Current Events > My coworkers complete daily 'The Mini' crosswords in under a minute. I can't

(+) Yeah! (+)

I struggle to complete half the puzzle and simply give up most of the time. Am I the only one who's horseshit at this?

Today's crossword:
https://nytimes.com/crosswords/game/mini

Easier to do it on PC, by the way.

Today's puzzle: Got 5-across and 5-down, and gave up after 3 minutes.

I did it in 3 minutes. It took me a little while to get going. It helps to move on if you're struggling, and then maybe you'll get some letters that will help after you complete some other words.

They probably cheat to look good in front of everyone and advance their careers

Crosswords stink. Sodoku is the one i like

2.58.

First time I've seen that. It was fun.

Cheers!

I've done the mini hundreds of times so I can usually do under a minute. I've done under 20 seconds on really lucky ones. If you do it a lot you see very similar hints and some word repeats so it gets mostly easy. But every now and then there's extremely stupid words where you can tell the dude making the puzzle cornered himself into a 5-letter "word" that's barely a word. Like the word is really just a phoneticization of some weird sound. Or the weird name of some obscure actor that the puzzle maker himself just googled after the fact to see if it works.

2:42

Not bad for a first run.

Kind of fun

https://www.nytimes.com/badges/games/mini.html?d=2023-09-25&t=162&c=dd08df2b6e05a3e3daf62fa28cb5e490&smid=url-share

Most days I'm at or a bit below a minute. The trick is to not linger too long as there are always much easier clues that solve the harder ones for you.

6:33

Not bad for someone who forgot every English word ever

Took me 2:49

6:29

amish got me <_<

1:44, first time Id done it. Had Atish instead of Amish at first lol

https://www.nytimes.com/badges/games/mini.html?d=2023-09-25&t=84&c=3ef7c42052f8ed5b4a1c6e00c71bea07&smid=url-share

I thought I would suck but I got 1:24

never was good at crosswords, but these are more manageable questions. got it in 3:04 - typo had me messed up and figuring out how to switch. so let's say sub 3 min

1:35, though If I didn't check if I had anything right like 1/3 through it probably would've taken much longer.

My time was like 3:30 on mobile. First time, pretty fun.

Freddie_Mercury posted...

6:29

amish got me <_<

That was one I got instantly actually, it saved me. I put SURE first for the 'Uh huh' hint, which slowed me down since I was pretty sure of it at first.

1:44 today

now try connections, that shit is hard.

Gave up after 3 minutes today. My mind went blank.

Got 1:31. This one did feel weirder than yesterday's tbh

1.57

6 across stumped me for a bit. I haven't yet learned to just move on and let the grid fill itself.

3:53 2 across and 4 down tripped me up

1:32

2nd puzzle and I've already shaved a minute!

Lol

I've never seen this before. Not bad.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/9/4/7/AAE14lAAE3_7.png

I don't see me getting this in under a minute though.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/9/5/0/AAUFZqAAE3_-.png

What do I win?

King_Rial posted...

I've never seen this before. Not bad.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/9/4/7/AAE14lAAE3_7.png

I don't see me getting this in under a minute though.

Congratulations!
You solved The Mini
in 1:56.
Almost got the same time

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/9/5/1/AAZZY5AAE3__.png

1:15, this is the first time I have played this game though. It was a lot of fun, gonna add it to my daily NYT Sudoku/Wordle/Spelling Bee routine

2:50. Felt longer cuz I definitely got stuck a few times. Not bad.

Managed 2:28, never done one before. Kinda felt dumb with how long some of it took but eh, speed isn't really a big deal if you still solve the thing

1:39

Not bad.

[LFAQs-redacted-quote]

This and Im terrible at crosswords. Took 1:58.

I'm horrible at crosswords. It took me 6 minutes.

Probably would've been a sub-minute finish if I was more familiar with the interface.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/9/7/2/AABhrNAAE4AU.jpg

Tried my first one, 0:44

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/9/8/6/AANULFAAE4Ai.png
Thought Wowza was Wowee at first so it took a little longer.

3:49

do they use the "check" feature? on the top right? it tells you what's correct and what isn't. that's probably how they solve it in under a minute.

47 seconds

1:05 for todays

probably could have done it quicker but I didnt get how to do it at first and back out of the window to start overbut it just picked me up where I was

I don't know any of these things

Wtf is a cocktail made with cranberry and vodka

I feel like an alien rn.

I don't have the patience to sit around for 3 minutes blanking out.

I got 4 out of 10 in today's puzzle and gave up.

You solved The Mini
in 1:12.

did it in 1:20. first time.

7:47, this one got me

Todays was harder than yesterdays

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/6/3/6/AAW8UqAAE4Ks.jpg

this one sucked, i gave up. Maybe I could've done better, but Snag eluded me

I'm just bad at this, took me 8 minutes to finish mostly because I had to Google Meghan Markle since I had no idea she was an actress. And then I was stuck thinking Samoa was the Polynesian nation.

58 seconds today. Not bad for the second one I've ever done.