How to teach my sister

[Rpotts]

OK, I started cubing about 4 months ago, and have really become addicted to it. My sister, who is 21, asked me to start teaching her several weeks ago. She can successfully finish the first layer, but it takes her a long time sometimes and she easily gets frustrated.

I started showing her the middle layer tonight, she had me write down the algorithms for placing middle layer edges and then started asking some questions about how to hold the cube, etc. She placed one using one of the algorithms, and then she had the opposite case, and was trying to describe the way to tell the difference between them, but she was wording it awkwardly and I didn't really understand her. I tried explaining the way I learned to distinguish them, but she got frustrated, yelled at me then left cursing.

My question is, does anyone have an easy way of distinguishing the two cases on this website verbally.

http://peter.stillhq.com/jasmine/rubikscubesolution.html

I try showing her, but she gets upset and she wants me to tell her, but my way of describing it doesn't make sense to her. I want her to learn, but I don't want to teach her if she is just going to ***** whenever she doesn't get it immediately. Any ideas?

EDIT: I am thinking about having her learn Petrus instead of LBL, because block building might make more sense than distinguishing multiple cases for the same step, and because the LL algs for the beginner method I showed her are Niklas, Sune, Anti-Sune and Allen (and it's inverse). Do you guys have any experience teaching someone who just has a hard time with it? I have taught a few people before and they have learned in a couple of days with minimal practice, but my sister has been doing it for weeks, with almost no progress.

 

[Lucas Garron]

F'U'F'U'F'UFUFU
FUFUFU'F'U'F'U'

I should really write a beginner's method site...

 

[Rpotts]

^
Thanks for providing algorithms, but that doesn't really help me, she is having a hard time understanding when to use which one, and I can only imagine how hard it will be for her when it comes to the last layer, it was hard for me when I first started and took me a while to learn when to use sune and anti-sune. I think that will be very difficult for her.

 

[fanwuq]

good luck, just be patient.

 

[Lofty]

Well if your edge is lined up above its center in the top layer (making an upside down T) you look if it needs to be placed to the right or to the left and use the appropriate alg to get it to that side.

 

[dChan]

It is very odd that people who really want to learn cannot figure it out for themself. When I started out, my first try using the beginner's solution went very well and I actually solved the cube the first time I tried. I assume it was the same for most of the cubers here. But, when, for example, I try to show my own sister she just doesn't seem to get it. I am thinking about the next time when she wants to learn I'll just give her the solution hints booklet and maybe that might be easier for her to learn from. Have you tried that yet?

 

[Bryan]

My middle layer description is something like this (from a solution I wrote to teach beginners):

Now we’ll put the middle layer in place. Of course, the middle layer is just the edges and the centers. Since the centers can’t move, this step is just the edges.

So, we’ll want to have the piece we want to place on the bottom layer. Just look for an edge on the bottom layer that doesn’t have yellow. If there are none, remember that phrase? Just pick a piece from the bottom with yellow and put it up to move a non-yellow piece to the bottom that isn't correct.

OK, now that we have the piece in the bottom layer, we put it below the center cube of the color that isn’t facing down. Like this:

[There's a picture showing this]

Notice how the red makes a “T” If that red/blue edge had been flipped so that the red side was down, then we’d have this piece under the blue to make a blue “T”. Also, remember we’re doing all our examples with the red/blue. If this piece was the red/green edge, then have the green and red face in front of you instead of the red and blue faces.

Do the following move:

[No letter notations, just graphical diagrams]

Now, let’s break this into words again:

1.The edge moves away from the middle.
2.The non-T face moves the top corner down.
3.The bottom moves in the same direction as it did for step 1
4.The non-T face moves back (undo step 2)
5.The bottom face moves in the opposite way it did for step 1 and 3. Take a moment to look at the setup of this. We have the white/red/blue corner in the bottom layer in one of our good situations. The next three steps just solve this how we know it. The only difference is that the red/blue edge is in the right position so that it’s solved when we’re done with the next three steps.
6.The top of the T face moves towards the center (Hint, look at what’s happening to the red/white/blue corner and the red/blue edge during this step).
7.The bottom layer moves in the same direction as step 5.
8.The T layer moves in the opposite direction as step 6.

 

[Rpotts]

To dChan -

I was the same way, it took me a few hours of using a beginners method but I got it on one of my first attempts (messed up on corner permutation on the first attempt). I don't have a solution hints, I threw the packaging of my cube away when I first got it, is it the one that uses R D R' D' for the LL corners?

 

[fanwuq]

One of my classmates is really smart. She refuses anyone to teach her. She gets f2L done by herself in like 2mins and gives up at LL. So the only thing I can do to help is to tell her to study commutators and she just gets confused. But one time, she got only 2 corners to orient all by herself. I tried to introduce commutators to her, but it did not help. Any way to teach a non cubist commutators when you aren't so great yourself?

 

[pcwiz]

Why don't you try explaining it a way some people do it on YouTube?

