs:
F2 U R' L F2 R L' U F2
F2 U' R' L F2 R L' U' F2

Any comments?

 

[a small kitten]

Those are uber awkward perms

 

[Escher]

personally, i think that...

- intuitive cross (show them some examples to correct cross if made wrong)
- corners
- edges
- cross on top (F/f (RUR'U') F'/f'
- sune for the COrientation (teach them what sune DOES, so they can work out what to do themselves for each case)
- A perm for corners
- sunes for edges

cannot be beaten for simplicity of teaching. if i can write it down, i always give people the H perm (very easy to remember) and a U-perm, too, so they can have a cheat sheet

i think it also goes well into CFOP
- just get them to understand what they are doing when they are putting in edges.
- EO will stay with them until they fancy learning 48 more OLLs
- they will be able to see how people get faster, by reducing moves/steps etc.

also, teaching simple fingertricks is good too, if they have an alright cube.
i generally ask to 'set up' their cubes as well, if they are reasonably serious about learning.

 

[fanwuq]

I just wrote this one:

http://www.filesavr.com/beginnercube

 

[Escher]

i quite like yours fanwuq, but i think you need to be a little clearer in terms of piece notation (i think you just jumped right in, in denoting pieces), and perhaps some more pictures using gabbasoft would be nice (like a move by move representation)
but still, nice

 

[fanwuq]

i quite like yours fanwuq, but i think you need to be a little clearer in terms of piece notation (i think you just jumped right in, in denoting pieces), and perhaps some more pictures using gabbasoft would be nice (like a move by move representation)
but still, nice

Thanks for the suggestions!
What do you mean by piece notation?
I don't think I would add move by move for every alg. I don't have time to do that. The point is to immediately get people to be able to read the RLUDFB and be able to understand parities instead of being stupid trying to solve from an impossible position.
I also included algs that have been in my experience the easiest to memorize and understand.

 

[Scigatt]

personally, i think that...

- intuitive cross (show them some examples to correct cross if made wrong)
- corners
- edges
- cross on top (F/f (RUR'U') F'/f'
- sune for the COrientation (teach them what sune DOES, so they can work out what to do themselves for each case)
- A perm for corners
- sunes for edges

cannot be beaten for simplicity of teaching. if i can write it down, i always give people the H perm (very easy to remember) and a U-perm, too, so they can have a cheat sheet

i think it also goes well into CFOP
- just get them to understand what they are doing when they are putting in edges.
- EO will stay with them until they fancy learning 48 more OLLs
- they will be able to see how people get faster, by reducing moves/steps etc.

also, teaching simple fingertricks is good too, if they have an alright cube.
i generally ask to 'set up' their cubes as well, if they are reasonably serious about learning.

Well, I don't know how to do an A perm yet...

 

[*LukeMayn*]

learn them, they are soooo easy to memo

 

[Scigatt]

personally, i think that...

- intuitive cross (show them some examples to correct cross if made wrong)
- corners
- edges
- cross on top (F/f (RUR'U') F'/f'
- sune for the COrientation (teach them what sune DOES, so they can work out what to do themselves for each case)
- A perm for corners
- sunes for edges

cannot be beaten for simplicity of teaching. if i can write it down, i always give people the H perm (very easy to remember) and a U-perm, too, so they can have a cheat sheet

i think it also goes well into CFOP
- just get them to understand what they are doing when they are putting in edges.
- EO will stay with them until they fancy learning 48 more OLLs
- they will be able to see how people get faster, by reducing moves/steps etc.

also, teaching simple fingertricks is good too, if they have an alright cube.
i generally ask to 'set up' their cubes as well, if they are reasonably serious about learning.

Some good points, but what's wrong with keyhole F2L? That's what I learned when I started, and it's pretty good.

 

[Escher]

nothing wrong with it, it is knowledge that will always come in use, but i think that for the layman pure LBL might be easier to understand - you have to use LBL for the last slot when using keyhole, and for some people having to learn two ways at once might be a little much to start with.

fanwuq - i mean the 'FRU' or 'UB' piece notation. i know its easy to work out, but its also easy to add a sentence just to clarify
and i understand about the millions of pics you'd have to take to show move by move, so no worries

 

[Scigatt]

nothing wrong with it, it is knowledge that will always come in use, but i think that for the layman pure LBL might be easier to understand - you have to use LBL for the last slot when using keyhole, and for some people having to learn two ways at once might be a little much to start with.

Well, technically, you don't have to use LBL to do the last spot. The beginners method I learned used the slot to solve(O and P) all the edges, then used commutators to solve the 5 remaining corners(Yes, my beginners method had commutators).

anyway, the LBL you're talking about is Step 4 here. Let me write that out as a rough sketch:

By now you should have the first 2 layers solved, less one corner. Our goal in this step is to solve that corner(If that corner is already solved, move on to the next step.) There are basically 4 situations you could run into. I'll tell you how to solve 3 of those, then talk about the fourth.

First of all, rotate U and the cube until the corner to be solved is above the unsolved D corner spot and that both are at FR. Now check which colour is facing up on the corner cubie.

If the R colour is facing up, apply U R U R' U2 R U R'.
If the F colour is facing up, apply U' F' U' F U2 F' U' F.

Before I move on...
(talk about sexy move)

Now if the D colour is facing up, apply that move 3 times(you can skip the last U or U', but doing it won't hurt)

If the corner is already in the correct spot but twisted, use any one of the algs above to move it out, the solve it normally.

