Author Topic: Last word syndrome  (Read 1327 times)

Jacki

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Last word syndrome
« on: February 13, 2020, 05:34:55 PM »
Do you think there is something psychological about finding the elusive last word needed to see the rosette next to your name? Lately I've had chronic last word syndrome, aka LWS and it's driving me nuts! And the words are a variety from clop - had clomp but not clop - that took all day to see, and then to something more tricky like latish.
The funny thing is I'm not getting any better. I've been playing three and a half years now and I had a steep learning curve, then got a lot better but I still struggle to rip them all out there like Mapoftas or mkneuk. Or rhino. Or doxydaisy.
Anyway just a little whinge. That's a whine to those over the sea.
« Last Edit: February 13, 2020, 06:58:29 PM by Jacki »
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yelnats

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Re: Last word syndrome
« Reply #1 on: February 13, 2020, 10:01:44 PM »
I feel I have got better since I cut down on the number of games that I play. I used to do all 3, plus the puzzle from the Age (Local Newspaper) as well as 3 Spanish crosswords every day. When '7 by many' came along it was too much so cut back to the Age, which my wife also plays, 7 by many and the Spanish crosswords. I rarely got a rosette but I think I'm doing better with rosettes in the Age puzzle and also scoring higher. Their scoring is a bit erratic though as sometimes 'Excellent' is much higher than all the common words, and sometimes less.

mkenuk

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Re: Last word syndrome
« Reply #2 on: February 14, 2020, 11:14:23 AM »
Do you think there is something psychological about finding the elusive last word needed to see the rosette next to your name?

I know very well the feeling of desperately trying to find the one or two missing word(s).
One of the problems of being one word short is that I tend to imagine that I am looking for something fairly obscure when in reality it is some very common word that I have overlooked.
The last word I played in the underrate game was reader and in the defrocked game it was forced.

Other than 'cheating' and looking up the answers in an online anagram solver, which I have never done in ten years of playing Chi, I don't think there is any easy answer.
One thing that has worked for me several times, however, is to turn off the computer, get a pen and paper and play the game again, from the beginning, the 'old-fashioned' way. It is surprising how often this reveals the easy word(s) that I have failed to realise I haven't played.
« Last Edit: February 14, 2020, 11:28:32 AM by mkenuk »

TRex

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Re: Last word syndrome
« Reply #3 on: February 14, 2020, 11:22:12 AM »
I know very well the feeling of desperately trying to find the one or two missing word(s).
One of the problems of being one word short is that I tend to imagine that I am looking for something fairly obscure when in reality it is some very common word that I have overlooked.

Presactly! On the recently closed inveighed game, my last word was hide. If that weren't bad enough, I had thought of hied several minutes earlier and didn't even think of its obvious anagram! Usually, when I am down to the last word it is a stupidly easy word (the kind which prompts a facepalm), but when comparing with my better half, she has found it so I end up with a rosette. (On the inveighed game I got the last word before my better half started playing.)

On the current Standard game, I just did something similar. But I don't want to do a spoiler.
« Last Edit: February 14, 2020, 11:39:35 AM by TRex »

Morbius

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Re: Last word syndrome
« Reply #4 on: February 14, 2020, 06:03:37 PM »
I also suffer from LWS on a regular basis.  Often I race to within one word of a rosette, then hit a brick wall.  I find that going back to the puzzle later often yields results.  Today, for instance, I found myself stranded one word short of a rosette on the standard puzzle.  After about 30 minutes of mixing, shuffling and wracking my brain, I gave up.  I've just gone back for a second look and saw the missing word in about three seconds.  I've done this countless times over the years.  Indeed, many of my rosettes have come from revisiting the puzzle for a second or third time. 

TRex

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Re: Last word syndrome
« Reply #5 on: April 08, 2021, 09:46:42 AM »
This might be the worst case of Last Word Syndrome: on the Challenge puzzle for Wednesday 7 April 2021 — bilateral — my last word, supplied by my better half when we were comparing, was tile, even though I already had tiler. Argh!

Jacki

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Re: Last word syndrome
« Reply #6 on: April 08, 2021, 03:47:38 PM »
I was annoyed I couldn't play duettist in yesterday's STURDIEST Standard puzzle.  With under twenty minutes left I realised I hadn't played DUET!!
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