How to Learn Words to Improve Your Game

INTRODUCTION

The following guide, though not exhaustive, is meant to give upcoming players a perspective on how they can improve their word-study habits and also improve their game-play tremendously.

In my opinion, every Scrabbler has a unique way of expressing themselves on the board even when we all share a few match-winning principles. While at it, I don’t think it is possible to coach a player from nothingness to a fully established player. Every day, a scrabbler assesses their own abilities and seeks ways to improve their game. So if you are worried whether you are doing enough to get to the next level, the answer is always a blank. It depends, but so long as you are moving forward, worry not about your speed.

I am looking forward to receive contributions from players at all level to make this guide more interesting and more resourceful for the benefit of the new generation Scrabbler.

Class quiz: Eleza mukdatha wa dondoo hii; “Ni kitambo sana tangu nicheze hii game. Nimerust sana!”

The answer is you have to improve your word power. To do this, I will give below, tools and methods to help you remove rust or better your game.

PART ONE: RECOMMENDED APPS

Below are softwares that you can use on your phone to better your game

Phone Applications: For Android and Iphone

ANAGRAM QUIZZER

Lets you try quizzes on the go, you can modify your search to suit your needs and also specify the number of quizzes you want to try. You can check out the app from Playstore, explore its other features and have some fun as you learn.

WORD EXPERT

This App might change names often but the dictionary is normally CSW(recent).

Shows anagrams, Subanagrams, patterns and much more.

For me, this app stands out for showing all the Subanagrams in an orderly manner within a limited space. No wonder it is common among Osaka players.

SCRABBLE WORD CHECKER

Shows limited meanings and alternative words, as such you can predict inflections and the group a word belongs to e.g., mother is a verb, thus mothered and mothering are correct, mothering is a noun also, so we can have motherings.

WALI TIMER

Offers limited search options, word checker and a game timer. Quite compact.

It does not contain rice.

HOOT

Stands out for showing hooks and allows you to check for further hooks by setting the click on word command. The click on word command allows you to decide what happens when you click on a searched word, for instance, show hooks or anagrams and so much more. Download Hoot and find out what “so much more “is on your own.

CODEWORDS

When you can breathe no more, play some simpler stuff.

For a programmer, this is how we code in Scrabble.

PC Applications: Windows/Linux/IOS

ZYZZYVA

Besides Zyzzyva being a valid word, it is a valid aid to word mastery.

It is fast, shows word type, alternatives and inflection.

You need to explore and master the various features available as they will help you in your advanced quizzes later.

Cardbox system- think of a box in your room, let us call it a cardbox. At the bottom are words that you know very well and as you approach the top, they get stranger and words like INTERSTRATIFY are found on the surface. A cardbox helps you master a given word list thoroughly but it might be costly in terms of time. Cardbox is not a valid scrabble word, just to let you know. Think outside the box!

QUIZZES– If you are in no hurry consider typing in your responses, else use flashcard mode. However, I strongly recommend against flashcard mode for quizzes you are not familiar with.

Learn how to use QUIZZES below

QUACKLE

Well, if you didn’t know Quackle exists, I would like to remind you that it takes d and s back hooks.

Quackle shows move options and helps you improve your decision making process during games especially when your rack looks unpleasant ( for lack of a better word).

It also allows you to lose. With the difficult AI levels, it should always be a good challenge and you should celebrate every win whenever it comes along.

ISC.RO

This is a web interface that allows you to play online against humans or bots or boths, sorry both.

ISC is simple, straight-forward and fast. Furthermore, tracking is done for you which is both an advantage and a disadvantage.

On the flipside, it requires a paid account to review your games and hooks for the words on the board but if you upgrade your account this becomes an advantage.

Kindly be diligent to get an actual assessment of your progress and a realistic gaming experience as well. Don’t forget to be nice while exchanging conversations with your opponents too.

For instance, when Mawondo played BROMINE to take the lead while blocking the only bingo lane available, I typed, “BRO that’s MINE” and he quickly apologized. Of course, there has to be some chemistry between the two of you to permit such an exchange.

If used well, ISC can work wonders to keep you occupied and improving.

WOOGLES.IO

More like ISC but all is free and you can export games to quackle. Woogles is really cool only that many players haven’t shifted there yet. Be those many players.

