Spot the trick vs. decide to grind

Every five-point problem has a short way in, but you do not always find it. The skill is deciding, quickly and deliberately, whether to keep hunting for the idea or to start the long reliable calculation - and then committing to that decision.

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Work through it

LearnWhat it is, how to spot it, a worked example, and where it goes wrong.
Practice — 3-point ladderNo problems written at this tier yet.Nothing written at this tier yet
Practice — 4-point ladderNo problems written at this tier yet.Nothing written at this tier yet
Practice — 5-point ladder1 problem. Three in a row finishes it.0/3 in a row · 0/1 solved
Skill quizFinish every ladder that has problems first.Finish the ladders above first

Before and after

Needs first

CFT-03Try small cases first CFT-05Eliminate impossible choices by bounding

Opens up

CFT-08Time triage: now, later, or guess CFT-12Managing the 5-point block

In official papers

No indexed official paper question has been tagged with CFT-07 yet. The index grows one paper at a time, and it records only question numbers, point values and our own skill tags — never the problems themselves.

See the papers indexed so far

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