# Have you ever tried teaching someone how to solve a cube?



## Rook (Oct 24, 2009)

Hi all,

So the other day I was trying to teach my friend how to solve a 2x2 using LBL. I didn't really want to introduce cubing notation because I thought he would get confused. Maybe I should have though...

I found it extremely annoying because 1) My friend is extremely impatient and 2) I had to speak to him like "Turn this side this way, then that side the other way, then the first side counterclockwise, etc."  Eventually I gave up on teaching him (he didn't seem to want to "waste his time" apparently). I was thinking to myself, How the heck would I teach him to solve a 3x3 if he can't be bothered to solve a 2x2? :fp

anyway, have you ever tried teaching a friend/family member how to solve a cube?


----------



## Parity (Oct 24, 2009)

Yes I have and it worked he solves it in 1 minutes 30 seconds now.

I teached him 3x3x3 the way to tried teaching him.


----------



## ianini (Oct 24, 2009)

I taught a person how to solve a 3x3. It took a long time just teaching him the cross.


----------



## Parity (Oct 24, 2009)

ianini said:


> I taught a person how to solve a 3x3. It took a long time just teaching him the cross.



He found out the cross easy for me.
and when I teached him the step were you have to do R U' L' U R' U' L.
I told him to remember raisng and lowering the bars.


----------



## Muesli (Oct 24, 2009)

I taught my friend the other week.

I also taught my girlfriend, then she broke up with me about a month later. She still cubes. I WANT MY KNOWLEDGE BACK!


----------



## Ashmnafa (Oct 24, 2009)

I have taught 3 people. The most recent was the easiest, because he already knew how to make a layer, and knew how the cube worked. Then I taught him notation, and he understood it. I am now teaching him advanced F2L.

I am also in the process of teaching my brother.


----------



## stevethecuber (Oct 24, 2009)

I taught about 3 people already from my school


----------



## vcuber13 (Oct 24, 2009)

i walked my cousin through solving it by saying like the right face clockwise bcuz he didnt understand notation i showed him the cross like 3 weeks ago and he can do the cross in like 20 seconds but thats as far i got


----------



## HowSuneIsNow (Oct 24, 2009)

I've taught over half a dozen and I try and have abunch of loner cubes to give them. It seems liek success is mostly based on dedication and not getting frustrated and giving up.

A lot of people are intimidated by the cross. I explain it's the hardest part because it involves the most thinking.

EDIT: another important thing to explain is that the cube is not 54 stickers. it's 26 cubies of which only 20 move. the cube is really a puzzle with 20 pieces that have to be put in the right place with the right orientation


----------



## beingforitself (Oct 24, 2009)

I have taught between 30 and 40 people now, including several 7 or 8 year olds (at a school where I teach) as well as a guy in his 70s. For people from their mid teens to 30s it rarely takes me much more than 2 hours to go through the entire process anymore.

I am always perplexed by people who make statements like "I tried to teach my friend, but he couldn't understand," "My brother was too stupid to even do a cross," et cetera. If someone you are trying to teach the cube doesn't get it (and they are sincerely trying), it is 100% your fault for being a terrible teacher.


----------



## cmhardw (Oct 24, 2009)

I hate to break this to you, but the energy in a teaching situation comes from the teacher. If the teacher is impatient or frustrated by the student, this creates a tense and frustrated atmosphere, and the student will not want to learn. Sometimes the student is very impatient, even when you're trying to be relaxed, but if you just stay relaxed and maybe take breaks and things, it can help with this.

You have to realize a couple of very important things when teaching cubing:
1) What is obvious and trivial to you is completely new and foreign to this person

2) You understand how a 2x2x2 cube physically works, that it is made up of 8 corner pieces, each with 3 possible orientations. The person you are teaching will almost always view the cube as 2x2x6 = 24 stickers that appear to move around the cube. The very first thing I do when teaching a 3x3x3 (this would be more difficult for 2x2x2) is to take a separate cube and disassemble it so that the learner can see how it works.

