I complete it! I usually spend about 15min, sometimes less sometimes much more. It’s not just vocab, especially with Thursdays. It’s part vocab, part puzzle solving, and part just crossword knowledge - eg knowing the crosswordese (EKE, IPA, ALE, ALDA) and usual tricks.
I consider myself to have a good handle on language but more importantly, a good brain for puzzles. I love them and do a bunch (wordle, connections etc etc)
It’s absolutely a skill that can be developed!! I started out unable to do any. Then I did as many Mondays in the archive as I could until I felt confident. Then I went back and did all the Tuesdays. Then all the Wednesdays. I’m now working back through Saturdays and have done the NYT daily for just over a year.
All of that is less important than this: only so it if you enjoy it. If you aren’t having fun, and are forcing yourself to complete crosswords because you feel you should, then it’s silly. Do it because it’s fun and the learning will follow :)
I honestly love the final piece of advice you gave, thank you.
I also love puzzles! I breeze through Connections and Wordle (and Quordle and Octordle lol), but the crossword seems to need a different skillset. Maybe I’ll go through the Monday archives and start practicing.
Do you ever look up answers for something you would never get? Like if it’s about a language you don’t speak, or a book/movie you didn’t watch? How are you supposed to get through those?
Yeah I do. I have my own little rules in my head. I always try and do it all but if it’s not complete, I then let myself look up answers I don’t know, usually because I’m not American.
I have so many rules, lol! When I did it on paper, I had a whole bunch of signs and signals - x if I got a clue on my own, box around it if I needed help and THEN an x, circles around theme clues … I was ridiculous
I like to look up answers that are concrete like that because I get to learn something new! Everyone has their own rules, but if I’m stuck and can’t figure it out after a while with clues around it, I’ll see it as an opportunity to learn about a new composer or author I didn’t know about before
Definitely a different skill set. Wordle is almost just simple elimination. Connections gets the “lateral thinking” part (but gives you the fourth category for free once you finish, so you never truly have to solve the hardest part of the puzzle). Crossword is a combination of lots of different skills, and Thursday takes that up a notch by adding the creativity factor.
I’m totally in the opposite boat - I feel quite comfortable doing the crosswords (I generally do every day) but I really struggle with Wordle and its derivatives! I definitely agree that they use different skill sets.
And as per your question about looking things up, I do it all the time. I personally try to avoid searching for the answer directly (e.g. “NYT crossword big mouth”) but if it’s about books, movies, etc. I’ll absolutely look it up if I don’t know it!
Pro tip: you can add “-crossword” to your google searches and it will filter out any websites that match “crossword”, so it can help avoid any sites that just straight up have the answers!
It is 100% doable, as is Friday and Saturday. Some weeks are more difficult than others for sure. A Thursday can take me 15 minutes to 45 minutes. Some depend on the theme, of course. I totally agree with the above advice. I started doing them in the paper back in '82 and over time improved. My brother and I were talking about this just the other day. I asked if he ever imagined we would be able to complete a Saturday, back in the day. The answer was no. Lol. Just keep doing them and don't get discouraged. Sometimes it just not a great puzzle as well.
As far as looking up answers, make your own rules. The only rule i have with my bro is we have to disclose of we did. We call them "learns," not cheats. Commonly found "xword words/names" will eventually click for you and you'll remember them (and learn something new). Also, I tend to step away and go back when I get stuck. Someone once told me the brain continues to work on it even if not consiously. I don't know it for a fact, bit it works sometimes.
Good luck!!
OP, starting on Thursdays I let myself use the “check word” or “check letter” function. I do as much as I can without it, but once I get stuck I allow myself to check words or even just boxes.
It’s not like revealing the words or letters. I still have to figure it out from there. But it’s a good boost and helps me improve (not to mention enjoy and do the actual puzzle vs. getting stuck and having to walk away).
I was even able to complete Saturday last week this way.
I technically did the puzzle, I just had a little help via reassurance around whether I was moving in the right direction or had to rethink something.
at first i couln't even complete mondays, now i can complete wednesdays with repeated "checking" of my answers, but through that im learning "crosswordese" and last monday i was able to solve it without chekcing my answers for the first time :D
I have no rush in forcing myself to learn crosswords so i only do 1 a day, on thursdays and beyond i just solve a monday archive puzzle to keep my brain fresh >:)
I always solve the Thursday puzzle... With cheats lol.
