# How to get better at crosswords? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [May 16, 2020, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-get-better-at-crosswords/853925 "2020-05-16T14:48:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![RitterSport](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rittersport/32/6326_2.png) [@RitterSport](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RitterSport)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2020, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-get-better-at-crosswords/853925/101 "2020-06-05T14:18:34Z")
> [@Maserschmidt](#): > > lol I can well imagine that. > > Does anyone here do the acrostics as well? My wife and I both do, and as a result we’re already back through the archives to 2015. When I do crosswords, I’ll ask friends (not puzzle friends, regular people) about answers, but I try hard never to Google anything. However, when I do the acrostic, I let myself Google freely – I don’t go to the crossword puzzle answer sites, but I’ll use Wikipedia to find some goddess name or whatever. About 1/3 of the clues can be answered using Google (they could all be answered if you went to crossword answer sites), and it changes the acrostic from an impossible trivia game to a mix of trivia and a word puzzle. It’s a nice change from the crossword, every two weeks. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2020, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-get-better-at-crosswords/853925/102 "2020-06-05T19:16:58Z")
> [@RitterSport](#): > > However, when I do the acrostic, I let myself Google freely – I don’t go to the crossword puzzle answer sites, but I’ll use Wikipedia to find some goddess name or whatever. About 1/3 of the clues can be answered using Google (they could all be answered if you went to crossword answer sites), and it changes the acrostic from an impossible trivia game to a mix of trivia and a word puzzle. It’s a nice change from the crossword, every two weeks. Acrostics are hardly impossible. I find that if I get five answers in the first pass I can do the complete puzzle eventually - it depends strongly on pattern recognition in the grid. Practice this and you’ll rule on Wheel of Fortune. When I was in grad school, over 40 years ago, I did books and books of Middleton acrostics. As a challenge to myself I did one whole book without writing anything down - I could get enough of the reading as I went to do it all. I did have more brain cells back then. Back when I started on them, long before Google, I’d look up Shakespeare quotes, but the newer ones don’t have these. ---
**Author:** ![RitterSport](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rittersport/32/6326_2.png) [@RitterSport](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RitterSport)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2020, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-get-better-at-crosswords/853925/103 "2020-06-05T19:26:22Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > Acrostics are hardly impossible. I find that if I get five answers in the first pass I can do the complete puzzle eventually - it depends strongly on pattern recognition in the grid. Practice this and you’ll rule on Wheel of Fortune. > > When I was in grad school, over 40 years ago, I did books and books of Middleton acrostics. As a challenge to myself I did one whole book without writing anything down - I could get enough of the reading as I went to do it all. I did have more brain cells back then. > Back when I started on them, long before Google, I’d look up Shakespeare quotes, but the newer ones don’t have these. I see where you’re coming from, but after somehow finishing a Saturday puzzle, I’m usually up for an easier time. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2020, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-get-better-at-crosswords/853925/104 "2020-06-06T01:49:16Z")
> [@RitterSport](#): > > I see where you’re coming from, but after somehow finishing a Saturday puzzle, I’m usually up for an easier time. I did acrostics during the Weng and Maleska reigns at the Times, and the acrostics were easier than word salad puzzles. The one thing I have against acrostics is that at a certain point it becomes just filling in boxes, since you know the reading and all the clues already. They aren’t a challenge to the very end like crosswords and especially cryptics are. ---
**Author:** ![Dr\_Paprika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr_paprika/32/3042_2.png) [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2020, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-get-better-at-crosswords/853925/105 "2020-06-07T00:51:48Z")
I stopped timing myself on the puzzles years ago, but have enough experience to do the NYT and Games 3-stars pretty quickly. The puzzle in my usual paper uses a tic-tac-toe type of grid instead of boxes, which can make it tougher since there are less alternates to assist. Doing other puzzles after Games and NYT is usually easier, but the Guardian can sometimes be harder. I have less experience with cryptic puzzles but have got a lot better at them - with both types of puzzles [www.wordplays.com](http://www.wordplays.com) (as mentioned above) has most of the answers. As for getting better, you can buy the great Games Big Books cheaply on used book sites (more for delivery than the books) and start with easier puzzles. Since the puzzles in many papers get harder through the week, if you are stuck on certain days it’s just a matter of learning more words. This just means looking up what you can’t figure out and trying to remember what those things are when they are eventually repeated. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2020, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-get-better-at-crosswords/853925/106 "2020-06-07T01:30:36Z")
> [@Dr\_Paprika](#): > > I stopped timing myself on the puzzles years ago, but have enough experience to do the NYT and Games 3-stars pretty quickly. The puzzle in my usual paper uses a tic-tac-toe type of grid instead of boxes, which can make it tougher since there are less alternates to assist. By tic-tac-toe grid, do you mean the type of puzzle with the clues in the boxes instead of listed outside the puzzle? Or a cryptic style grid? ---
**Author:** ![Athena](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/35a633/32.png) [@Athena](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Athena)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2020, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-get-better-at-crosswords/853925/107 "2020-06-07T14:41:35Z")
So today was fun - just challenging enough to keep the intrigue up but not so much that I got frustrated. But my fav part was [Rex Parker’s](https://rexwordpuzzle.blogspot.com/) commentary on 1-across: It was a gimme (well, I could infer the answer from the clue) but please hear me when I say F\*\*\* that guy, he was never funny and now he’s a right-wing Trumpist dipshit of the highest order. And at 1-Across! This is the Tom Cotton editorial of 1-Acrosses. Like … how did this happen? Why? Who needed this? ---
**Author:** ![AaliaSnyder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ce7236/32.png) [@AaliaSnyder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AaliaSnyder)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2020, 9:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-get-better-at-crosswords/853925/108 "2020-06-09T09:39:24Z")
Does somebody mentioned here to read more books in order to have a rich vocabulary? Maybe I’ve skipped [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-get-better-at-crosswords/853925.md?page=5)