f2lgorithms

T

trying-to-speedcube...

Veteran
Joined
Apr 29, 2008
Messages
1,680
Location
Almelo, Holland
WCA ID
2008SMIT04
YouTube
Visit Channel
He guys, I'm new here and I can do pjk in about about 1:30 minute.

I'm trying to learn CFOP (cross, f2l, oll, pll) and I'm learning all algorithms once at a time, but there doesn't seem to get an end to it:confused:, so my question to you all is:

What is the most efficient way to learn A LOT OF ALGORITHMS?
 
There are no foolproof tricks to learn a lot of algorithms. This isn't something you are going to finish in a few days. Just learn one, practice it until you know that you know it, and if it were me, make sure you know its mirror if that alg has one. A mirror of an alg you already know is much easier to learn.
 
You need to get to the point where you know just enough algs to solve the cube, then add them slowly from there. Can you solve the cube with the basic CFOP system yet? If not, you should learn the bootstrapped 4 Look Last Layer, which is really an 8 look last layer.

Or alternatively, keep your current last layer system in place while you learn F2L, then change to the 4 look once you know F2L well.

Give us some more information on where you are in your progress, in terms of what algs you are using and what steps you know and perhaps we can help more.

Brian.
 
Hey guys,

First of all, thanks for all your replies, but I think you misunderstood my question. I didn't mean tricks, but I meant how to learn them, like picking a random situation, then trying to write down the algorithm by executing the move on my cube and checking if I did it right, or just trying to learn them once at a time?

Thanks in advance for (hopefully) some more replies!!
 
Learning them all at once is not very efficient and very hard on the brain. I learned them by taking about 5 at a time and learning them through repetition and visualizing them. I would do 1 move about 10 times looking at the line of moves, doing as much as I could with out looking at the line until my fingers had it. Then I move to the next move until I had done all 5. Do some cube practicing the F2L and use the algo's for OLL PLL that you already know and the new ones you learned.

Repeat the 10 times part for any algo that you are having problems with later in the day and once before you go to bed. You should have them in a day or two (sometimes only an hour) at which point you add 5 more until you eventually have them all under your fingers. Some you will learn really fast and others you might learn and then spontaneously forget a week later and have to relook at the algo page for a review. The more you learn the faster you learn the next 5...your brain gets used to it and it becomes quite easy to learn them.

Don't overwhelm your brain...the 2FL practice in the middle mostly intiutive so it allows your brain to not get overwhelmed and still implement the new PLL/Olls that you are learning. By the time you get them all, your F2L will be equally as good.

Check out the percetage of occurance for the OLL and PLLs and learn the frequent ones first. Also, try learning the complementary ones at the same time doing one from a solved cube will give you a different one to get the cube back to solved -- learn those together.

Lastly, I printed out a page of the algos and carried it around in my pocket....as I learned sections of it I would delete those and reprint it so I could see my progress as the page got less and less crowded.

I think that is all I have. Practice practice practice....but use your time efficiently for maximum results.

edit: don't bother remembering them by writing them down....gotta get it under your fingers so you need to be using your fingers. You can visualize moving the cube though and that will help -- I would frequently pretend I was solving certain algos in my mind (or actually move my hands as I visualized it) while sitting at stop lights in the car, waiting for lunch order etc.
 
Last edited:
I never had to grind F2Lgorithms (hehe, clever) because I learned them intuitively. With OLLs and PLLs, I just picked one (or maybe one and its inverse, with OLLs) and did it over and over until I know how it feels. After learning them, do regular practice solves to work on recognition and reaction time.

The thing about F2L though is that it's easy to figure out most of the cases yourself if you just experiment a bit and figure out how the corner and edge interact and how to get them inserted together. Do this for a while and you'll realize that you can pretty much solve F2L without applying any memorized algorithms. You can still look up algorithms for less intuitive cases, and maybe more efficient ways to do other cases, but if you already understand how the F2L solving process works, it will be far less tedious than blindly memorizing moves. Yes, intuitive F2L will involve considerably more thinking (at least at first), but what's a Rubik's cube if it doesn't make you think?