 

[Escher]

well... i dont like the beginner method you learnt

this is completely my opinion, no basis in fact,
but i think that simple LBL, and the two algs to learn for LL is the best bedrock for moving further. i also think that teaching somebody in person is the best, java applets are a bit worse, and notation is the worst (but not necessarily bad).
i think that what i said is what people should learn first, but the second they 'outgrow' it (i.e they want to learn more), keyhole, commutators and more PLLs are definitely the way to go.
so i think your method is not good as an absolute beginners method, but good as something for people to learn the second they have outgrown it
im really not trying to knock it!

 

[MistArts]

I would teach this...

Cross
Keyhole Triple-X Cross
Insert last edge
Orient the last corner with sune and anti-sune (If the corner is misoriented but is permuted, then use R U' R' U' R U2 R')
Insert the corner using (Sexy move)*3
Orient the remaining edges using ((F/f) R U R' U' (F'/f'))
Orient the remaining corners using (Sune and Anti-Sune)
Permute the remaining corners using CW 3-cycle and CCW 3-cycle
Permute the remaining edges using CW 3-cycle and CCW 3-cycle

That's 8(ish) algorithms not counting sexy move and the intuitive algorithm.

 

[Scigatt]

I would teach this...

Cross
Keyhole Triple-X Cross
Insert last edge
Orient the last corner with sune and anti-sune (If the corner is misoriented but is permuted, then use R U' R' U' R U2 R')
Insert the corner using (Sexy move)*3
Orient the remaining edges using ((F/f) R U R' U' (F'/f'))
Orient the remaining corners using (Sune and Anti-Sune)
Permute the remaining corners using CW 3-cycle and CCW 3-cycle
Permute the remaining edges using CW 3-cycle and CCW 3-cycle

That's 8(ish) algorithms not counting sexy move and the intuitive algorithm.

I don't like that beginner's method.

Basically it's the same as the method I outlined, but with an uglier way of dealing with the last 2 pieces of F2L.

 

[MistArts]

I would teach this...

Cross
Keyhole Triple-X Cross
Insert last edge
Orient the last corner with sune and anti-sune (If the corner is misoriented but is permuted, then use R U' R' U' R U2 R')
Insert the corner using (Sexy move)*3
Orient the remaining edges using ((F/f) R U R' U' (F'/f'))
Orient the remaining corners using (Sune and Anti-Sune)
Permute the remaining corners using CW 3-cycle and CCW 3-cycle
Permute the remaining edges using CW 3-cycle and CCW 3-cycle

That's 8(ish) algorithms not counting sexy move and the intuitive algorithm.

I don't like that beginner's method.

Basically it's the same as the method I outlined, but with an uglier way of dealing with the last 2 pieces of F2L.

I'm not much of a 3x3 guy but that's the best way to handle it w/o learning two more algorithms.

 

[Erik]

Easiest to learn and explain beginners method is still Arnaud's...
It requires the least amount of info you have to memorize. Everything can be explained with trick and examples
(for instance, to explain opposite corners for the corner 3-cycles, just think of the combo water and fire)

 

[brunson]

First of all, rotate U and the cube until the corner to be solved is above the unsolved D corner spot and that both are at FR. Now check which colour is facing up on the corner cubie.

If the R colour is facing up, apply U R U R' U2 R U R'.

Am I reading this wrong? Why not just RUR'?

If the F colour is facing up, apply U' F' U' F U2 F' U' F.

Why not just F'U'F?

Maybe I'm confused about what your trying to accomplish. Are you trying to insert the piece at FRU into FRD?

 

[Scigatt]

First of all, rotate U and the cube until the corner to be solved is above the unsolved D corner spot and that both are at FR. Now check which colour is facing up on the corner cubie.

If the R colour is facing up, apply U R U R' U2 R U R'.

Am I reading this wrong? Why not just RUR'?

If the F colour is facing up, apply U' F' U' F U2 F' U' F.

Why not just F'U'F?

Maybe I'm confused about what your trying to accomplish. Are you trying to insert the piece at FRU into FRD?

Yes, but the FR edge is already solved. I need those algs to 'preserve' FR.

 

[mrbiggs]

People always come up with complicated beginner's methods...


When someone asks me to teach them, I just use a simple Fridrich variant: Cross, then first layer, first two layers, eOLL, cOLL, oPLL, ePLL. All you need for algorithms are FRUR'U'F', Sune, A perm, U perm, all of which are relatively short and easy to learn. It's not strictly intuitive, but I think it's a good balance between algorithms and intuitive solving.

I don't see how keyhole is any better than just doing the last four edges normally, since you can't keyhole the last pair anyway. It seems to me that you're just adding in another step, and honestly the biggest problem I've had with beginners is that they can't remember what step to apply to the cube at what point.

 

[fanwuq]

People always come up with complicated beginner's methods...


When someone asks me to teach them, I just use a simple Fridrich variant: Cross, then first layer, first two layers, eOLL, cOLL, oPLL, ePLL. All you need for algorithms are FRUR'U'F', Sune, A perm, U perm, all of which are relatively short and easy to learn. It's not strictly intuitive, but I think it's a good balance between algorithms and intuitive solving.

I don't see how keyhole is any better than just doing the last four edges normally, since you can't keyhole the last pair anyway. It seems to me that you're just adding in another step, and honestly the biggest problem I've had with beginners is that they can't remember what step to apply to the cube at what point.

Yes, that is the easiest way.
Except I teach J perm and Just tell them that It is Niklas (7 moves) + Sune, which I taught them anyway. A perm tends to confuse people with the x regrippings. Also Niklas is a more clear looking commutator.