How can I get better at cross? On a good solve my splits are like,
2-3 cross
4-5 f2l
1-2 oll
2-3 pll
I think thats a bad cross time, and its definitely where I think I could improve the most.
You do 5 second F2L, but 3 second cross?

You're F2L is great but your cross sucks in comparison. Concentrate on that.
 
Suggestions for the days ahead

Hello everyone,

I started cubing 2 days ago. I don't know the name of my cube, except that it's a 3x3x3 and I got it for quite a cheap price in my local market. I can say it isn't the smoothest. And there aren't any standard cubes available where I live.
I first learned to solve the Ruibk's Cube using this method. After some practicing, I am solving it in around 3-4 minutes.

I am now moving on to learning the Fridrich method. I am currently following these videos. Please let me know your thoughts on how I can proceed from this early stage. I really want to reach sub-40 and maybe even sub-20 soon. How long do you think it might take? Thanks! :)
 
Get down to like 1:30 using the method you are now and then learn intuitive F2L. When you get down to about a minute with that then learn 2 look PLL and then 2 look OLL. That should be able to take you to sub 40 and then learn full PLL. You shouldn't really bother with full OLL until you are sub 20 though.

Feel free to message me if you want help, have questions or just want to talk. Also welcome to the forums!
 
Thanks guys. I certainly have a good deal of practice to do! Again, thanks for the warm welcome :)
 
Hello again everyone! It's been a fantastic couple of days so far. I was barely managing to solve the cube in 4 minutes a week ago. I went down to 2-3 minutes. Now, I mostly solve it within 2 minutes and my best time so far has been 1:42. The method I use is quite a mix of the beginner's method and a logical method. Here's a short breakdown of my steps and timings:

(White) Cross - 15-20 seconds. It takes me so long. I know how to shift the pieces exactly to form the cross. My problem is that I use of quite a lot of moves.
First Layer - 20-35 seconds. I don't use any algorithms. I just take a look at the corners and place them into the slots. It's quite time consuming.
Second Layer - 25-35 seconds. This is my favorite part of the solve. I'm really comfortable with placing the edges from the top to the second layer.
Final Layer - With the method I am currently using it depends. But I can solve the cube within 30-40 seconds from here on. This is the stage from which I start using algorithms. I solve for the cross, then solve for all yellow pieces, then solve the corners, and finally solve the edges to solve the cube.

Do you think I should move up to the Intuitive F2L Method? Or if anything else, please suggest.

As far as fingertricking the cube is concerned, I have nearly mastered the R U' R' U algorithm. Please suggest how I can improve my cubing speed. I got a better cube than what I had, but still, it's not very smooth and locks up frequently.

Thank you!
 
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Cross: Stop timing your solves so much. It's good to do untimed solves, as you can then practise things like efficiency. Don't worry about planning out the entire cross for now; focus on using fewer moves.
First/second layers: Intuitive F2L is much faster than what you're doing now. However, at first, it's often slower, since you haven't practised it much. I would suggest that when you're doing your untimed solves, take some time to practise F2L - you don't have to use it in your timed solves yet. Use it when you're comfortable with it. You can still use your old method for timed solves if you prefer (but also try to time some solves with F2L, so you have an idea of how fast you are with it).
Last Layer: Learn 4-look Last Layer. This solves the LL in the same steps as you are doing now, but is faster. Learn one step (or "look") at a time, and that should definitely improve your times.

Fingertricks are something you'll develop over time, especially as you start to learn more algorithms (like for 4-look LL). You can practise them if you want, but I think it would be more important to focus on the things I talked about above, as they'll help your fingertricks anyway. If your cube isn't very good, then there are some cubes that are very cheap but are still very good that you can get; there's the ShengShou Aurora and the YJ GuanLong. Both are worth buying.
 
Hello again everyone! It's been a fantastic couple of days so far. I was barely managing to solve the cube in 4 minutes a week ago. I went down to 2-3 minutes. Now, I mostly solve it within 2 minutes and my best time so far has been 1:42. The method I use is quite a mix of the beginner's method and a logical method. Here's a short breakdown of my steps and timings:

(White) Cross - 15-20 seconds. It takes me so long. I know how to shift the pieces exactly to form the cross. My problem is that I use of quite a lot of moves.
First Layer - 20-35 seconds. I don't use any algorithms. I just take a look at the corners and place them into the slots. It's quite time consuming.
Second Layer - 25-35 seconds. This is my favorite part of the solve. I'm really comfortable with placing the edges from the top to the second layer.
Final Layer - With the method I am currently using it depends. But I can solve the cube within 30-40 seconds from here on. This is the stage from which I start using algorithms. I solve for the cross, then solve for all yellow pieces, then solve the corners, and finally solve the edges to solve the cube.

