After many months of slow improvement, I finally got 100% on the Aerolith 7s. And with 84 seconds to spare. I think today's batch must have been particularly easy given the 14 people who have aced it so far, but still. After several near-misses I was wondering if I would ever do it ( Read more... )

Since the NSC last August, I've been expanding my word knowledge fairly regularly, mostly by studying on the train to and from work. I've noticed that it's definitely helping. The biggest benefit to regular practice is that my anagramming speed has improved dramatically. When doing the Aerolith 7s and 8s, I often used to get stuck with about half a ( Read more... )

I guess this will be more for humor value than anything else ( Read more... )

One of the reasons I decided to book up on OWL this year is because I discounted the possibility of Collins at the 2012 NSC. Now that there will be a Collins division (yes there will), the plan must be reevaluated. Curse you all for making me think ( Read more... )

After several close calls in the past few weeks, I finally got 100% on the Aerolith 6s daily challenge today. I didn't even have to do too much random guessing. I've been studying words of all lengths 2-8 every day for a couple months now, and it's really been helping. For the 6s, I've made it through 5,700 out of 15,788 words, or about 36% so far.

magratheazaphod asked me whether it is possible to create lists of words that have M anagrams in one lexicon and N anagrams in another. For example, is it possible to create a list of CSW07 words that have 2 anagrams, only 1 of which is acceptable in OWL2 ( Read more... )

My study plan is still on track so far. I just hit 4000 for 6s, 7s, and 8s. That's about 25% of the way through the 6s, 17% through the 7s, and 13% through the 8s. Wow, there are a lot of 8s ( Read more... )

The very first word to make it to cardbox 4 in my current study regimen is not one I would have ever predicted ( Read more... )

This past week, I was interviewed by Tim Harford of the BBC 4 radio programme "More or Less" regarding an interesting Scrabble situation. The interview has just been posted on the BBC site ( Read more... )

I think I might have mentioned that I'm sick of not knowing the dictionary. I really dislike when an opponent plonks down a bingo and I have to wonder about whether I should know it or not. The obvious solution is, of course, to learn every single word, so that's what I'm going to do. (OWL for now.)

( Find out how... )