Help for square-1

[Bingus cuber]

I recently got a square-1, and I learned to solve it(except I haven't memorized the parity alg yet). Depends on the scramble, but I probably average about 2-3 minutes. I am going to a competition in April that has a time limit of 2 minutes, and a cutoff of 1 minute. My best time is 1:39, so definitely not fast enough to make cutoff. How do I get faster?

 

[Thom S.]

For one, learn the Adjacent Edge Parity Alg, you will need it.
You likely are pairing all the edges at the start and then do one of two cases to get back into Cubeshape. This step can get heavily shorter with experience, so do a lot of solves, maybe even some Cubeshape only solves.
Easy Cubeshape cases like Scallop-Kite, Scallop-Scallop or Kite-Cube, good Fists and Shield-Cube are the most beneficial to learn now, as Scallop-Kite and Scallop-Scallop will later become the intermediate Cubeshape method, Kite-Cube teaches you multiple easy cases at once and Good Fists come up very often..

Which Method are you using?
If I may assume Vandenbergh..
Learn all the CO, EO and CP Cases. There are only a few for each step, the CO cases are all intuitive anyway and doing so early will greatly improve your times now.

 

[NmeCuber]

For one, learn the Adjacent Edge Parity Alg, you will need it.
You likely are pairing all the edges at the start and then do one of two cases to get back into Cubeshape. This step can get heavily shorter with experience, so do a lot of solves, maybe even some Cubeshape only solves.
Easy Cubeshape cases like Scallop-Kite, Scallop-Scallop or Kite-Cube, good Fists and Shield-Cube are the most beneficial to learn now, as Scallop-Kite and Scallop-Scallop will later become the intermediate Cubeshape method, Kite-Cube teaches you multiple easy cases at once and Good Fists come up very often..

Which Method are you using?
If I may assume Vandenbergh..
Learn all the CO, EO and CP Cases. There are only a few for each step, the CO cases are all intuitive anyway and doing so early will greatly improve your times now.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought kite-cube was one of the worst CS cases.
Edit: I did some research and it is the worst cube shape case, but I think you were trying to say something else.

 

[IsThatA4x4]

I recently got a square-1, and I learned to solve it(except I haven't memorized the parity alg yet). Depends on the scramble, but I probably average about 2-3 minutes. I am going to a competition in April that has a time limit of 2 minutes, and a cutoff of 1 minute. My best time is 1:39, so definitely not fast enough to make cutoff. How do I get faster?

I would say for sub-1 you need:
- parity at EP (learn adj parity), so that parity doesn't completely ruin your solve
- full CP (at most 8 algs if you count every case)
- full EO (a lot of the algs are very similar)
- you don't really need it here but you could look at scallop/kite cubeshape, there's a good video on it by cube master: video

Other than that, it's kinda just doing a bunch of solves really.
Edit: this doc is probably also very useful

 

[Thom S.]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought kite-cube was one of the worst CS cases.
Edit: I did some research and it is the worst cube shape case, but I think you were trying to say something else.

It is the only 7-Slice Cubeshape and therefore the longest, yes. But, it reduces into both Shield-Kite and Shield-Cube, so you learn 2 or the more important cases with it.
Hojestly I wouldn't call it the worst, since Bad Fists and some of the 5 and 6 Slicers are way slower and more annoying.

 

[IsThatA4x4]

It is the only 7-Slice Cubeshape and therefore the longest, yes. But, it reduces into both Shield-Kite and Shield-Cube, so you learn 2 or the more important cases with it.
Hojestly I wouldn't call it the worst, since Bad Fists and some of the 5 and 6 Slicers are way slower and more annoying.

yeah kite/square is actually quite fast to execute since it's mostly 2-gen; but it's also quite rare so i don't know if learning it rather than just learning more base cases (3 slicers) is worth it to cover more cases

 

[Bingus cuber]

Thank you, this has all been very helpful.

 

[Bingus cuber]

Also, I'm not sure what method I use, but it's the one in Z3cubings tutorial. Probably the beginner method.

 

[IsThatA4x4]

Also, I'm not sure what method I use, but it's the one in Z3cubings tutorial. Probably the beginner method.

Yes, it's a beginner method, which is just a simplified form of VDB (Vandenburgh)

 

[Bingus cuber]

Ok, thank you.

 

[Bingus cuber]

Just got a new best time of 1:33 with no parity.

 

[Bingus cuber]

Nevermind, I just got a 1:30 with no parity.

 

[Bingus cuber]

I forgot to post it on here, but yesterday I got a 1:44 with parity.

 

[Bingus cuber]

Finally got a sub 1! 53.90, no parity. 8 second cubeshape, then really lucky OBL and PBL cases.