Do you think I should move up to the Intuitive F2L Method? Or if anything else, please suggest.

As far as fingertricking the cube is concerned, I have nearly mastered the R U' R' U algorithm. Please suggest how I can improve my cubing speed. I got a better cube than what I had, but still, it's not very smooth and locks up frequently.

Thank you!

If you are feeling held back by your cube I would try to get another one. Any YJ cube should be good. A GuanLong is a good cube and for only a few bucks.

Make your goal to have fun. Getting faster will take time. It took me a few months until I could solve it under a minute. I didn't get sub-20 until about 7 months (and that is one solve under 20 seconds. I didn't get a average of 100 under 20 seconds until about 9 months). That is with a ton of practice.

Try experimenting with intuitive F2L. Your times may slow way down, but they will soon catch back up and allow you to get much faster. As far as "finger tricks" I cannot stand that term. Moving faces with your fingers instead of moving your wrist should start from the beginning and isn't a "trick." Honestly.... the best thing is just keep practicing. Every so often look for some new algorithms. start learning some new PLL algorithms for 2-look, and then start working on 1-look. CrazyBadCuber has some nice slow motion PLL videos that helped me. Reading notation did not help me much when starting out and just made things more confusing.

Remember. Have fun. The speed will come with time.
 
I agree with the Guanlong being a great starting cube for anyone.

I also agree that having fun should be your number one goal. Slow down your solves for now and work on always knowing what you should do next. This is a precursor step to look ahead. Where a lot of times greater than 1 minute come in is that you are unsure what to do when you get to a specific point. If you can get to the point where no matter how the cube looks when you finish inserting an edge or the cross or an algorithm and immediately start on that step (even if starting means looking for the right piece) you will see rapid improvement from your current time.

If I were you I would time myself 5 times a day at your current level. Just a single Ao5 a day will give you enough data to work with and to feel like you are still progressing. Don't stop timing yourself completely but rather do it less often. Another fun thing to do is keep a journal of your best time each day or your Ao5 (average of 5) for each day in excel and chart it out over the course of the next month or so. A month from now you will be able to see how far you have come which is a great feeling. That is something that I did when I started speed cubing about 2 months ago. I was solving at an average of 1:05 then I learned cross method and my times went up then back down, then I learned intuitive F2L and my times went up to 1:45 then back down to 50 seconds, etc. Today just 1.5-2 months after being 1 minute I am sub 40 seconds with an extremely luck Ao5 below 30 seconds. Being able to see the progress keeps me going.

There are a lot of great resources on this site and if you have any questions please don't hesitate to send me a PM or anyone else who is helping you in this thread.
 
Thank you everyone for the responses. I read all of them and have a ton of advice at my disposal. Thanks again!
 
watch example solves for cross, at your level it should be sub 1 if you're CN and just a bit slower if you're not

sorry just saw this but year i'm cn & cross is just stupid for me. it's not really cross I have huge problem with, it's finding the first pair. I can't trace the pieces before I do them, but if I do the cross slow enough to track the pieces, it's too slow (5+ sec). On easy crosses, I can obviously do it cuz it's not hard, but for crosses that are like 6 or more moves, I usually don't know where my first pair is until im done with cross.
 
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sorry just saw this but year i'm cn & cross is just stupid for me. it's not really cross I have huge problem with, it's finding the first pair. I can't trace the pieces before I do them, but if I do the cross slow enough to track the pieces, it's too slow (5+ sec). On easy crosses, I can obviously do it cuz it's not hard, but for crosses that are like 6 or more moves, I usually don't know where my first pair is until im done with cross.

Practise doing it like this:

1) Spend unlimited inspection time. Choose your cross and memorize the moves. Then track where each corner goes as you imagine doing the cross. Choose one (probably in the top layer) and follow its edge through the cross. You don't necessarily have to know the corner's orientation, just its end position.
2) Do the same, but know the corner's orientation as well.
3) Do 1), but also knowing where the edge will finish
4) Do 3), but knowing which orientation each is in.
5) Start reducing your inspection time.
 
How to be sub 25 in a 3x3

I am an average cuber. I usually get times under 35 sec. I had learned all the pll and f2l cases and learned 43 oll cases also learned advanced cross and look ahead but still my time is around 35 sec .
I use Moyu aolong v2 and Yj yulong as my main speedcubes. I want to know how to get times under 25 sec.

and my pb with Moyu aolong v2 is 26.90 but i didnt got below 25 at all can anyone tell me how to get good time.
 
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You're taking 30 - 35 seconds to perform a 55 - 60 move solve? Sounds like you need to practice turning quicker, like 3 turns per second or more. Can you watch YouTube videos on your computer? If so, look for cubing instruction ones, there are many.
 
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