Anyway, just from my personal opinion and experience. If you want to learn F2L algorithms by rote memorization of algorithms don't let me stop you. You should just know that there are other options.
 
This guide here tells how to learn the algorithms for the Fridrich Method (don't learn them all at once.) It is still in the drafting process now, but it has the basic stuff.
http://www.speedsolving.com/showthread.php?t=3688

Just to tell you, with the method pjk teaches, you can still improve a lot. If you don't want to learn the CFOP now, (lots of work), then it doesn't hurt to keep on using the method pjk teaches. Times are definitely possible of 30 second averages, but I would recommend getting about a minute average, and then moving on to a different speed cubing method.
 
trying-to-speedcube... said:
jonny guitar said:
Do some cube practicing the F2L and use the algo's for OLL PLL that you already know and the new ones you learned.
Click to expand...

so... you're saying I should be learning f2l, oll, pll at the same time, not first the 41 f2lgorithms (really clever indeedxD), then the 57 ollgorithms and then the 21 pllgorithms?
Click to expand...

I'm not jonny, but I'll give you my opinion: Dont' try to learn OLL, PLL, and F2L at the same time. If you're going to learn F2L at this point, learn it along with whatever last layer method you currently use. That way you can still solve the cube, and only focus on learning F2L. ...and I don't mean memorizing the 42 F2L cases. IMHO that is a complete waste of time. Just learn to do it intuitively.

Whenever you decide to learn OLL and PLL, learn enough algs that you can solve the entire last layer, and *then* start memorizing all the PLLs. The minimum algs you need to start an OLL/PLL last layer are 8: 2 to orient edges, 2 to orient corners, 2 to permute edges, and 2 to permute corners.

I can provide more details about this if you are interested.

Brian.
 
trying-to-speedcube... said:
jonny guitar said:
Do some cube practicing the F2L and use the algo's for OLL PLL that you already know and the new ones you learned.
Click to expand...

so... you're saying I should be learning f2l, oll, pll at the same time, not first the 41 f2lgorithms (really clever indeedxD), then the 57 ollgorithms and then the 21 pllgorithms?
Click to expand...

Yes, with the caveat of learning the F2L intuitively so you aren't actually learning any algos for it -- you will actually find that you need a couple them later for the more complicated moves but mostly it is just using your own moves that are really obivous once you have done them a couple of times.

Remember to break the Oll/Pll down into manageable chunks...don't try to do them all at once. You will be reviewing the ones you already learned while practicing the F2L and hopefully using some of the new ones too.

The benifit of this is that your F2L will be getting better as your last layer improves. There is much time to be saved in the F2L and only practice practice practice will make it faster because it is mostly in the looking ahead and knowing the next moves without searching between moves. Oll/pll is all about the algos because eventually you will only use 1 of each and they are very obvious so the majority of last layer improvement is in memorizing the algos and finger tricks.

This isn't "the way" but it really worked well for me.
 
blgentry said:
I'm not jonny, but I'll give you my opinion: Dont' try to learn OLL, PLL, and F2L at the same time. If you're going to learn F2L at this point, learn it along with whatever last layer method you currently use. That way you can still solve the cube, and only focus on learning F2L. ...and I don't mean memorizing the 42 F2L cases. IMHO that is a complete waste of time. Just learn to do it intuitively.

Brian.
Click to expand...

Brian, what I was saying is that you are not memorizing any algos for the F2L but doing intuitively (which is what your saying too) so your brain isn't crammed in learning the PLL/OLL at the same time and I too recommending learning them in the way your saying. Where we differ is I believe that they are independent types of learning and can easily and productively be done at the same time because one is cramming algo and the other is really an excersice in logic and seeing the next move.
 
Muscle memory and I learned one algorithm a day so ir takes not very long well once I got to the end of a series (end of PLL etc) I learned the last 4 in one day so I could be done with it and most OLL's are very easy same with PLL and F2L so just keep with it and it will pay off trust me
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top