How long did it take before you were sub40?

[MorrisKid101]

Took me 2 weeks to get to sub-40 (after I first got my Zhanchi)
And reading all of these posts, I am feeling quite proud of myself
I achieved a 13.24 second PB (Extremely lucky) a week or two ago, and average around 24 seconds.
My first Zhanchi arrived and I started competing for speed on May 1st this year
To this day, I know about half of the PLL's (I'm really lazy, need to do 'em at some point) and all of the + alg's for OLL.
I don't know how I've progressed so quickly, but it has now been slowing down. At the Cambridge Open on June 16th I got a 30-something second average (Pretty bad for me)
Now at the UK Championship I got a 25s average. And had I not been nervous, this would not have been extremelly difficult at Cambridge.
So keep trying, you'll get there eventually. I hope to be sub-20 for the next comp and sub-13 by next xmas (big goals I know)

 

[KongShou]

a few hundred years

no im not lying i really did improve that fast

 

[Kian]

I'm no expert, but I think being sub 40 should probably take you less than 40 seconds.

 

[AFatTick]

About one month. It was like 3 years ago though. I average around 20 right now.

 

[Rubiksfreak]

Two weeks probably. I'm not sure thought, that was years ago.

 

[IcyBlade]

3 weeks. Then sub 30 in 2 weeks after that (switched from Rubik's to zhanchi). Then about 3 months to sub 20. I'm still getting to sub 15 now.

 

[Shah]

Just a week for Sub 40.
Nearly 4 Weeks for Sub 30.
And a week for sub 25 from sub 30.

BTW, I use Roux.

 

[larosh12]

4 months in about 3000 solves.

 

[Peace99]

Started cubing on May 2013, I became sub 50 at the first 2 weeks using LBL. sub 45 after 1 week later. Then I learned CFOP and became sub 40 in 2 weeks. sub 35 in about 3 weeks later. sub 30 2 months later and I'm sub 25 right now with a PB of 15.25. Lol

 

[hkpnkp]

4 days after i learned to solve it

 

[NikkHales]

about 1 months

 

[JE007]

5 weeks

 

[CheesecakeCuber]

2 weeks or so

 

[Mike Hughey]

It encourages me to see that for this particular milestone, I wasn't nearly as bad as I've been since then. I'd say I did it in about 3 months. But that has several caveats:
1. I had known how to solve the cube for about 25 years prior to starting real speedcubing. So (as requested in the original post) I'm not counting those years.
2. I used a keychain cube (with the keychain removed) to learn CFOP with 3-look LL. That was the first month or so of that 3 months.
3. Once I got a "real" cube, it was a Rubik's, unlubed.

Given 2 and 3, I'd say I did pretty well getting to 40 seconds in three months. But then it took me forever to get sub-30. And even longer for sub-20 (I'm not really there yet, although I'm close).

 

[Phillip1847]

Around 2-3 months. I really didn't know what I was doing at the time, and I was generally not doing anything right for about a month. If I had speedsolving wiki at the time, It probably would have taken me about 1 month.
After that, It took me 3 or 4 weeks to get a sub-30 average.

 

[rj]

3 months. Instant once I got a Zhanchi.

 

[RicardoRix]

quite depressing reading, gonna have to settle on being a **** speed cuber.
Been going for 6+ months and still at 47sec global average. Think I have some serious problems with recognition and pauses.

 

[rj]

quite depressing reading, gonna have to settle on being a **** speed cuber.
Been going for 6+ months and still at 47sec global average. Think I have some serious problems with recognition and pauses.

Learn Roux. Seriously.

 

[pipkiksass]

quite depressing reading, gonna have to settle on being a **** speed cuber.
Been going for 6+ months and still at 47sec global average. Think I have some serious problems with recognition and pauses.

There's no such thing as a **** speed cuber, only a **** speed cubing teacher!

Seriously though, proper practice will help a great deal. I'm not a natural sprinter by any means, but back at school I had a coach who gave me drills which took seconds off my 400m time. I was still MILES slower than natural 400m runners, but faster than I'd ever have been without the proper advice and guidance. You might not be sub 10 any time soon, but there's no reason whatsoever why you shouldn't be able to be sub 40 or even sub 30 if you start working on some of the bad habits you've probably taken on over time. Post a video in the solve critique thread, and get some specific guidance. Listen to it, and practice the bits of your solve that are weakest.

Learn Roux. Seriously.

Yeah... maybe. There are far more resources available for CFOP than for Roux, purely because of the number of people who use the method. While dabbling with other methods might broaden your cubing horizons, starting a new method will always initially (and inevitably) slow your times down. If you're looking for a quick-fix then this is definitely not for you!

There's so much on YouTube and this forum about how to improve at 3x3, specifically CFOP, that I'd suggest sticking with CFOP is probably a reasonable course of action for now, especially seeing as you've dedicated 6 months to it!

 

[IQubic]

Took doing an average of 100 every day for a whole summer to get sub-1 minute.