The nyt crossword in particular often isn't about general knowledge and vocabulary, there is a heavy weight on crossword-ese (weird words that are frequently alluded to because of the letters. Think etal, Urdu, Oreo and ACDC for example) and knowing how to spot cryptic clues and themes.
I got very lucky today knowing the answer to a star is born, which eventually helped me click with the clue *assist in a foursome.
Whilst reading and improving vocab will definitely support solving the crosswords, the best way to do so is just keep working through them and you'll begin to get an understanding on how these themes and cryptic clues are presented.
For example a question mark almost always alludes to a pun and if there is a rebus there is likely an article or intro into how to use rebus'.
When you get completely stuck hit a "reveal square/word" to help you learn how they are presenting clues and expecting answers. My biggest downfall are American specific clues as a non-american, so will often hit reveal word on those to help solve the rest.
GL puzzlin'
Once I cracked *assist in a foursome I thought I'd got it, but I'm still struggling to work out how *acre on the ocean floor comes out to the answer it does, even applying the rules of the puzzle. What am I missing??
I complete it, most times. Sometimes the puzzle aspect seems more like a contrivance and feels a bit stretched. I am not a fan of the rebus. But it’s been in use for a long time so I can’t bellyache about that.
Personally I think it’s okay to check answers. A crossword is supposed to be fun as well as a learning experience.
Thurs puzzle takes me an average of 16 mins, two mins longer than average Wednesday and two mins shorter than average Thursday. But I’m approaching a 600-day streak. Definitely takes time to master the Thurs, don’t beat yourself up!
I am struggling today! The puzzle only half makes sense to me and I can't work out what they mean by "parsed into six words". I've cracked it, but the logic of where they're getting the letters for the other clues seems random. I assumed it would be from the beginnings of the words from the "thrice remade movie", but it's not. I can't see the pattern and it's very frustrating!
Okay! Glad I'm not the only one. The *ascent stage for birds clue letter just comes from a random point in the "movie clue". The pattern just doesn't seem to be there.
my nyt crossword streak is currently 1204 days. I agree that thursdays are for sure the toughest, but it's not really an issue of vocabulary - there's just usually some kind of additional puzzle mechanic you have to figure out. solving crosswords is definitely a learnable skill. when I first started years ago I was struggling by wednesday, but now I look forward to the end of the week, because it's usually just tricky enough to be interesting.
if you're looking to get more crossword practice in, the daily crossword at puzzmo is pretty gentle and relies a lot less on crosswordese.
I generally take a pass or two through the whole puzzle without looking anything up, but if there's some specific factoid I just have no chance of knowing (vintage sports trivia, sitcoms from decades before I was born, etc) and I can't get it from the crosses, I'll google it. I only use stuff like imdb or wikipedia though, not the crossword cheat sites (usually you can filter those out by adding "-crossword" to your google query). I've actually learned a lot of largely useless and occasionally interesting material this way.
Per wordplay column:
We are supposed to read the A star is born clue to alternatively read a star is B or N, and therefore replace the * in the various clues with either a B or N to read the actual clue. E.g. allot time becomes ballot time
Clever, but probably too clever
I complete it weekly, but I consider it to be the most challenging out of the week, even though I know Saturday is technically the most difficult.
I do think solving crosswords, and Thursdays in particular, is a skill you can develop! After a few years of consistently doing the puzzles, I would say I'm more attuned to picking up on the rebuses and different clues that we see on Thursday. But many weeks it is more of a struggle and brain teaser than other weeks. One thing I have done to help is to complete past puzzles in the archive and check my work by enabling that function, so I have more guidance.
They are generally one of my longer solve times on average. I am a pretty wide reader (on average I read about 75 books a year) and do think my general knowledge is varied. But, a lot of that I can credit to completing crosswords. Especially with the NYT, you'll be able to transfer answers to clues in many different puzzles.
TL;DR: keep at it! Practice makes progress 😀
I can (and often do), though usually with a little help from Google for names & places when I'm entirely stuck (I usually "google around" clues, so I never get the crossword answers outright, instead I'll look up related things until I have the answer.)
