That is still way faster than me, I average 16 on 3X3, under 1:40 on 4X4 and lil over 5 min on 5X5 🤣 (just started learning!) I am also a recovering cuber, 5 yrs
I learned 3X3 actively for about a year,
1 month to solve sub 1 minute
2.5 months (1.5 months later) sub 45,
3.5 months sub 40 (learned F2L)
4 months sub 35 (learned 2 look OLL/PLL)
5 months sub 30
9 months sub 20 (average ~19) (learned advanced F2L)
Didn't learn much else after that, but got...
How experienced are you with the cross?
Make sure you're doing the cross on the bottom and not the top.
Cross pieces can be inserted relative to each other and aligned at the end (for instance, white cross center edge colors are clockwise: Red->Green->Orange->Blue->back to Red. So for example...
A classic, but when they say "I peel off the sticker"s.
When they tell you not to look when they scramble, we aren't going to remember all the moves. Also when they make the biggest wrist motions on your expensive cube.
I'm gonna take a slgithly different stance and say a good cube can help with turn feel and solving confidence, helping your times. However, how fast you can solve a cube (generally) depends on your method and how you approach it. I average about 18 and tried my friend's nonmagnetic old cube...
At my first comp for 3X3 I got a 19.12 average, went to another comp 2 weeks later and got a 16.21. At home ao50 is high 17. Was a matter of getting used to the comp setting + new PLLs (learning full PLL at the moment)