How to memorize algorithms (if you suck at it)

[Areli Gómez]

@EmmaTheCapicorn I recommend u view this when u get home

Some algorithms are long and intimidating. That’s ok! Nothing wrong with that. However it can make memorization a LOT harder. Some people like myself and my friend @EmmaTheCapicorn have conditions that make it harder to memorize them. Even then, we never give up, here’s some tips

1. You could try intuitive F2L (if learning CFOP). J perm has an amazing tutorial on it. Just do this instead of memorizing 41 algorithms!
2. Write down your algorithms and put recognizable sequences in parenthesis, like sexy move, unsexy, sledgehammer, hedgeslammer, RUR’U, RUR’F’.
3. Categorize the algorithms by group. For example, OLL. Dot, P shape, L shape, Small L, etc.
4. Use J Perm’s algorithm trainer! Do about 50-150 training solves (just practicing the algorithm).
5. Practice the algorithm by looking at it for hints, then after 3-5 tries take the hints away and repeat it out loud as you do it.

Hope these helped! Learning algs doesn’t have to be difficult!

 

[OldSwiss]

In addition to the group like P, Dot, L and whatever you can also group them by, lets call it relation.

Eg. if you do sune on a solved cube, you get antisune.
In this case on is just the reverse of the other and you can train them together.
Especially for OLL it's very useful, because all OLL have relations like this.
I made an excel sheet with all of these but found out that it depends on the algs you use.
So you better discover the related OLL by yourself with your own algs.

For PLL you mostly get the same PLL if you execute a PLL on o solved cube. In these cases you can just do and undo the same PLL until you know it.
Then do some solves and try to use them if they appear
In some cases like the G-Perm you also get the reverse alg, in these cases you can train the different algs together.

Ga gives a Gd, Gc gives a Gb and vice versa.
If you lern them with headlights to the left, all 4 G-Perms are the same alg.
Two of them are reversed, and the other two are mirrored (U instead of U', R instead of R').
That helped me a lot learning those.

 

[Areli Gómez]

In addition to the group like P, Dot, L and whatever you can also group them by, lets call it relation.

Eg. if you do sune on a solved cube, you get antisune.
In this case on is just the reverse of the other and you can train them together.
Especially for OLL it's very useful, because all OLL have relations like this.
I made an excel sheet with all of these but found out that it depends on the algs you use.
So you better discover the related OLL by yourself with your own algs.

For PLL you mostly get the same PLL if you execute a PLL on o solved cube. In these cases you can just do and undo the same PLL until you know it.
Then do some solves and try to use them if they appear
In some cases like the G-Perm you also get the reverse alg, in these cases you can train the different algs together.

Ga gives a Gd, Gc gives a Gb and vice versa.
If you lern them with headlights to the left, all 4 G-Perms are the same alg.
Two of them are reversed, and the other two are mirrored (U instead of U', R instead of R').
That helped me a lot learning those.

Yeah I showed that to my friend. She is having trouble keeping the PLLs in her head. She’s starting with PLL then moving onto OLL when she has it down. She does Gc perm with headlights to the right, but everything else with to the left.

 

[OreKehStrah]

In addition to the group like P, Dot, L and whatever you can also group them by, lets call it relation.

Eg. if you do sune on a solved cube, you get antisune.
In this case on is just the reverse of the other and you can train them together.
Especially for OLL it's very useful, because all OLL have relations like this.
I made an excel sheet with all of these but found out that it depends on the algs you use.
So you better discover the related OLL by yourself with your own algs.

For PLL you mostly get the same PLL if you execute a PLL on o solved cube. In these cases you can just do and undo the same PLL until you know it.
Then do some solves and try to use them if they appear
In some cases like the G-Perm you also get the reverse alg, in these cases you can train the different algs together.

Ga gives a Gd, Gc gives a Gb and vice versa.
If you lern them with headlights to the left, all 4 G-Perms are the same alg.
Two of them are reversed, and the other two are mirrored (U instead of U', R instead of R').
That helped me a lot learning those.

The term used in cubing for that would be using inverses. Antisune is the inverse of Sune. The use of the term relation makes me wonder if you are coming from a mathematical background too?

Also about the fact that it depends of the algs you use, it's because when you break down what is happening, for a given OLL, we are learning what we think is the best alg out of the 72 1LLL cases for each OLL (barring reduced sets due to rotational symmetries) so choosing a different alg might orient pieces the same way but permute them in different ways, which causes the inverse to correspond to a different OLL case.

 

[SpeakCuba]

Pretty sure most people already do this, but just perform the algorithms many times over. Aka, the CubeHead technique. So, for example, let’s say you’re trying to learn the Ra perm. Keep doing it until you can perform it without looking at the algorithms sheet. Let’s say it took you 30 times of performing the Ra perm before being able to do it by memory. Now, do it half more times, in this case, 15, (while looking at the algorithms “sheet”). That’s the way I’ve learned most of my algs, and by doing that I’ve learned them surprisingly quick.

 

[OldSwiss]

The term used in cubing for that would be using inverses. Antisune is the inverse of Sune. The use of the term relation makes me wonder if you are coming from a mathematical background too?

No, but I am german speaking. So sometimes I may be wrong with my wording
I try to use inverse in my future posts.

Also about the fact that it depends of the algs you use, it's because when you break down what is happening, for a given OLL, we are learning what we think is the best alg out of the 72 1LLL cases for each OLL (barring reduced sets due to rotational symmetries) so choosing a different alg might orient pieces the same way but permute them in different ways, which causes the inverse to correspond to a different OLL case.

Yes, I guess that's also the reason why advanced alg sets like ZBLL work. They all solve the same OLL, but with different permutations they also solve the PLL at the same time.
But usually you don't think so far as long as you use the standard algs

 

[Deleted member 36445]

Check out my trainers for cxll and megaminx

https://shuantsu.github.io/cxll-trainer/

MEGAMINX OLL TRAINER

 

[abunickabhi]

Check out my trainers for cxll and megaminx

https://shuantsu.github.io/cxll-trainer/

MEGAMINX OLL TRAINER

Nice trainers.

Do you have the link for megaminx ZBLL trainer as well?

 

[Deleted member 36445]

Nice trainers.

Do you have the link for megaminx ZBLL trainer as well?

No.
I didn't even know that existed.
I was thinking about coll for mega today
I think recognition would be very hard

 

[abunickabhi]

How would COLL recognition be hard for megaminx? It is just one more corner than a 3x3?

How many mega COLL cases are there?

 

[Deleted member 36445]

How would COLL recognition be hard for megaminx? It is just one more corner than a 3x3?

How many mega COLL cases are there?

For me is hard because I don't know mega color scheme yet
For 3x3 I find easy to recognize because it's automatic to know if a color is adj or opp in relation to each other

 

[abunickabhi]

There are more cases than adjacent and opposite in mega right. That would be tricky to see and understand, I see.