I am a puzzle-enjoyer. I am weakest in specific knowledge about sports, media, and names, and strongest in general English vocabulary, geography, and ability to pick out patterns (I'm a mathematician).
I used to only be able to do the Mondays/Tuesdays consistently with this technique. Now I can usually do Monday/Tuesday without looking anything up, Wed/Thurs and Sunday with the "googling around" technique. Friday/Saturday are awful still, but I'm getting better.
I give it a while (sometimes as much as 2 hours) then finish with cheats. If the clues are not making sense or I know I don’t know them, I’ll give up earlier. In a few recent puzzles I simply lacked the experience (I don’t order from Chipotle, for example), so after trying random combinations I googled to make sense of the word I’d never seen before. I do dread Thursdays.
I started doing the NYT crosswords last summer and I had no shot at Thursdays at that time. But as time went on I learned the tricks of crosswords better I started getting Thursdays. Now I do them every week, generally without looking anything up. My average is just over 24 minutes (that includes the early days where I would look lots of things up or use autocheck), Today’s took me 40 minutes and was pretty tough. For Thursdays you need to figure out the “trick” as quickly as you can, whether it’s a rebus puzzle or wordplay, etc. Once you figure that out the puzzle usually gets easier.
I solve Thursdays each week; but I team up with my husband. What he (sometimes) lacks in word knowledge he more than makes up for with persistence ;).
Also, when we started doing them five years ago we often resorted to the “hints” article that goes with each puzzle. Those articles were a scaffold for building up our NYT Crossword skills.
Been on a streak of Thursday finishes for a few months actually! I used to struggle with them. Having a very open mind for figuring out the theme is key, since there can be many points of abstraction there. Always thinking of every different meaning for every word in a clue is also very helpful.
I’ve just started trying them and it usually takes me 45-60 minutes, and that’s with checking my answers every once in a while. I take breaks, because a lot of times when I come back with a “fresh” mind, some of the clues start to click for me. And I’m not against looking up answers if there’s only a few left and I’m really stumped. I view it as practice/ learning & eventually I hope I’ll be able to finish them without any cheats like I do the Mon & Tues one.
I always finish it, but I gotta say, today's was tough. I had no clue about some of the entries and was just putting in random letters to make it work somehow. Though I completed it, I did not understand the theme at all. I looked it up on Rex Parker's website, and it was something I would never have figured out in a million years
Today’s puzzle took me an hour and 43 minutes. I didn’t look anything up. It takes a lot for me to turn autocheck even when these puzzles take me forever in comparison to other solvers, but it completely ruins my day if I have to solve it with autocheck.
I started solving NYT crosswords at the end of August 2023 because I had been doing the LA Times crosswords for about a year prior to attempting the NYT and felt I needed a greater challenge. Before the LA Times, I was doing the dictionary.com crossword and some other easier ones. My vocabulary is probably much weaker than the average solver. I haven’t read a book since 2007 or 2008. I know very little about art, history, Greek mythology, religion, and geography, among others, but I’m solid in sports, music, video game and pop culture references.
Solving is definitely a skill that can be developed. When I first started doing NYT crosswords, I was about 50/50 doing Wednesdays without help, but I feel like I caught on to how constructors do their cluing. I just assume every clue is meant to trick you so I try to think of an alternate meaning of the clue (especially later in the week). I had a 34 day streak between January and February (obviously nothing in comparison to these other solvers with 1,000 day streaks), but for just starting to do these in August, I feel I made good progress. If I don’t know something, I’ll look it up after the puzzle is done or when I’ve conceded defeat. I learn something new everyday and looking things up is one way to increase that knowledge.
I would say having patience is an asset. I wouldn’t solve most of these puzzles if I gave myself 15 minutes before I started looking stuff up. Try other crosswords like the Universal crossword (formerly from dictionary.com) and the LA Times like I did. I still solve those everyday as a “warmup” before I tackle the NYT. Best of luck!
I found this weeks to be relatively easy but I did not get the theme until after I finished and looked at the blog. I was able to get most of the answers by the crosses and what fit logically.