3) Notation is absolutely not necessary when teaching. In fact, every single person I have taught to solve by using notation does not now remember how to solve the cube at all. Everyone I have taught to solve using intuition can still solve it today 

--------------

Be very patient with new learners. Consider also that they are trying to go from knowing essentially nothing about the cube to being a solver in one sitting. Ask yourself if you learned how to solve in just one sitting?

Teaching cubing is fun, but it is also takes a lot of patience and can be difficult at times. Don't give up on your friend! Keep trying, he/she will eventually get it! Seeing someone solve the cube for the very first time, and seeing their reaction, is one of the best feelings! I'd argue that it's even more intense than almost any blindfold solve or relay!

Chris


----------



## Me Myself & Pi (Oct 24, 2009)

I taught my brother the 2x2. He had that patients, but it had its limits. I could only teach him one step at a time.

First day, I showed him how to pair together the first 3 corners. Next time, we went onto the 4th corner. Now came the last layer. I tried to teach him the notation, but I thought,
"Come on, it would be much simpler to just teach him the moves."
So that's what I did. He got the algorithm for switching the corners down okay, but the hard part in this step is just teaching him how to apply it.
"Okay, if the mismatched corners are opposite from each other, do the algorithm once. If they're adjacent to each other, rotate the top layer so they're only 1 corner is in the right place. Then do the algorithm once or twice."
I took him a long time to get this down! Now that the hard part was out of the way, we went onto the last step, orienting the corners.
"Okay, simply do the moves like this & repeat to yourself while you're doing them, 'down, left, up, right'. You do that algorithm 2 or 4 times for each corner."

It probably took about a month, learning off & on, before he finally got it down! Although if I asked him now, he would probably needed to be reminded of a few things.


----------



## beingforitself (Oct 24, 2009)

cmhardw said:


> every single person I have taught to solve by using notation does not now remember how to solve the cube at all. Everyone I have taught to solve using intuition can still solve it today



Hey Chris, by teaching "intuitively," do you mean that you actually taught an intuitive method (blockbuilding, commutators, etc.) or that you taught algorithms in an intuitive, structural manner (i.e., tracking pieces, explaining things in terms of movement away from and towards you, patterns, etc.)?


----------



## Ranzha (Oct 24, 2009)

I've been trying to teach certain people.
I've experimented with notation versus intuition, and only the beginner's method.

Notation seems to be the place where students have the most difficulty. I think their perspective of F R U R U' F' is "Okay, so the front side, um, which way, this way? Um, idk."
What people think about notation is you need to turn a certain side a certain way, but they forget how to turn it or they turn U clockwise and D ccw just because they think U and D look alike.
By them doing this, they need to unlearn it. The hard part about unlearning something is realizing that it indeed was WRONG.
On the other hand, by using intuitive solving, people have a better understanding of the cube, its parts, how they work, and how to recognize what to do and how to solve it.

I know all of you remember this:
Beginner’s method. 1st layer was solved. Now for middle edges.
If you learned it with notation, you know the algorithms U R U’ R’ U’ F’ U F and U’ L’ U L U F U’ F’ to solve the middle edges.
Intuitively, it would be:
Move the edge out of the way,
Slot up,
Move the edge back,
Slot down,
Move the pair out of the way on the other side,
Slot up,
Pair in,
Slot down.
Sure, it takes some time for you to think about it, but when you’re *showing* it to another person, they grasp the concept better and can remember the moves as their perception and mnemonic systems allow them to.
Intuitive is the way to go, and don’t forget to explain how all of the pieces work.

Don’t forget to refresh your linens!
--Ranzha V E


----------



## Muesli (Oct 24, 2009)

beingforitself said:


> cmhardw said:
> 
> 
> > every single person I have taught to solve by using notation does not now remember how to solve the cube at all. Everyone I have taught to solve using intuition can still solve it today
> ...



I teach notation immediatley, but I don't stand over them whilst they are learning. I teach notation, walk them through a couple of solves saying every move in terms of R, U'. Then I run through how to do cross. Then I show them the algorithms, what the algorithms do and when to use them. 

