I started taking a serious interest into cubing about 1 month ago when a friend gave me a cube for my birthday, I learned beginners method and started from there after awhile I was not impressed with my rubiks brand cube so I got a Dayan ZanChi ( ahhh much better) I am still using beginners method and my Average is an awful 1 minute 22 Seconds... If you guys knew any good methods I could learn that aren't insanely hard please let me know thanks
Okay, so I will explain the three most used methods and probably the fastest ones too, at this moment in time.
These are the Roux, CFOP, and ZZ Methods.
I recommend you try them all out and see which one you like best.
I believe they are all equally fast, however Roux and ZZ have a lower move count than CFOP.
anyway, Roux is a nice method if you like "thinking outside of the box" (or cube hahahaha... sorry, that was terrible). It is also nice if you like doing M and U moves. I think they look cool and are fun to do, personally.
Pros: It's a very efficient method - It enables you more freedom than other methods - It only requires that you learn 42 algorithms - it's a good one handed method because of the low move count and table abuse (for the M moves)
Cons: It may require more thinking than other methods, while solving. (That really should not be a bad thing)
http://wafflelikescubes.webs.com/rouxmethod.htm
The ZZ method is unique, in that you basically work with the edges in the beginning so that they can all be solved with R, U, L and D moves.
Pros: It's also a pretty efficient method - It only requires 28 algorithms - You can learn more algorithms to cases that will come up more often, to solve the cube faster - it also works great for one handed solving
Cons: Orienting edges in the beginning can be really confusing - Not that many people use it so it's not much of an explored method
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q9f-uHyHeQs
And finally CFOP. It's for square people.
Pros: Lots of fast people use it - there is lots of information about it because it's a widely used method - the transition from a beginner method is pretty easy
Cons: It is not efficient - It requires one to learn 78 algorithms - it can be boring to solve with because you basically use algorithms to solve the whole thing
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k-xbcAMfWwM
Pick and choose wisely. I recommend Roux or ZZ. But choose whichever you think fits you best. Hope this helped!