Learned How To Solve A Cube

[Mason]

I'm very new to these forums, and I'm not quite sure how people here react to newbies and all, but here goes.

So, I've came from Dan Brown's video, and I am new to the whole cube solving scene, if I may say. I'm looking for help. What do all these groups of letters and numbers mean? Does "cross, f2l..." mean solving the first cross then the first two layers? I'm just so confused. What's an efficient way for me to get down to some kind of respectable time without changing Dan Brown's method of solving completely?
Also, is it not respectable to solve a cube using algorithms and patterns? A girl sitting next to me asked if I was cheating. I told her I was using patterns. She said that was cheating. I asked how. She said people that solved it using their one intelligence were the ones not cheating.

I'm in seventh grade, and people around me are amazed and all, but I know my best time (1:25) is no time to be truly proud of, and I want to get better.

So what I really want is just some help. I know I sound very vague, but that's the simplest way for me to put it.

 

[Lofty]

Hello and welcome to the forums!
You can of course get faster using the Dan Brown method but to get "respectable" times you will have to change... Also everyone here solves the cube using algorithms and patterns. As you get better you will learn more about the cube and will be able to solve it with out the aid of such things but solving it like that really isn't made for speedcubing at all. So if you want to be fast you will need some algorithms.
I suggest looking around the forum some and using google to try and learn more about the cube. As a beginner you may want to try a LBL method (similar to Dan Brown's I think) only with a 4LLL (search for it). Of course there isn't much of a reason you can't jump right into an "expert" method like Petrus, Roux or Fridrich along with a few other less popular ones.
Keep practicing as practice is the main ingredient in getting faster!

 

[Mason]

Please repeat?
I mean seriously, I did not understand so much of that. This just goes to show that I have much to learn.

I'm going to google to search 4lll right now. I hope sometime, I'll get good enough to be able to talk fluently among you guys without making a fool of myself.

EDIT: This is probably just my own ignorance, but I can't find out what the 4lll method is. What should I search?

 

[Lofty]

4LLL isn't exactly a method it stands for "4 look last layer" its solving the last layer in 4 steps. Orient Edges, Orient Corners, Permute Corners Permute, Edges.
Just stick around, you'll learn the lingo soon enough

 

[kubekid]

i'm a cube noob too in 7th grade looking to improve my times. Right now i'm learning f2l. My best time not lucky is 53 seconds. My best lucky time is 46 seconds. I think you should learn the f2l too once you get layer by layer down.
But then again what do i know. I have hardly any knowledge with the cube.

 

[Dene]

Just read through every post in the beginners forum, and you guys will know everything you need to know.
Lofty, I love how you put Petrus first in your list, and Fridrich last

 

[Leo]

Go to Cubefreak.net, for one the glossary may help you alot when you need to look up terms plus its full of great tips and guides on getting faster and when to learn certain things.

 

[Lofty]

Just read through every post in the beginners forum, and you guys will know everything you need to know.
Lofty, I love how you put Petrus first in your list, and Fridrich last

Haha I thought it was a subtle hint lol
At least I list them all
I'm not even good at Petrus lol.

 

[DAE_JA_VOO]

I also started cubing using Dan Brown's videos. Using that method alone i can solve the cube in 56 second. I'm still very slow and i know with practice it'll be even faster. At the moment i'm learning intuitive F2L, as well as 2 Look OLL. Once i've learned all of those, i'm going to learn all the PLLs, and once i've got all of those down, it'll start studying all the OLLs. This seems to be a pretty good way of going about getting respectable times.

Also, i suggest you get yourself a DIY cube.

 

[pcwiz]

Yes, Dan Brown's Youtube Videos is very popular, but what beginner's don't realize is that it's not very fast compared to other similar beginner layer by layer methods. If you want to learn a faster method, I'm sorry, but you can't depend on the method Dan Brown teaches. I'll give you an example of a faster method that is similar to the layer by layer method (the one you know.) It is called the Fridrich method, and the steps are solving the cross, the first to layers (F2L), Orienting the Last Layer (OLL) and Permuting the Last Layer (PLL). F2L means instead of getting the (in your Dan Brown case) top layer first, turning it upside down and getting the middles layers, you do those two steps at once. OLL means getting the U face of the last layer a complete solid color. PLL means finishing the cube. Other beginner methods do something similar to that, but it's a little more steps so it's not as complicated. The method Dan Brown teaches is a little different, and I would recommend switching to Badmephisto's Beginner Method. It's a little similar to Dan Brown's method and it's really easy to learn. You can't really get too fast with Dan Brown's method, I'm sorry Max time is possible 25 seconds but that will be VERY hard. Using Badmephisto's method will be a little easier and get you a little faster times, and it will be worth it because it's easier to switch to other methods.

By the way, about a girl telling you you cheat. Yes, that has happened to me before, and I HATE it. It's so annoying.... They just don't understand that it's very hard to solve the cube by yourself, and they think it's cheating to learn a method? That's like telling you to learn algebra when you have no experience in math. So when you go elementary school and learn about math, and then you know algebra, people say you cheat. I mean seriously, they just don't understand about the cube. Don't worry about it - just try to ignore it.

 

[coopersacatfilms]

you really can't get sub minute with dan brown method he teaches trus me I started out with it and the best time I got was 55 seconds but it was lucky so after you get pretty used to algorithms you should learn the fridrich method so you can get sub 20's after practice of course.

 

[pcwiz]

Are you kidding me? The method that Dan Brown teaches can get below a sub minute, without getting lucky.

In this video, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Kfr-0vHLgk Dan Brown solves the cube in around 55 seconds, and I didn't see any steps skipped (hard to tell). Now that may sound like nothing, but he is not good at the cube. That is the only method he knows (I think so, he doesn't know Fridrich), so he stinks. I mean his cross his like 6-7 seconds, on the top of the cube, when some people can get it in 1 second on the top of the cube. 6 seconds taken off there. His corners take him like another 13 seconds. Despite solving them on the bottom (bad), it can be done faster, as he has a lot of pauses (hard to look ahead when solving corners on bottom). His middle layer edges are slow to, taking about 20 seconds. Some people can get that in about 6 seconds. 6+6=12 seconds taken off. Okay, about his last layer. I can't really compare it with anything, but he could orient the edges faster, and do all the other steps faster. His finger tricks are inefficient, so that's why it's slow. Also, his last layer is like 25 seconds , and that can be improved, even though the way he does his last layer is horrible. I'd say it's possible to get around 15 seconds for the last layer. 12 + 10 = 22 seconds that some people could save if they were faster. That's around 28 seconds - but it's not easy, because the method is very inefficient.

I'm not suggesting you people learn his method, but I'm just proving a point. It's just possible to get a sub minute average.