Then I write the algorithms down, giving them descriptive names (Left slot, edge matcher, corner rotate etc) and leave them to it for a bit. If they have a problem they'll come and ask me.


----------



## cmhardw (Oct 24, 2009)

beingforitself said:


> Hey Chris, by teaching "intuitively," do you mean that you actually taught an intuitive method (blockbuilding, commutators, etc.) or that you taught algorithms in an intuitive, structural manner (i.e., tracking pieces, explaining things in terms of movement away from and towards you, patterns, etc.)?



I teach Joël's commutator last layer for beginners, only I never tell them that why they are using are "commutators" or any of the theory behind the cube. I have tried explaining how commutators work, and usually it does not add to making it easier to teach them.

So in a sense I show them how to use commutators, but they maybe don't realize that is what they are using. Still, commutators are very intuitive and you can understand what you are doing to the cube. I basically explain a commutator to a beginner learner as a "destroy and restore" since this is really what a commutator does on a basic level. You destroy most of the cube in order to affect one piece, then you undo what you destroyed on another piece, and this does something useful.

The only true "algorithm" that I can't seem to find any other way to teach is to orient edges on the LL. The two algs are:
1) F R U R' U' F'
2) F U R U' R' F'

I have tried to teach these by explaining what is happening with the blocks, and how the pieces move "away" and "toward" each other but none of these methods work very well for helping people to remember much later on, assuming I am not around to give them hints if they forget. I have found that what works best for these two algs in particular is to use an anecdotal story to remember them.

For example:
the algorithm F R U R' U' F' I would teach like this.

"Make sure that you see the letter "C" or a small "L" with the top layer edges, and spin the cube so that they are at the back, and on the left."

- At this step I am just having them put the good edges at UB and UL.

"The piece on the front here (I point to UF) is flipped, and he's mean and he's unhappy about this. He's a really impatient piece, and wants to hit somebody, or knock somebody out of the way. First this guy slides down on the right (we do the F turn here). Now this guy sees the piece on the right side here (I point to UR) and he gets excited and just meanly knocks the top right guy out of the way here (we do the turn R)."

So in order to get them to remember to to the F R of the algorithm, I tell them that the UF piece is angry, and wants to knock the closest possible neighbor out of the way, or to hit the closest possible neighbor.

"The guy that was on the top right (the piece that was at UR) is now on the back here (is now in BR). This piece is a much more friendly piece, in fact this piece is a team player. Think of wrestling, this piece is going to tag team the 'flipped piece' (the only remaining flipped LL edge, now at UB). So we spin the top here (we do the turn U here) so that the 'nice piece' can tag team this flipped piece. Now that they're lined up, let's tag team them (we do the turn R' here)."

So the LL edge piece that was at UR, and got bumped to BR, "tag teams" or "tags" the other flipped LL edge at UB by doing the turns U R'.

"The last piece here that needs to go in the top is now on the front here (it is the R sticker of the FR piece right now). This piece fills in the last spot on the top layer that is empty. This empty spot is over here (point to UL), so let's just spin the top here and put the empty slot on the front (put it at UF - and here we do the turn U'). Now this last piece on the side (the piece at FR) just steps into the empty space (we do the turn F' here).

---------------

This explanation is very awkward to write over the internet, but it is very easy to show in person and usually people remember stories involving people rather than abstract blocks or just a string of notation. You have to also remember that I usually only teach elementary or middle school kids how to solve, so perhaps this wouldn't be as necessary for an adult learner, but I think it would still make it very easy to remember.

So in short:

1) Try to teach commutators and intuitive things, but *never* explain the theory of why it works on anything more than a very basic level (unless the person asks).

2) If you must teach an algorithm do it anecdotally by turning it into a story about people with different personalities. This tends to work very well with kids, and I would assume with adults too.

Chris


----------



## salshort (Oct 24, 2009)

taught my dad the 2x2x2 and he can solve it in a minute, and my friend who i taught the 3x3x3 to can do that in slightly under a minute. the hardest part of teaching is teaching the actual intuitive part of cubing that eventually becomes natural, and the alg's.


