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Me

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At the point i am at now i guess it be about time to learn OLL, however theres 57 of them, i already know about 18 from PLLs and some memorization here and there.

Now i want to learn the rest of them, right now i have notecards layed out with the pattern on one side and the alg on the back.

Hopefully this memorization will work for me. But i would also like to know other approaches to it, how did other people learn all 57 algs?
Thanks in advance.
 

Sniph

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I learn algs rather quickly... What I do, is I take about 2 hours each night, and learn as many as I can each night. When i was learning Oll, It took me about 2 weeks memorize them all. Each night, I would learn new algs, and recall all previous ones. Now, Since I still use a 3 look, I have forgotten at least 7 of the algs, but most are still clear in my memory.
 

pjk

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I have a printout of about 5 different sets of people's OLLs. i go through each one to find which one will be best for me. Then before I learn a new one, I go through all the previous ones. Then I just do the new one over and over.
 

KJiptner

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When I was learning OLL I was looking at multiple websites to find a nice Alg for each case. Then I draw 2-4 Algs each day together with their diagram on a small piece of paper, which I carried around the whole day. When learning Oll it will often help you to look at that the last few moves. They are sometimes very obvious because they rebuild the last F2L pair.
 

annon

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I just practice the finger trick motions of an algorithm over and over again. At worst, It'll take me 15 minutes to learn an algorithm completely.
 

pyrotek7x7

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I read the alg off a paper and do that about 50 times. Then, when I don't look at the paper, my hands remember the rest. :)
 

tenderchkn

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And learn all of the same pattern at once, usually in pairs or 4's. Should be pretty easy because they're often mirrors or inflections. That way, you get used to doing the OLL when you encounter it, instead of having to figure out if you have to do a 3-look or not.
 
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csfield

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The first thing I did was lots of research. I went through every site and chose the algorithm I liked best for each case. I modified some of them with my own rotations or by using F-B reflections instead of R-L (I'm not very fast with left-handed fingertricks). Good websites to look at are those of Macky, Gungz, Dan Harris, Bob Burton, Lars Vandenbergh, Joel Van Noort, Leyan Lo, Jason Thong and Richard Patterson.

After I had my complete set chosen I bought a bunch of 3 x 5 cards with graph paper grid on one side and made flash cards with the diagram on one side and the alg on the other. I studied them in groups of 4 usually (alg with inverse and mirrors). To learn them just do them over and over again until they get into muscle memory. The flash cards are good to test your memory on the ones you have learned. I learned all the OLL in about a month.

To aid in memorizing try to conceptualize the algorithm in some way and/or by relating it to other algs you have learned. For example the "square" patterns and inverses (tetris shapes) are just sunes starting and ending with double layer turns. There are also algs that are double layer double-sunes and a bunch of algs are based on the "T" OLL: F(RUR'U')F' and it's inverse. Joel Van Noort has a good tutorial on his site for memorizing OLLs based on algorithm "families".

Remember to keep it fun; don't think of it as a chore. Think of each new OLL as a cool new shortcut you can use and don't stress about how many there are. Eventually they'll all be yours.
 

doubleyou

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For newbs! :)

maybe this is common known, but I recently found that by learning one alg (I am learning from Rubiks.dk) you automatically learn two cases, if you can mirror (reflect).

and when I learn algs I always learn the reverse so I can practice it back and forth. if you do this you get two more cases (ofc if you mirror).

this is so awesome! cuz when I learn "one" alg I actually learn four cases at once!

wich means 57/4= (about) 14. ROUGHLY! cuz there are cases where reflecting is not associated with other cases. (please correct me here..)

but in my head this fact cuts the learning-mass magnificanty! - I hope it does for you too!

sorry for my lack of english skills

happy cubing,

Doubleyou
 

doubleyou

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I presumed it was commonly known, but I think it was nice info for newbies!(and anyone who didnt know)
I know I would have loved to know it before I found out myself :p

AvG do you have other tips like this?
 

AvGalen

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I don't have many tips for the last layer. I am still using a 4 look last layer myself. The tips I do have are for the entire last layer, not just OLL.

