Tips/Tricks for learning OLL/PLL

I wanted to make a short video where I could explain some tips and tricks for those of you who are in process of learning the OLLs and the PLLs. First of all, the algorithms that I use are those from cubewiz.com, which is maintained by Bob Burton. These algorithms are by far the best ones I have found for almost every situation. When I got started, I used the ones from Jessica Fridrich's website, and that was basically just a huge waste of time. I had to relearn every single algorithm that I got from her website. Because they're just so slow, just terrible. So tip number 1: the order you want to learn the OLLs and the PLLs in. Well, first of all, I assume you already know the 3-cycle of corners and the 3-cycle of edges to solve the last layer. And the orientation of the layer, I'm not sure which method you use. The best method to use probably is to build a cross. The cross you build by doing the TOLL, which is just an F R U R U F'. I have a heart there because I love this algorithm. It's a really fast trigger. This basically flips two opposite edges. The next one is the POLL, this one, which basically flips two adjacent edges like that. I know that now this algorithm here is a small f, R U R U f'. This is the inverse of this one. I know that it's not exact inverse. I know that some of you use f and then U R U R f', but they both work. Anyway, so this— use the PLL and the TOLL to swap the edges to flip the edges, and then you use one of these 7 algorithms to solve the rest. And that's the fastest way, that's the next fastest way to solving the OLL other than knowing all of the algorithms. After you know all this, you should definitely go for the PLLs, all of the PLLs. PLLs are much more important than the OLLs, they will speed you up much more. After you know all of the PLLs, you should go on to memorize the OLLs one by one. You know, don't necessarily go in order, start with the easier ones. I'm gonna show you that you basically get about 10 out of these 57 OLLs for free. So tip #2: group notation. You want to group some very frequent sets of moves into one group and memorize them as such. Cubez already does a pretty good job of this for you by putting them in brackets, but here are some very, very common ones. The R U R U trigger is really common, comes up a lot, it's really fast. So it's 4 things, so instead of memorizing it always as R U R' U', just memorize it as one group always. You should go across all the OLLs and circle all the places where it comes up. You'd be surprised by how many occurrences there is. Next trigger that is very common is RFRF, and that's a very common trigger as well. Notice that the orientation 18 here, it's exactly those two triggers one after the other. So instead of memorizing, you know, the sequence, you memorize that it's just those two triggers right after each other. It's basically for free almost if you know those two. The next example is this, 13. This trigger, it's R U R' U, it's not U'. But the way I memorized it, it's the R U R U trigger except for it's not U' at the end but it's U. So that's the way I memorized it. And then you do the R F R F trigger, then U2 and the R F R F trigger. So notice how big that algorithm is, but it's really simple once you look at it closer. Tip #3: Know the RURU family. It's fairly trivial. If you know the T orientation, if you know the T orientation, you'll be able to get 3 more OLLs for free. So notice that if I, on a solved cube, if I do F RURU just continuously, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, I arrive at the solved state again. So F R U R U creates a cycle of 6 states of the cube. So now we have 6 states. Let me apply F R U R U. We get this P pattern. You know that the inverse of the T orientation will solve this. Now apply again. You know that twice the inverse of the T T orientation will solve this. Apply again. You know that 3 times the inverse of the T orientation will solve this. You also know that since it cycles 6 times, 3 times the T orientation will solve this as well. Twice the T orientation will solve this one. And of course, once the T orientation will solve this one, which is just a T orientation. So just by knowing the T orientation and its inverse, you basically know 3 other OLLs for free. This case, the— this case, 30, and this case here, 46 and 10. Tip number 4: some of the OLLs work by reducing the particular case into one of the easier cases. For example, the T orientation. Two such cases are 11 and 39. So this is the 11 case. It's like this. Now here, what you do is you apply the inverse of the T orientation, or the P orientation. You do this, and you reduce it to the T orientation. Or you— alright. So there, and that solves it. Of course, you get the reflection as well. You always get the reflections. I'm not even saying that the reflection is— if you do the FRURU on the other side, right? But I'm not even saying those. So, and the next one is 39. Let me just get the inverse. Okay, so here, two bars up here, you do F R U R U, the T orientation, and again the T orientation, and that solves it. Uh, one more case like this is, um, this one. It's number 16. You solve it like this, F R U R U, and you transform it into the P pattern. And solve. Tip #5: the Y permutation, this one, is actually just a combination of two OLLs. The two OLLs are 42 and 18. 42 and, uh, 18. If you do 42 followed by 18, you have the Y permutation. So that's an easy way to get the Y permutation if you remember those two cases, and 18 is trivial, so If you remember 42, as a bonus you would get the T-permutation. Tip #6: This is more of a memorization tip. Do not memorize the notation by itself, just like letters. If you can close your eyes and you can recite the notation for the case 16, you're doing it wrong. Try to rely more on muscle memory. The way I learned many of these algorithms was that I simply read the move from the page and do the algorithm 10-20 times. Try to do the first 20% just off your head and read the other 80% and do it. Then try to do the first 40%, try to do the first 60, 80, until you finally know the entire algorithm. Then try to repeat the algorithm once or twice every 2 hours or something, and it's gonna sink in by itself. Lastly, tip number 7: it is a well-known fact that we learn better later in the day because most of the memory is written to to your brain during the REM sleep. So if you learn some algorithms a few hours before you go to sleep, that can help. I mostly ignore this, but you can try to see if that works any better for you. So that's pretty much all I could come up with for the tips for OLLs and some of the PLLs. Good luck memorizing them. I now know all of the OLLs and the PLLs. It took me about 4 months to learn them. And it's a funny thing that the more OLLs you know, the easier it becomes to learn them. I can learn one algorithm now in about 5 minutes, and if I repeat it, then I'll know it pretty much in one day. So it becomes easier, do not be afraid of it, and it will help you out. Not as much as the PLLs, but it will help you out for sure. And that's it.