----------



## Rook (Oct 24, 2009)

Mhm, I guess I did get pretty annoyed when my friend was asking simple (well, for a cuber) questions  Then again, I've never been good at teaching/explaining. I should go slower if someone asks me to teach them.


----------



## krazedkat (Oct 24, 2009)

Musli4brekkies said:


> I taught my friend the other week.
> 
> I also taught my girlfriend, then she broke up with me about a month later. She still cubes. I WANT MY KNOWLEDGE BACK!



Man, that must suck! She was just a knowledgedigger...


----------



## Muesli (Oct 24, 2009)

krazedkat said:


> Musli4brekkies said:
> 
> 
> > I taught my friend the other week.
> ...



Yeaah well. What can you do.

I suppose it's alright because I still get to see her, even if its not in that way.


----------



## tlm1992 (Oct 24, 2009)

I've taught my brother, he's now using intuitive F2L and 4LLL and avg about 50 sec. 

Last week or so, I taught a friend LL, he already knew how to do the first to layers.


----------



## iSpinz (Oct 24, 2009)

I taught 1 friend LBL, learned it in about a week. My other friend couldn't even permute the first layer, so I gave up on him.


----------



## Crossed (Oct 24, 2009)

I've taught at least 6 people, and one of them is sub 50 seconds now. I'm kind of proud!


----------



## DavidSanders (Oct 24, 2009)

I taught one of my friends, and he took FOREVER, but it ended up being worth it.

The problem was not that he was impatient, but I am impatient. EXTREMELY impatient. Lol


----------



## dunpeal2064 (Oct 24, 2009)

I've only been cubing myself for about 2 months, and i've taught 6 people how to solve the 3x3, because there are always people at my house and they wanted to learn... and we are all really nerdy anyway. i taught my gf how to solve and she is under two minutes. and i'm currently teaching 3 people 2 look OLL and PLL. 

its very awesome, people will walk in and literally see 8 people sitting in a room all racing for solves... i got 41 seconds in our last race =)

you should see the looks on peoples faces when they have never seen even one person solve a cube before and they walk in to a room full solving it. haha

also i've taught 2 people how to solve the 4x4, not counting parity algs... they always hand it to me to do it for them.... ironically i'm the only one here that can solve a 2x2 though


----------



## miniGOINGS (Oct 24, 2009)

For me, the first thing to show them is how a cube works, so I take it apart for them. Then I start teaching them blockbuilding.


----------



## JTW2007 (Oct 25, 2009)

Yes, and I've succeeded three times (1, 2, 3). Of the two people I've taught recently, one is pretty good because he's put a lot of effort into it, and the other has naturally amazing cubing skills but hasn't really cubed much, so is still around a minute.


----------



## curious (Oct 25, 2009)

I taught one person, I taught him a 7 step layer by layer beginners method.
He doesn't to it for speed though, he's about 3-4 minutes. 
Another kid I gave up on, he couldn't even solve an edge that was 1 turn away!


----------



## cmhardw (Oct 25, 2009)

curious said:


> I taught one person, I taught him a 7 step layer by layer beginners method.
> He doesn't to it for speed though, he's about 3-4 minutes.



Cool! Sounds like fun!



> Another kid *I gave up on*, he couldn't even solve an edge that was 1 turn away!



Wow... Did you read the previous posts in this thread related to this?

Chris


----------



## curious (Oct 25, 2009)

cmhardw said:


> Wow... Did you read the previous posts in this thread related to this?
> 
> Chris



hmm, I can't say that I have, I read the first page then skip to last page.
I will read it now


----------



## dunpeal2064 (Oct 25, 2009)

its really difficult... because before you know how to solve a cube... its the most intimidating thing, and most people don't even understand how the cube works... i've never tried taking the cube apart as a way to explain this, it is a great idea... i always try to teach them not by movements, but by the way the cube looks.... like " you turn this so this yellow bar is here, and then turn the yellow bar here and do this with it, so on and so forth" 

some people get it right away... one girl i taught that only learns her algs from me is catching up to me!! haha. and then some can't understand the fact that the middles are a way to see the color of the side.... maybe we should start teaching how to solve twisty puzzles in school.... i would've paid a lot more attention


----------



## curious (Oct 25, 2009)

Chris, The very first think I explain is that the cube is made up of individual pieces, (rather then stickers). I explain how the center pieces are fixed, the kid even seen what a cube looked like disassembled. He was just a slow learner. 
I was patient!


