# Sub 40-30 without knowing OLL & PLL 3x3



## Marsio95 (Nov 11, 2019)

Hello guys, I approached to speedcubing a few months ago, and through the layer method i'm now learning CFOP. I know how to solve using intuitive F2L but my times are very high! My average is always dancing between 39 and 43. Is it possible to improve my times without knowing OLL and PLL ? If yes can you saggest me a specific strategies to use? Thank you very much guys.
P.s. I'm using a GAN X


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## Llewelys (Nov 11, 2019)

You can learn 2-look OLL (2 algs to orient edges + 7 algs to orient corners) and 2-look PLL (2 algs to permute edges + 2 algs to permute corners)

That's 13 algs instead of 78 for full OLL and PLL.

Your times will go down a few seconds, but your main improvement will come from working on F2L.


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## Marsio95 (Nov 11, 2019)

Llewelys said:


> You can learn 2-look OLL (2 algs to orient edges + 7 algs to orient corners) and 2-look PLL (2 algs to permute edges + 2 algs to permute corners)
> 
> That's 13 algs instead of 78 for full OLL and PLL.
> 
> Your times will go down a few seconds, but your main improvement will come from working on F2L.


Can you provide this alg? 
Anyway what do you think is the best way to improve F2L?


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## PapaSmurf (Nov 11, 2019)

A few things: firstly, don't run away from algs. They aren't that hard to learn when you do it more. Secondly, you can be really fast (sub 12) without full OLL or PLL, but I would highly advise against it. Just learn the algs sooner. Thirdly, https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1MCqEZMCHj4iCTGo0Ku_9UQtp6bErJOlmWsPI_qqbE34/edit#gid=0 Fourthly, check out Roux and ZZ too. Once you know 4LLL, you won't need to learn any more algs to be able to do beginner's Roux and ZZ, and even if you don't switch, you'll learn skills from both of them that you can apply to CFOP. It should only take you about a week to achieve similar times. Fifthly, the best way to improve F2L is in 3 steps: make sure you have good solutions (do untimed solves where your focus is to use the fewest moves possible in F2L), make sure you can do those solutions quickly, lookahead. That's the order of priority, and when you get stuck at a time barrier, go through each of those steps again.


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## Llewelys (Nov 11, 2019)

Here's a video on 4-look last layer:







PapaSmurf said:


> Fifthly, the best way to improve F2L is in 3 steps: make sure you have good solutions (do untimed solves where your focus is to use the fewest moves possible in F2L), make sure you can do those solutions quickly, lookahead.


I agree with the first 2 steps, but unless you want to develop bad habits don't worry about look ahead until you're sub 20/25.

There are plenty of videos on youtube and threads on here regarding F2L, so check them out!


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## icarneiro (Nov 11, 2019)

I suggest 2look OLL and 1look PLL.
If you don’t want to know full PLL (21 algs), at least learn 2look PLL. 

I guarantee that in the end it's worth it, because I had no intention of learning 1 look OLL, and now I'm in this mission.

And a good F2L will decrease a lot your times to reach sub20


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## ProStar (Nov 11, 2019)

Learn 4-look last layer, and work on your Cross/F2L. You don't need full PLL or OLL for a while.


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