Tips for solving

Advanced methods and approaches for solving Sudoku puzzles

Tips for solving

Postby IQ » Fri May 27, 2005 2:54 pm

I'm not exactly a pro at this sirt of thing. In fact, I'm not particularly good at it! :P But I have found some tips very useful:

1. TAKE BREAKS! Unless you are trying for a record time (like 15 mins) on a fiendish sudoku, you will want to come back to that sudoku as often as possible, but not for hours at a stretch! If you think you will take more than about 1 hr on a sudoku, take regular breaks (This works for almost anything really - crosswords, revision, etc.). If you're stuck, that break will help clear out your mind! ;)

2. DO NOT BE LAZY. I know this is contradicting what I just said, but if you are finding one particular Sudoku really hard, I find it useful to write all the different possibilities on each square, and go from there. Of course, this is after putting down all the obvious ones, or these pencilmarks will be fairly useless.

3. Do not get bogged down by one side of the sudoku. If you are getting nowhere in one corner, move on somewhere else, and maybe you will find a clue to that part of the sudoku!

All of these points may sound obvious, but one must not forget them, or you'll never get on to the harder sudokus or increase your speed very much.

That's all for the moment. I'm sure the other experts will have a lot more tips for you...
IQ
 
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Joined: 27 May 2005

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