----------



## phases (Oct 25, 2009)

I taught my wife, she had beginner's down the first day. Few weeks later taught her FL2.

In middle of teaching my neighbor and her daughter, but its' taking forever because I have to teach a step at a time and let them practice for a week or so till they have it memorized then move on to the next step. We're through OLL now - but it's been a while since they've asked for next step. I think they gave up..... shame, so close!


----------



## Cyrus C. (Oct 25, 2009)

Today I taught someone how to solve a 3x3 in a little less than 30 minutes, they just need to memorize the algorithms now.


----------



## Chuck (Oct 25, 2009)

I've taught 2 persons to solve 3x3x3, and about 20 persons to solve it blindfolded.

It's just because it's easier to teach someone that have been hooked with cubing, and want to know more about another (cool) way to solve it. 

I don't know how many have learned from my video tutorials.
It's around 2000 views, mostly from Indonesia because it's in Indonesian.


----------



## cubedude7 (Oct 25, 2009)

I tried to learn my mum how to solve the 3x3 first layer. Without learning her to solve the rest of the cube, she can now make one layer on almost every cube, 2x2 -7x7, pyraminx! except square-1, that's too difficult.

I was like wtf, even 7x7! (it took her around 45 minutes!)


----------



## rubiknewbie (Oct 27, 2009)

The most difficult thing about teaching how to solve a rubik's cube to a beginner is the last layer, cos there are some algorithms to memorise.


----------



## LNZ (Oct 27, 2009)

Not for a whole cube, but at the very beginnigng.

I tried to teach my mother to solve the first centre of a 5x5 V-Cube. She tried but gave up quickly. I showed her how to do it. She looked on in amazement.


----------



## michaellahti (Oct 28, 2009)

I taught a couple of people at my school that were more "popular and cool" than I am. They can do it in about 1:30 perhaps. anyway, everyone thinks that they figured it out on their own, and think I'm copying off of them in order to try to be cool, since I never really brought cubes to school until I started teaching them (on the Cross-Country bus). It's really annoying because the other people call me a "poser" and other crap, even though I can solve 2x2-7x7 and a lot of other cubes. So, moral to the story is, I'M NEVER GONNA TEACH SOMEONE TO DO SOLVE A CUBE AGAIN!!!!


----------



## TheMachanga (Oct 28, 2009)

I have not taught anyone yet but I influenced ALOT of people in my school


----------



## Cuber3 (Oct 29, 2009)

I have tried a few times to teach my sister, but that didn't work (she bought a cube because I had one). I have taught a few people at school. The first guy learned well, and was really patient. The second guy... he may have lost concentration a few times, and he didn't tell me that he didn't know the algorithms. Er... I taught a friend F2L, and some of the LL, but he gave up. Recently, he said he would try and learn again. And, another friend was taught by me and the second guy. Um... that's all I can think of.


----------



## enigmahack (Oct 29, 2009)

Funny enough, I'm actually a corporate trainer so adult learning is one of the huge focuses of my life, and I had an opportunity to teach someone not that long ago. (3 people actually, all at the same time) 

There was a party that I went to with my Girlfriend (She had these blogger friends, and they were all women who brought their husbands/boyfriends with them) and apparently I was designated to be "that guy" that keeps people entertained lol

Anyway, the majority of the people there were pretty naturally like myself in that they were all into things that would mostly be interpreted as "nerdy". In other words: Ideal target audience! 

Anyway - like Chris H said earlier, probably the most key important step for any new cuber is to get that it's a 3D object. I took the cube apart and showed them how it works... BOOM for most of them it was instantaneous - they got that the centers never move. 

