# How to improve success rate



## Faz (Mar 25, 2009)

I average about 2:20 or so, but my success rate is only 30%

I'm just wondering, should I go over all of my solves, and try to work out what I did wrong? Or should I go slower on memo?

How do I improve my consistency?
Thanks.


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## Lucas Garron (Mar 25, 2009)

Aw. I was totally hoping this thread would tell me how I could improve my success rate.

(You've been here long enough. Stefan should have taught you when to put "?" at the end of a title.)


Oh, so, uh: Practice. Full solves. Ignore your time.
(Also try rushing occasionally.)


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## trying-to-speedcube... (Mar 25, 2009)

It's probably your memo, it's not accurate enough. Go slower, so you have your memo correct (almost) every time. Speed will come later


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## Lucas Garron (Mar 25, 2009)

trying-to-speedcube... said:


> It's probably your memo, it's not accurate enough.


Any evidence for that?


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## trying-to-speedcube... (Mar 25, 2009)

Nope, that's why I said probably...
I don't think I'm very special or something, but if I DNF I normally made a memo mistake, and not an execution mistake. It's just what I think.


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## cmhardw (Mar 25, 2009)

Ideally you should be able to memo without reviewing anything at all. In practice I think most people still do a bit, but try to minimize any reviewing. If you can get your accuracy up, then you can start trying to work on speed again.

Here is a motivation for improving your accuracy. If you compete 3x3 BLD in a best of 3 round in a competition and you solve with 30% accuracy, then you have a:
(1 - 0.3)^3 = 34.3% chance to DNF the round and not get any of the solves.

For a best of 2 round it is:
(1 - 0.3)^2 = 49%
 
Slow down and work on accuracy with no regard to your time (as Lucas said). As your accuracy improves, start improving your speed in small amounts to get your speed back.

Chris

P.S. I set my competition DNF tolerance to be that I want there to be a 99% chance that I get at least one solve in the round for 3x3x3 BLD. This means that for best of 2 rounds you have to solve with 90% accuracy, and for best of 3 rounds you have to solve with approximately 78% accuracy.


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## Mike Hughey (Mar 25, 2009)

Of course, Chris has the best advice!

What has worked for me to improve my accuracy:

1. ALWAYS try to figure out what you did wrong on each solve, as soon as you finish it, if it's a DNF. You may not always succeed, but if you're persistent about it, you should certainly be able to figure out what went wrong most of the time. If necessary, reapply the scramble and work through the solve sighted to see if you can figure out where you went wrong. If you know what you're doing wrong, you can concentrate on it and fix it. I think this is REALLY important if you want to be accurate.

2. Do lots and lots of solves, back to back. Go for averages 10/12. If you get 2 DNFs, just keep going and try for a rolling average. The more solves you do, the more accurate you get. One of the things that leads to lots of my mistakes is memorizing or solving the wrong sticker or piece. The more you do this, the more anchored the piece letters (or whatever you use) become in your mind, and the less likely you are to make those mistakes.

These two things have helped me to get over 50% accurate on 5x5x5 BLD. So it has worked very well for me!

When you analyze your solves, if you find your memorization is the problem, then you can spend a little longer memorizing each piece, to anchor it more firmly, and then speed up once your accuracy is up. If your memorization is not the problem, I don't think it helps all that much to slow down very much. A little more care on each algorithm can help, but honestly that's only going to cost 10 seconds or so. There's no reason to solve really slow - if you do, it's not practicing for solving the way you want to be able to solve.


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## AJelsma (Mar 25, 2009)

it is your memo or you have learned a alg wrong or just do it wrong try the algs


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