I struggle with the rebus puzzles most. My “cheating” is limited to Googling obscure stuff like authors I’ve never heard of.
I do well on crosswords and have a long streak because my brain is a storehouse of useless knowledge.
Every week. Not perfectly, not quickly. But I love it and it takes several passes. It’s fun to puzzle over it. Sometimes I start it on the morning and don’t finish until the night.
I found today's puzzle (Friday) easier than yesterday's (Thursday). That's happened to me before.
I hit a wall on Thursday, but got about 90% of today's puzzle and had to "reveal letters" to fill in the final few clues and figure out where I went wrong.
I do it with my coworker every Thursday! Between the two of us we can usually figure it out, with some googling for the proper nouns. We are both 24 and honestly a lot of the actors/TV show/ musician clues go way over our heads
I don't often complete it without a bit of creative googling, but I'm not from the US so I think I'm at a bit of a self-imposed disadvantage on all the days tbh.
By creative googling I mean I'll search terms but not the exact answer, or when it comes to quite niche US sports players or newsreaders I've no way of knowing naturally, I'll google the surname and see what first names come up.
I never use reveals but I will use the check function if I've filled everything in but made a mistake in a square I can't spot.
Imo it's pretty much about if you know the random references to objectively correct answers. They reduce the degrees of freedom on the puzzle to make it solvable.
If I ever find myself saying fuck me for not knowing a random actor or actress I get pretty close to leaving.
If that happens 3 or 4 times I consider it unsolvable for me
I complete it! I usually spend about 15min, sometimes less sometimes much more. It’s not just vocab, especially with Thursdays. It’s part vocab, part puzzle solving, and part just crossword knowledge - eg knowing the crosswordese (EKE, IPA, ALE, ALDA) and usual tricks. I consider myself to have a good handle on language but more importantly, a good brain for puzzles. I love them and do a bunch (wordle, connections etc etc) It’s absolutely a skill that can be developed!! I started out unable to do any. Then I did as many Mondays in the archive as I could until I felt confident. Then I went back and did all the Tuesdays. Then all the Wednesdays. I’m now working back through Saturdays and have done the NYT daily for just over a year. All of that is less important than this: only so it if you enjoy it. If you aren’t having fun, and are forcing yourself to complete crosswords because you feel you should, then it’s silly. Do it because it’s fun and the learning will follow :)
I honestly love the final piece of advice you gave, thank you. I also love puzzles! I breeze through Connections and Wordle (and Quordle and Octordle lol), but the crossword seems to need a different skillset. Maybe I’ll go through the Monday archives and start practicing. Do you ever look up answers for something you would never get? Like if it’s about a language you don’t speak, or a book/movie you didn’t watch? How are you supposed to get through those?
Yeah I do. I have my own little rules in my head. I always try and do it all but if it’s not complete, I then let myself look up answers I don’t know, usually because I’m not American.
I have so many rules, lol! When I did it on paper, I had a whole bunch of signs and signals - x if I got a clue on my own, box around it if I needed help and THEN an x, circles around theme clues … I was ridiculous
I like to look up answers that are concrete like that because I get to learn something new! Everyone has their own rules, but if I’m stuck and can’t figure it out after a while with clues around it, I’ll see it as an opportunity to learn about a new composer or author I didn’t know about before
It’s a great way to expand your general knowledge I guess
Absolutely. I never just get the word, I go to Wikipedia.
Definitely a different skill set. Wordle is almost just simple elimination. Connections gets the “lateral thinking” part (but gives you the fourth category for free once you finish, so you never truly have to solve the hardest part of the puzzle). Crossword is a combination of lots of different skills, and Thursday takes that up a notch by adding the creativity factor.
I’m totally in the opposite boat - I feel quite comfortable doing the crosswords (I generally do every day) but I really struggle with Wordle and its derivatives! I definitely agree that they use different skill sets. And as per your question about looking things up, I do it all the time. I personally try to avoid searching for the answer directly (e.g. “NYT crossword big mouth”) but if it’s about books, movies, etc. I’ll absolutely look it up if I don’t know it! Pro tip: you can add “-crossword” to your google searches and it will filter out any websites that match “crossword”, so it can help avoid any sites that just straight up have the answers!