Then I started talking about moves like this: 

F = Steering Wheel Right
F' = Steering Wheel Left
R = Right Tire Forwards
R' = Right Tire Backwards
U = Helicopter UP
U' = Helcopter Anti-Up

(That's how I started to introduce notation to them, but mostly just used the verbal association with the movements)

Like Chris said though, the biggest challenge was that everything (for me teaching them) was intuitive except the FRUR'U'F but I just showed them how to exercise OLL control, using RUR'U'. They understood that yellow needs to replace yellow after it's been moved (Hard to explain without more detail here)

Anyway - overall, I had 1 person that I taught to solve the cube in literally 2 hours (while at a party mind you) but it took him around 6-7 minutes to solve. The guy was a phenomenal learner though... He got every concept I threw at him and remembered it almost instantly. (He was also in Med-school to become a doctor so I'm sure memorizing things as fast as possible comes naturally to him!)

There was another guy who took what I showed him, and the day he went home... Solved it later that day. 

I was pretty impressed - not really at my teaching but at the fact that they all got it so quickly. 

I do agree though that a large part of facilitation is the teacher, not the learner. I mean - everyone is different and while you can use methods that should appeal to most audiences... not everyone learns the same way. 

Some people are visual+tactile learners: They need to see and touch it themselves to learn (Which is actually around 60-70% of the majority of the people who learn) but then you still have some people that need to write it down. Some people need to hear it see it. Some need to read it... There are so many various types of learning that could need to be accommodated.

Anyway - I digress. 

That's 1 experience though teaching people  I have others, but that was the most recent.


----------



## Jude (Oct 29, 2009)

Yes. He's called Rowan and he's actually pretty good now..


----------



## Konsta (Oct 29, 2009)

I taught my woman, Minerva, to solve cubes 2x2-5x5, megaminx, magic and some sq1 and pyraminx.
Like I would play with these things all by myself?? 

Her best 3x3 avg of 12 is 22 seconds now, but she doesn't practice much.


----------



## nathanajah (Oct 29, 2009)

I teached one person, and now he is learning 4LLL. He averages about 2 minutes...:fp(does he practice it at his home?) He's also able to solve the 2x2x2, with a not-so-good time(about 25s, and that's my average for 3x3x3) It's fun racing with him, I solve the 3x3x3 and he solve the 2x2x2.


----------



## thiJUMBA (Nov 2, 2009)

it is impossible to teach a peer to solve the rubik's cube.
this girl at my school taught like 3 people and i was like "i just need to teach 1 person and he must solve it very quick to continue my speed legacy"
but that never happened. all i did was give him my cube and he practiced by himself with youtube, he's done the first two layers but then he's stuck with the rest...

and how do u teach people first layer?!!!!


----------



## Tim Major (Nov 2, 2009)

ianini said:


> I taught a person how to solve a 3x3. It took a long time just teaching him the cross.



I always find the cross very hard to teach, but after that, they understand the rest really quickly. I have a weird way of showing beginners how to put corners in.


----------



## hawkmp4 (Nov 4, 2009)

I've taught my girlfriend how to solve. It was a good experience- albeit a frustrating one (I love you Jillian! xD She reads the forums too). I had to keep reminding myself, like Chris keeps saying, that what's completely obvious to me is anything but to her. Luckily for the both of us she caught on very quickly. I taught her intuitively and she's now doing 3x3 around a minute and a half, and megaminx in six and a half.


----------



## marthaurion (Feb 18, 2010)

I've had mixed results with teaching. For example, my 10 year old sister learned pretty easily and can solve with about a minute average. However, I tried teaching 3 people in college and all failed. In high school, I taught 2 people, both successful teachings each one still solves at about 40 second average...If anyone could help explain what's up, I'd be grateful....


----------



## crazymanjimbo46 (Feb 18, 2010)

I think I helped at least four people with last layer beginners.


