“I keep intending to note down my progress”

When I’m due to blog I make a number of notes.
I note order of solving by the simple expedient of writing A,B,C,… etc against clues as I solve them. Thus I can tell you solving was in the following order:

15A, 7D *,
12A, 6D, 10A, 27A, 24D, 3D/30A, 28D, 14D, 13A, **
17A, 18D, 26A, ***
4D, 19A, 16D, 23A, 21D, 1D, 8A, 9D, 11A, 2D, 20D, 29A, ****
22A/5D, 25D

* I wrote in STYLISH – only corrected it in the blog when I went back and analyzed the wordplay for the blog, thus the grid image/title error

** This point I define as the “1st pass”, the point where I have attempted all the clues. I like this as a measure of the crossword’s difficulty. Only 11 solved on this grid is lowish for an Eye. The way I work around the grid is to attempt the top and/or leftmost lines first if they deliver first letters, e.g. 1D and 20D in this grid, then work through the Across clues in order, and then the down clues in order if necessary. Each time I get an answer I attempt any crossing lights favouring those with given first letters over the others, then those with high proportion of given letters etc. i.e. generally shorter answers attempted first. I detect “1st pass” when I find myself reading a clue I’ve read before and then have a quick check to see if I missed any, then write “1st pass @ K” near the grid. Using this method, by this point I should have attempted all clues with any given crossing letters showing. It’s really not as methodical as I make it sound.

*** What I don’t do is attempt to time myself. I see for this solve I noted that I was interrupted by the real world at N (26A) and there was a long break before restarting, so I probably came back to the last half of the crossword in a different state of mind.

**** I made a note here because I was stuck at this point with 2 to go. For both I had to work back from the wordplay, and COCK-STAND needed checking in a dictionary.

Many years ago I suggested to Neil W (founder of 15^2, when he was obergruppenführer here) that I do the blog in solving order – it looked awful and I didn’t publish it.

I’d better reiterate: I only make notes like this when I’m due to blog the crossy!

Will: On 25D by 2/5 I meant 2 out of 5 i.e. 40% letters crossing. I presume by 2/4 you meant leter positions 2 and 4 are crossing.

loved 2d with an almighty groan 28d

loved 2d with an almight groan 28d

I keep intending to note down my progress and sticking points, but then forget. I’m interested in the psychology of the solving process, and individual differences. Ideally it would be nice to have an add-on to Across Lite that logged the solver’s progress.

While looking at their website, I noticed that they now have an iPad version too (whatever an iPad is).