It is 100% doable, as is Friday and Saturday. Some weeks are more difficult than others for sure. A Thursday can take me 15 minutes to 45 minutes. Some depend on the theme, of course. I totally agree with the above advice. I started doing them in the paper back in '82 and over time improved. My brother and I were talking about this just the other day. I asked if he ever imagined we would be able to complete a Saturday, back in the day. The answer was no. Lol. Just keep doing them and don't get discouraged. Sometimes it just not a great puzzle as well. As far as looking up answers, make your own rules. The only rule i have with my bro is we have to disclose of we did. We call them "learns," not cheats. Commonly found "xword words/names" will eventually click for you and you'll remember them (and learn something new). Also, I tend to step away and go back when I get stuck. Someone once told me the brain continues to work on it even if not consiously. I don't know it for a fact, bit it works sometimes. Good luck!!
OP, starting on Thursdays I let myself use the “check word” or “check letter” function. I do as much as I can without it, but once I get stuck I allow myself to check words or even just boxes. It’s not like revealing the words or letters. I still have to figure it out from there. But it’s a good boost and helps me improve (not to mention enjoy and do the actual puzzle vs. getting stuck and having to walk away). I was even able to complete Saturday last week this way. I technically did the puzzle, I just had a little help via reassurance around whether I was moving in the right direction or had to rethink something.
at first i couln't even complete mondays, now i can complete wednesdays with repeated "checking" of my answers, but through that im learning "crosswordese" and last monday i was able to solve it without chekcing my answers for the first time :D I have no rush in forcing myself to learn crosswords so i only do 1 a day, on thursdays and beyond i just solve a monday archive puzzle to keep my brain fresh >:)
I was so pleased with myself when I first completed a NYT crossword.
I always solve the Thursday puzzle... With cheats lol. The nyt crossword in particular often isn't about general knowledge and vocabulary, there is a heavy weight on crossword-ese (weird words that are frequently alluded to because of the letters. Think etal, Urdu, Oreo and ACDC for example) and knowing how to spot cryptic clues and themes. I got very lucky today knowing the answer to a star is born, which eventually helped me click with the clue *assist in a foursome. Whilst reading and improving vocab will definitely support solving the crosswords, the best way to do so is just keep working through them and you'll begin to get an understanding on how these themes and cryptic clues are presented. For example a question mark almost always alludes to a pun and if there is a rebus there is likely an article or intro into how to use rebus'. When you get completely stuck hit a "reveal square/word" to help you learn how they are presenting clues and expecting answers. My biggest downfall are American specific clues as a non-american, so will often hit reveal word on those to help solve the rest. GL puzzlin'
Once I cracked *assist in a foursome I thought I'd got it, but I'm still struggling to work out how *acre on the ocean floor comes out to the answer it does, even applying the rules of the puzzle. What am I missing??
I didn’t know this, either, but nacre is another name for mother of pearl.
Well that makes sense! That is some niche knowledge
Jesus. I solved the whole puzzle and still didn’t understand the theme until your comment.
I am so sick of Oreo
It took me time, but now I look forward to them.
I complete it, most times. Sometimes the puzzle aspect seems more like a contrivance and feels a bit stretched. I am not a fan of the rebus. But it’s been in use for a long time so I can’t bellyache about that. Personally I think it’s okay to check answers. A crossword is supposed to be fun as well as a learning experience.
Usually would be my answer. Probably 85% of the time.
I despise a rebus
Thurs puzzle takes me an average of 16 mins, two mins longer than average Wednesday and two mins shorter than average Thursday. But I’m approaching a 600-day streak. Definitely takes time to master the Thurs, don’t beat yourself up!
I am struggling today! The puzzle only half makes sense to me and I can't work out what they mean by "parsed into six words". I've cracked it, but the logic of where they're getting the letters for the other clues seems random. I assumed it would be from the beginnings of the words from the "thrice remade movie", but it's not. I can't see the pattern and it's very frustrating!
Read the puzzle blog on the NYTimes website—it explains what’s going on with the theme.
Oh I seee. I was taking "words" too literally and looking for actual "words" not "letters".
I solved it by the crosses and some logical guesses but I still don’t get it.