1) Don't learn how to do every alg from all 4 positions (unless you are an ultra-expert). Don't use cube-rotations to position the cube correct for your alg. Do U-corrections instead.
2) Don't learn the first alg you find, find one that fits your style best (2-gen, left-handed, fewest-moves, etc)
3) Learn the most important algs first. The most important algs are:
3a) The 1+1+1+1=4 algs you need to solve the last layer in 4 steps:
3b) The 2+2+1+2=7 algs you need to solve the last layer in 4 steps so you never have to repeat a step more than twice
3c) The 3+7+2+4=16 algs you need to solve the last layer in 4 steps so you never have to repeat a step more than once
3d) The OLL's and PLL's that take you the most amount of time to solve if you encounter them (worst cases)
3e) The OLL's and PLL's that have the highest probability of occuring
3f) The rest of PLL
3g) The rest of OLL
4) Learn to recognize each case by looking only at two sides of the cube (Left+Front or Front+Right most likely)
 

doubleyou

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these are exactly the kind of tips I was looking for!

you dont happen to have a complete 4-look LL table do you?

I have planned to do this myself soon..
but if you noted this for youself, then please share! but dont start to work out the complete 4-look table if you dont already have it.

I tend to find algorithms I like by the looks or the feel. not cuz I bump into it oftenly. most of the OLL I know now are some wich I like the pattern of. then I found my favourite alg for it afterwards..

Thank you for your effort!
 

AvGalen

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Just do all of these in reverse to see exactly which case and what my startup position is. These are all last layers algs I currently use. I don't like doing slice moves, B and B' and cube rotations. I mirrored/reversed existing algs to get the following list:

Edge OLL (step 1):
1-1, 0 edges) L' l U l' U2 l U L' U l' L2 (I should really mirror this one to my right hand, but I have gotten used to it now)
1-2, 2 edges, diagonal) F U R U' R' F'
1-3, 2 edges, horizontal) F R U R' U' F'

Corners OLL (step 2):
2-1, 1 corner, sune) R U R' U R U2 R'
2-2, 1 corner, anti-sune) R U2 R' U' R U' R'
2-3, 0 corners, extended sune/racecar) R U R' U R U' R' U R U2 R'
2-4, 0 corners, T) R U2 R2 U' R2 U' R2 U2 R
2-5, 2 corners, Front) R' F' L F R F' L' F
2-6, 2 corners, Left) R' F' L' F R F' L F
2-7, 2 corners, Back) R2 D' R U2 R' D R U2 R

Corners PLL (step 3):
3-1, 3-cycle) R' F R' B2 R F' R' B2 R2
3-2, diagonal swap/small r) L' U' L F2 R' D R U R2 D' R2 U' F2

Edges PLL (step 4):
4-1, 3 cycle left) F2 U L R' F2 L' R U F2
4-2, 3 cycle right) F2 U' L R' F2 L' R U' F2
4-3, 4 cycle straight/cross) r2 R2 U' r2 R2 U2 r2 R2 U' r2 R2
4-4, 4 cycle diagonal/z) R' U' R U' R U R U' R' U R U R2 U' R' U2
 

CubeAddict

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hey,man i am so new to this, Whats mirror? and what do u mean learn new set or faces..Just got into cubing last week, please help.
 

pjk

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Mirror is basically a reflection from the left side to the right, back to front, etc. Basically a mirror of an alg will create the same effect on the cube, just on a different side (the side that the alg is mirrored to).
 

AvGalen

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Faces: Sides of the cube. The red face is the side of the cube that has red in its center

Set: A group of algorithms that are almost the same, only mirrored or reversed. It is very easy to learn them together. From my OLL-list above:
1-2, 2 edges, diagonal) F U R U' R' F'
1-3, 2 edges, horizontal) F R U R' U' F'

2-1, 1 corner, sune) R U R' U R U2 R'
2-2, 1 corner, anti-sune) R U2 R' U' R U' R'
and this one would be in that set to: 2-3, 0 corners, extended sune/racecar) R U R' U R U' R' U R U2 R'

2-5, 2 corners, Front) R' F' L F R F' L' F
2-6, 2 corners, Left) R' F' L' F R F' L F

Mirror: As PJK explained. 1 example: F2 U L R' F2 L' R U F2
is exactly the same as R2 U F B' R2 F' B U R2
 

InfiniteZero

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Does anyone have tips for this? Like where you get the inspiration/urge to memorize them? I just slack off and not memorize them...
 

doubleyou

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personally what I do is, when I have the written algorithm. I draw a drawing of the pattern of the movement as I read the code. this can be more and less anvanced.

this is just to get a look at the whole process at the same time.

actually I think I saw one site which showed algs like this.

I kinda hate to watch those cube applets when learning an alg. maybe its good for reminders but not for teaching.

a personal drawing is way better.

if you are too lazy to draw and all just repeat the alg over and over until you have created fingertricks for it. its actually hard to forget fingertricks IMO ^^
 

ExoCorsair

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Running into PLL cases I didn't know inspired me to learn them, and to learn them, I read the algorithm, executed it a few times, watched the execution, and then it was memorized. But that's just how I memorize...
 
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