A very good layer by layer tutorial that is very easy to understand is Badmephisto's. You can probably choose different algorithms (the one he teaches are not that fast but they are easy to remember) but you can teach it the same way - it's really easy to understand.

How to solve the Rubik's Cube: Beginner Method
Part1:http://youtube.com/watch?v=ofZFUgaxlTQ&feature=PlayList&p=4A19F1D174B975BD&index=4
Part2:http://youtube.com/watch?v=fJw9kWkMnYg&feature=PlayList&p=4A19F1D174B975BD&index=3
Part3:http://youtube.com/watch?v=0Bg3fCI6glM&feature=PlayList&p=4A19F1D174B975BD&index=2

 

[TimMc]

Teach her how to solve F2L intuitively.

That is, instead of getting her to memorize cases, show her how to use the Top layer and a Slot to flip a Corner and Edge. Thus allowing her to join a Corner and Edge pair in the Top layer or in the Slot itself.

Knowing how to do this will better prepare her for figuring out how to solve F2L in any state.

---

Don't go any further than that until she's confident with solving F2L. From there it'd be easier to teach:

Cross on Top: One algorithm [the one that takes a dot, makes an L and then a line and the a cross] (use it recursively)
Orient Corners: Niklas/Anti Niklas
Permute Corners: J Perm (up to two times)
Permute Edges: U Perm (up to two times)

That's just 5 algorithms to remember and after using them repetitively she'll understand how they affect the cube and how algorithms can be "merged" to achieve different states. [J + J' = Y. J' U J = U Perm] et cetera

Try to have fun teaching, and don't try teaching heaps of algorithms if a few will suffice. Especially if they don't have much patience

Tim.

 

[SajberPinGu]

I learn them easy pattern to look for then i do easy explanation of how they do it so they really understand what they are doing with the pieces.
Pattern and stuff are easy to remember in the beginning cause you cant see the cubes as pieces right away, people see the colors first how many times you explain that there are pieces not colors.

Thats the smartest way imo, to get them to understand what they are doing.
Like when putting down the edges in the second-layer i show them how the pairing up is done and then how you just put the pair down and most of the ppl i have taught get it when i show them and they can try for them self some times.

 

[cwdana]

I think it's already been explained, but when you form the T, the color of the bottom of the T edge should tell her which alg to perform.

If the bottom T piece needs to fill the edge on the right, you do the 'right' alg. If it needs to fill the one on the left, you do the 'left' alg.

i.e. - A blue T with an orange piece on the bottom, you perform the "right" alg. If it is red on the bottom, you perform the "left" alg.

(with cross on top)
LEFT ALG - D L D' L' D' F' D F
RIGHT ALG - D' R' D R D F D' F'

This is how I was taught to recognize this step of LBL.

Check out this site for images.

 

[dChan]

To dChan -

I was the same way, it took me a few hours of using a beginners method but I got it on one of my first attempts (messed up on corner permutation on the first attempt). I don't have a solution hints, I threw the packaging of my cube away when I first got it, is it the one that uses R D R' D' for the LL corners?

Yes, but it is R' D' R D. Just a little mixed up. I wish you still had it because then I could tell me sister, "See! His sister learned with only the little booklet!" lol Oh well. My first try was probably an hour and I was able to solve it. When I really learned the algorithms as opposed to using the book as I solved my times dropped immediately below ten minutes. In my opinion, if your sister could just learn it the same way that most cubers do [ by reading someone's solution guide as opposed to being told how to do it ] then she might be able to learn better. Maybe try giving her the link to Jasmine's solution?

 

[jonny guitar]

Man.....you guys would of loved to be around in the very early 80's when we didn't have the accepted cube language to communicate with let alone any methods to follow. It was a riot trying to teach people about the cube and communicate with other cuber because everybody had a different language and method that they used.

I taught my nephew my initial method and wrote down this page of total chicken stratch notes for him to follow (my penmanship is pathetic) with a bunch of errors crossed off and weird lingo...he got it because I was there to connect it visually with him. Now, he is trying to use the same sheet to explain it to his classmate in grade 7 -- I would love to see that happening. However it is a single sided sheet with about 5 or 6 home made algos on it and he does it pretty quick and is now slowly learning the f2l and working from there.

 

[pcwiz]

Teach her how to solve F2L intuitively.

That is, instead of getting her to memorize cases, show her how to use the Top layer and a Slot to flip a Corner and Edge. Thus allowing her to join a Corner and Edge pair in the Top layer or in the Slot itself.

Knowing how to do this will better prepare her for figuring out how to solve F2L in any state.

This is my opinion, but I don't really think that would work. In intuitive F2L, you have to do a lot of thinking and at FIRST especially if you're a beginner, it's really complicated (my opinion) You have to understand the "rules" about corner and edge pieces and all the other stuff so I don't think it would be a too good idea showing that to a beginner because the concept is complicated (my opinion)