----------



## cfopfapfap (Feb 18, 2010)

I made the mistake of learning by solving all 4 corners first, not the cross... which screws me up when learning f2l because this past week is the first time I have ever made the white cross to begin solving >.<

but i taught my friend the 2x2x2 one day and the 3x3x3 the next, just teach them corners (WAY easier for beginners) and notation first, once they got that down, the rest is memorization usually. now to try and learn every pll >.< i dont wanna start with 2 look


----------



## Tomk (Feb 18, 2010)

I' taught 4 friends since I started cubing. Three of them were easy and one was more of a challenge. However one friend who I tried to teach (really I did) just couldn't get the cross despite me showing him numerous examples of solving one edge at a time. Two of them now solve in less than 1 min 30 seconds, not too bad for a beginners method. One of them can also solve the 4x4x4 (except parity, i do that for him) .


----------



## CubesOfTheWorld (Feb 18, 2010)

i taught my friend how to solve everything up to the yellow cross. i then told him to use rubik's.com. he now knows full PLL... and i dont


----------



## dillonbladez (Feb 18, 2010)

CubesOfTheWorld said:


> i taught my friend how to solve everything up to the yellow cross. i then told him to use rubik's.com. he now knows full PLL... and i dont



no way. thats just like my cousin.

he got a cube for his birthday, and hasn't solved it for about a year. then i started to pick up cubing. i taught him, and hes pretty good. so now, he avgs like 40 seconds, yet knows full PLL. every day on MSN hes like

DILLON
LEARN
YOUR
Gs!!!


----------



## Owen (Feb 18, 2010)

I taught a guy.


----------



## Tyrannous (Feb 18, 2010)

I've taught a good 5 or so people how to do it, crash course with the dedmore layer by layer method. People who have more logistic based minds get it very easily, but others who arent so good at sciences and logic tend to be a lot harder and longer to learn, on top of not having the willpower as much


----------



## Tomk (Feb 18, 2010)

Owen said:


> I taught a guy.



+4 ( as i have allready said)


----------



## Hiero (Feb 18, 2010)

I've taught 52 people to solve the Rubik's Cube so far. From September to now I have taught 45 people. I only taught 7 people to solve it last year. I'm going for 75 people this year for a total of 82. The Guiness record for most people solving the cube at one time is 96 people. PM me if you want to know how I structure the lesson. All the people I teach are from 9-12 years old.


----------



## DuctCube (Feb 18, 2010)

kind of...

i gave someone the "How to Solve Guide" in a Rubiks 3x3 Box


----------



## Deleted member 2864 (Feb 19, 2010)

Two or three... I didn't find it that hard o.0 Maybe the two I taught happened to be able to pick things up quickly. One also knew how to solve a layer and the other knew how to solve a side (so it was just a matter of teaching how to position the pieces in the correct permutation).


----------



## Meisen (Feb 19, 2010)

I've succesfully taught 2 people how to solve the cube. My girlfriend, and a buddy.

I've also shown a couple of other friends some basic things, but because of time/interest issues on their part, i havent taught them all they need to know to solve the entire cube.


----------



## Disentie (Feb 19, 2010)

I have taught 6 people how to solve a 3x3. They have all successfully solved it.


----------



## koreancuber (Feb 19, 2010)

I've taught 4 people and I'm currently teaching 1. Most people who ask give up after the 'cross' (Fridrich first step).


----------



## somerandomkidmike (Feb 19, 2010)

I taught my brother how to solve the rubik's cube. He can do it in a little over a minute. He won't learn Corners First though.


----------



## marthaurion (Feb 19, 2010)

Tyrannous said:


> I've taught a good 5 or so people how to do it, crash course with the dedmore layer by layer method. People who have more logistic based minds get it very easily, but others who arent so good at sciences and logic tend to be a lot harder and longer to learn, on top of not having the willpower as much



That makes sense...The people at my college are almost all lit-base minded. The people that I hung out with in high school were science/math minded. And my little sister, being my sister and all, is definitely math minded.


----------



## onionhoney (Feb 19, 2010)

i have taught 5 people or so. 
i taught 2 of them using Roux(which doesn't need too much algs) and introduced LBL to the rest.

The fastest one of them, which is my classmate, averages about 50 or so using LBL.
and both of my parents can sub2 with Roux.