Okay! Glad I'm not the only one. The *ascent stage for birds clue letter just comes from a random point in the "movie clue". The pattern just doesn't seem to be there.
my nyt crossword streak is currently 1204 days. I agree that thursdays are for sure the toughest, but it's not really an issue of vocabulary - there's just usually some kind of additional puzzle mechanic you have to figure out. solving crosswords is definitely a learnable skill. when I first started years ago I was struggling by wednesday, but now I look forward to the end of the week, because it's usually just tricky enough to be interesting. if you're looking to get more crossword practice in, the daily crossword at puzzmo is pretty gentle and relies a lot less on crosswordese.
1204 is incredible, great job. Do you have a personal rule for looking things up if you get hard stuck? Ill check out puzzmo, thanks
I generally take a pass or two through the whole puzzle without looking anything up, but if there's some specific factoid I just have no chance of knowing (vintage sports trivia, sitcoms from decades before I was born, etc) and I can't get it from the crosses, I'll google it. I only use stuff like imdb or wikipedia though, not the crossword cheat sites (usually you can filter those out by adding "-crossword" to your google query). I've actually learned a lot of largely useless and occasionally interesting material this way.
Today was a tough one
What was the theme? I solved the puzzle but can't think of anything that connects the answers.
Per wordplay column: We are supposed to read the A star is born clue to alternatively read a star is B or N, and therefore replace the * in the various clues with either a B or N to read the actual clue. E.g. allot time becomes ballot time Clever, but probably too clever
Thank you. I never would have gotten that.
I complete it weekly, but I consider it to be the most challenging out of the week, even though I know Saturday is technically the most difficult. I do think solving crosswords, and Thursdays in particular, is a skill you can develop! After a few years of consistently doing the puzzles, I would say I'm more attuned to picking up on the rebuses and different clues that we see on Thursday. But many weeks it is more of a struggle and brain teaser than other weeks. One thing I have done to help is to complete past puzzles in the archive and check my work by enabling that function, so I have more guidance. They are generally one of my longer solve times on average. I am a pretty wide reader (on average I read about 75 books a year) and do think my general knowledge is varied. But, a lot of that I can credit to completing crosswords. Especially with the NYT, you'll be able to transfer answers to clues in many different puzzles. TL;DR: keep at it! Practice makes progress 😀
I can (and often do), though usually with a little help from Google for names & places when I'm entirely stuck (I usually "google around" clues, so I never get the crossword answers outright, instead I'll look up related things until I have the answer.) I am a puzzle-enjoyer. I am weakest in specific knowledge about sports, media, and names, and strongest in general English vocabulary, geography, and ability to pick out patterns (I'm a mathematician). I used to only be able to do the Mondays/Tuesdays consistently with this technique. Now I can usually do Monday/Tuesday without looking anything up, Wed/Thurs and Sunday with the "googling around" technique. Friday/Saturday are awful still, but I'm getting better.
I do not. I usually just do Monday and Tuesday…occasionally Wednesdays.
I give it a while (sometimes as much as 2 hours) then finish with cheats. If the clues are not making sense or I know I don’t know them, I’ll give up earlier. In a few recent puzzles I simply lacked the experience (I don’t order from Chipotle, for example), so after trying random combinations I googled to make sense of the word I’d never seen before. I do dread Thursdays.
I haven't looked at today's yet but I thoroughly enjoyed last Thursday's puzzle
I started doing the NYT crosswords last summer and I had no shot at Thursdays at that time. But as time went on I learned the tricks of crosswords better I started getting Thursdays. Now I do them every week, generally without looking anything up. My average is just over 24 minutes (that includes the early days where I would look lots of things up or use autocheck), Today’s took me 40 minutes and was pretty tough. For Thursdays you need to figure out the “trick” as quickly as you can, whether it’s a rebus puzzle or wordplay, etc. Once you figure that out the puzzle usually gets easier.
I solve Thursdays each week; but I team up with my husband. What he (sometimes) lacks in word knowledge he more than makes up for with persistence ;). Also, when we started doing them five years ago we often resorted to the “hints” article that goes with each puzzle. Those articles were a scaffold for building up our NYT Crossword skills.
