# Do you have a list of your letter pairs?



## szalejot (Feb 11, 2014)

I have question for faster BLD cubers (who can achieve sub2 or even sub1:30 without any problems) and use letter pairs for memo.

Do you have strict written down list of words for your pairs or do you just think words while doing memo?

I do not have my list and I am wondering should I do one. (I average about 2:30).


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## Ollie (Feb 11, 2014)

szalejot said:


> I have question for faster BLD cubers (who can achieve sub2 or even sub1:30 without any problems) and use letter pairs for memo.
> 
> Do you have strict written down list of words for your pairs or do you just think words while doing memo?
> 
> I do not have my list and I am wondering should I do one. (I average about 2:30).



For 3BLD I have strictly one word per letter pair, for big cubes and multi I make it up on the fly and choose a word out of a possible 3/4. Writing a list will help you eliminate some of the weaker letter pairs you might have and it will probably help bring your times down, but you don't need to write them all down, necessarily.

If I need a new LP for something I go here, and there's a cue card program called Anki that's really good for practicing/testing yourself on new words.

In the future this type of question should go into the One Answer BLD Question Thread or Random Blindfolded Cubing Discussion


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## Tao Yu (Feb 11, 2014)

Ollie said:


> For 3BLD I have strictly one word per letter pair, for big cubes and multi I make it up on the fly and choose a word out of a possible 3/4.



Weird that you use only one word per pair in 3BLD. I started using more than one word for 3BLD after I read your post on sentence memo. 

As always, I _really_ recommend using regexdict to find letter pairs. See http://www.speedsolving.com/forum/showthread.php?p=943706 for an explanation of how to use it.

I don't have a letter pair list. I just get used to using the same words every time. So it's basically a list in my head.


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## uberCuber (Feb 11, 2014)

I do use a specific list of one image per letter pair, but it's not actually written down anywhere; the list only exists in my head. I suppose the poll answers don't quite work for me since the question specifies a written list.


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## suushiemaniac (Feb 11, 2014)

I always try to come up with letter-pair words on the spot, but when doing tons and tons of blindfolded solves, this eventually results in using the same word for certain pairs even when you don't consciously use a fixed list.

For stupid pairs I find it extremely helpful to use languages other than your mother tongue(s, if your bilingual). For example I'm German and therefore use German words for most of the cases (maybe 90%), but when I stumble upon a letter pair for which I can't figure out an image on the spot, I switch to any of the foreign languages I learn rather than desperately searching for a German word.


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## AmazingCuber (Feb 11, 2014)

suushiemaniac said:


> For stupid pairs I find it extremely helpful to use languages other than your mother tongue(s, if your bilingual). For example I'm German and therefore use German words for most of the cases (maybe 90%), but when I stumble upon a letter pair for which I can't figure out an image on the spot, I switch to any of the foreign languages I learn rather than desperately searching for a German word.



Very good tip. I do this too, and it helps a lot. I am german too but memorize in English. For some cases, some german word pops in my head that would be really easy and I often use that, though I would only recommend this to advanced speakers, otherwise the jumble in your head might become to complicated and you'll spend all the time struggling with the different languages.


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## A Leman (Feb 15, 2014)

I have a list
I use the same pairs every time for 3bld
I have some alternate words for BigBLD, but I don't use most of them. Some are helpful though. I used to use more alternates, but I decided to eliminate most of them

Instead of having a lot of pairs, I mostly use the same word in different ways. 
For example, RS=rose. This could be rose the flower, Rose the person, rose petals drifting into the next image or the previous image being pushed into a bed of roses. They are all "rose" and I do not have to think of a different word for the sticker, but I have different ways to associate it which helps my linking speed.


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## Noahaha (Feb 15, 2014)

The thing I always tell people is this: the goal is to have a list in your head, not on paper. If it will help you to write them down, then do that, but I found easy enough just to keep everything in my head. If you can't think of a word for a letter pair during a solve, just memorize the letters themselves. Then after the solve, think of a word and say it to yourself like 10 times.


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## cyklop123 (Feb 15, 2014)

Maskow's memory system (letter pairs).


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## Angel Lim (Mar 8, 2014)

A pre-prepared list (on paper or in your head) is definitely not necessary for sub1:30/sub2.

It definitely helps once you're aiming at sub1 or sub50.


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