----------



## blakedacuber (Feb 19, 2010)

i tought 2 people, one got bored after 5 minutes nd the other averages around a minute the moment


----------



## blakedacuber (Feb 19, 2010)

oh and i thought my 4 yr old brother to do it because he was very math minded like me he can now slve in about a minute and a half


----------



## riffz (Feb 20, 2010)

I taught my girlfriend when she came with me to a competition last year. I taught her the badmephisto method but replaced his U perms with faster ones. She wanted to get a bit faster without memorizing more algorithms so I taught her keyhole and she averages about 50 seconds.


----------



## xXzaKerXx (Feb 20, 2010)

I tried teaching them LBL and after the 1st layer, it's always the same:
'now, turn the cube over, and...this you'll have to google the algs, sorry.'


----------



## Yes We Can! (Feb 20, 2010)

I have taught a friend intuitive F2L and another friend full LBL method.
Both succeeded 
Sadly they don't cube anymore... I think the one, which I taught the F2L had a record of ~23 seconds.


----------



## Haste_cube (Feb 20, 2010)

I don't teach a friend who is not serious in cubing
like when they succeeded in solving the cube, they just stop cubing
I have taught many of my friends not only LBL, but also other method that suits them like Petrus, or waterman, fridrich etc


----------



## nate333667 (Feb 21, 2010)

Some people just don't get it...they do random things thinking that it will eventually magically solve itself. Teaching someone is one of the most frustrating things ever


----------



## cooldayr (Feb 21, 2010)

I was taught

my times are very weird though
2x2 - 57 sec avg
3x3 1:09 avg
4x4 3:42 avg
5x5 4:10 avg
6x6 9:18 avg
7x7 10:59 avg
9x9 32:48 avg (only done like 15 solves)
gigaminx 31:45 avg
teraminx 1:07:xx one solve timed lol


----------



## ~Phoenix Death~ (Feb 21, 2010)

Taught my friend Tylr5122 LBL on 3x3. I just showed him where to execute the algs. and what each one did.


----------



## retr0 (Feb 21, 2010)

I've taught 4 of my friend the entire cube, and 3 people the first 2 layers. After those they thought "F**k that". :lol:
Everyone I've taught have sub-60 solves.

First person I taught: Intuitive F2L, 2LOLL, currently learning full PLL.
2nd person I taught: Intuitive F2L, SuneOLL, 2LPLL.
3rd person I taught: Beginners F2L, SuneOLL, 2LPLL
4th person I taught: Keyhole f2l and beginners LL.

3 of them can also solve a 4x4/5x5 etc too


----------



## cincyaviation (Feb 21, 2010)

cooldayr said:


> I was taught
> 
> my times are very weird though
> 2x2 - 57 sec avg
> ...


practice 2x2, now


----------



## fundash (Feb 21, 2010)

I taught my dad to solve it in 1:30
and I'm teaching a few friends at the moment (one is CaptinEv98)


----------



## Sherwood (Feb 21, 2010)

Taught my 4 1/2 year old sister. My 10 year old sister. My friend at school. My cousin and fam friend. So 5 people?


----------



## BowDown2Gir (Feb 22, 2010)

I just wrote down all the algorithms and used the template that Thrawst supplied in his Tip of the week #10 vid and just drew in the pattern. I took time to go over the cross and F2L with him (yes, I was trying to teach him Fredich the first time) and I just let him experiment from there. It took about 3 days, and his first official time was 1:47:06


----------



## Kabuthunk (Feb 25, 2010)

Unfortunately, I've never had the opportunity to teach anyone, nor did anyone ever teach me. I ended up picking up a 2x2 cube on a whim one day, found it ridiculously challenging, looked up the basics of solving it, and wanted a bigger challenge so I got a 3x3 cube a few weeks later.

For the final four corners, I ended up inventing my own way of solving it (which I'm sure already exists and has some specific name), but I eventually made an instructional sheet for it (http://www.zebeth.com/planetzebeth/stuff/other/rubiks.html). At least I don't need the sheet any more


----------



## Vifs (Feb 25, 2010)

I was able to teach like... 5 or 6 people


----------