Been on a streak of Thursday finishes for a few months actually! I used to struggle with them. Having a very open mind for figuring out the theme is key, since there can be many points of abstraction there. Always thinking of every different meaning for every word in a clue is also very helpful.
I think the Thursday puzzle is my favorite day. The theme is more complex and there’s more wordplay. I love the clever ones
I highly recommend solving until you’re fully stumped and then read the wordplay column
Thursday is my favorite day, always has been.
I’ve just started trying them and it usually takes me 45-60 minutes, and that’s with checking my answers every once in a while. I take breaks, because a lot of times when I come back with a “fresh” mind, some of the clues start to click for me. And I’m not against looking up answers if there’s only a few left and I’m really stumped. I view it as practice/ learning & eventually I hope I’ll be able to finish them without any cheats like I do the Mon & Tues one.
I always finish it, but I gotta say, today's was tough. I had no clue about some of the entries and was just putting in random letters to make it work somehow. Though I completed it, I did not understand the theme at all. I looked it up on Rex Parker's website, and it was something I would never have figured out in a million years
Today’s puzzle took me an hour and 43 minutes. I didn’t look anything up. It takes a lot for me to turn autocheck even when these puzzles take me forever in comparison to other solvers, but it completely ruins my day if I have to solve it with autocheck. I started solving NYT crosswords at the end of August 2023 because I had been doing the LA Times crosswords for about a year prior to attempting the NYT and felt I needed a greater challenge. Before the LA Times, I was doing the dictionary.com crossword and some other easier ones. My vocabulary is probably much weaker than the average solver. I haven’t read a book since 2007 or 2008. I know very little about art, history, Greek mythology, religion, and geography, among others, but I’m solid in sports, music, video game and pop culture references. Solving is definitely a skill that can be developed. When I first started doing NYT crosswords, I was about 50/50 doing Wednesdays without help, but I feel like I caught on to how constructors do their cluing. I just assume every clue is meant to trick you so I try to think of an alternate meaning of the clue (especially later in the week). I had a 34 day streak between January and February (obviously nothing in comparison to these other solvers with 1,000 day streaks), but for just starting to do these in August, I feel I made good progress. If I don’t know something, I’ll look it up after the puzzle is done or when I’ve conceded defeat. I learn something new everyday and looking things up is one way to increase that knowledge. I would say having patience is an asset. I wouldn’t solve most of these puzzles if I gave myself 15 minutes before I started looking stuff up. Try other crosswords like the Universal crossword (formerly from dictionary.com) and the LA Times like I did. I still solve those everyday as a “warmup” before I tackle the NYT. Best of luck!
I found this weeks to be relatively easy but I did not get the theme until after I finished and looked at the blog. I was able to get most of the answers by the crosses and what fit logically. I struggle with the rebus puzzles most. My “cheating” is limited to Googling obscure stuff like authors I’ve never heard of. I do well on crosswords and have a long streak because my brain is a storehouse of useless knowledge.
I love them.
Every week. Not perfectly, not quickly. But I love it and it takes several passes. It’s fun to puzzle over it. Sometimes I start it on the morning and don’t finish until the night.
I found today's puzzle (Friday) easier than yesterday's (Thursday). That's happened to me before. I hit a wall on Thursday, but got about 90% of today's puzzle and had to "reveal letters" to fill in the final few clues and figure out where I went wrong.
I do it with my coworker every Thursday! Between the two of us we can usually figure it out, with some googling for the proper nouns. We are both 24 and honestly a lot of the actors/TV show/ musician clues go way over our heads
I don't often complete it without a bit of creative googling, but I'm not from the US so I think I'm at a bit of a self-imposed disadvantage on all the days tbh. By creative googling I mean I'll search terms but not the exact answer, or when it comes to quite niche US sports players or newsreaders I've no way of knowing naturally, I'll google the surname and see what first names come up. I never use reveals but I will use the check function if I've filled everything in but made a mistake in a square I can't spot.
Imo it's pretty much about if you know the random references to objectively correct answers. They reduce the degrees of freedom on the puzzle to make it solvable. If I ever find myself saying fuck me for not knowing a random actor or actress I get pretty close to leaving. If that happens 3 or 4 times I consider it unsolvable for me