BROWSER APPs

AEROLITH

Aerolith is a web app written by César Del Solar. Its main goal is to provide a fun and fast-paced way to learn words quickly. It is particularly popular among tournament Scrabble players but you can also use it for Boggle, Words with Friends, or any other word game! We even have some people that just like anagramming for fun and have gotten freakishly good.

The main program, Wordwalls, is quite simple. We present you with many challenges, once a day, where 50 scrambled words are shown to you and you must solve them as quickly as possible. You can also upload your own word lists, play some prepared lists of useful words, or search by probability.

The following video shows you the basics and how to get started.

XERAFIN

Xerafin is an online study environment for word games. The website is under constant development and designed with the concept of word study being a social activity that is both addictive and highly competitive!

As long as you have internet access and a supported browser everything should work. Xerafin adjusts its layout to your desktop, laptop, pad or phone and remains in sync with all of them.

Find as many subanagrams as you can against the clock. Review the answers and discover new words to add to your study routine.

PART TWO: WORD LISTS

“All words are equally important,” that’s what they say. Understanding is organized cramming; I just wrote that.

As you try to learn new words endeavour to make your word lists as short as possible preferably below 100 words. Use leakage, for instance, you can have the lists next to you as you try the quiz. Also, try to pre-read a word list before you attempt a quiz.

Kama haujui, haujui, just mark as missed and check again later.

Useful Word Lists you should try

1. 2 letter words: write down the list and copy it to your heart.
2. 3 letter words: – write down the list and patiently take the time to master the detail
3.   Play 3 letter word game on absp.org
4. Learn their hooks
5. Conjunctions and interjections (Kwanza hii unaweza chezea opponent ashtuke).
6. Prepositions, pronouns and also beware of adverbs. For this particular set of words, you can find them from Zyzzyva but generally a good scrabbler should know what a word is and be able to predict its behaviour on the board. In Scrabble the answer is not “it is what it is”
7. Vowel Heavy Fours: These are four letter words consisting of three or more vowels. They are very useful when you need to dump vowels and maintain a decent leave. They are also few in case you wanted to postpone.
8. Vowel Heavy Fives: These are fives with four or more vowels. Similar purpose as their younger brothers above just a bit older and more experienced.
9. Vowel Heavy Sixes: These are sixes with four or more vowels. They are sweet heavy vowel words to learn because an extra hook makes a bingo, for example ZAIKAIs and ASIAGOs. Take your time and learn these, they will also help when you need to dump tiles and roll over more tiles with an ugly-ish rack. In a game, most of the time the winner is the player who has played more tiles on the board. So if you happen to be the one playing more tiles, chances are you are going to win most of your games while dominating them as well.
10. Vowelly Sevens: This is the most useful word list I have ever come across. Consisting of at least 5 vowels, these bingoes  are a shortcut way of checking if there is a word or not, I mean if for instance you have five vowels on your rack and you have mastered this list, you should tell whether you have a bingo or not just by inspection. Save for COUTEAUxs/AUTOCUEs all the other 61 words in this list have one anagram. And then you can remove EUOUAES to even out! Check out the remaining 60.
11. Vowel Heavy 8’s: These are 5+ vowels 8’s. Having gone through the above there is therefore no need to dwell on this. Go and get them.
12. Power Tiles: J, Q, X, Z, V, k- I prefer this order because V has fewer words than K and they are more playable. Ndo ukuwe mzito, you need to know your power tiles (Mzito=Mtu wa power)

On your commutes, make short lists on Anagram Quizzer or kadude (iphone 5 with obsolete zyzzyva app installed) for power tiles and improve your 4’s to 7’s. Again, instead of taking power naps, study power tiles. If you can manage, use a lot of leakage and get leverage before doing a quiz. But don’t forget to assess yourself honestly.

Fours and Fives: They might sound boring, but they make a lot of a difference at any point in the game.

You can as well start with the heavy tiles V, F, Y, W… or whichever way you so please but ensure you get it done well. Scrabble is not just about Bingoes, it is about dominating with words. You can start by tackling the below lists

• Type 1 Sevens: Go to Zyzzyva and find the list for quizzes inbuilt per stem. Or you can also get the list from the search section. If on phone, create a manual quiz per stem as available.
• Power Tile Sevens: Imagine playing ZAMOUSE, ZANJERO, JEMIDAR, HEXADES, MARTEXT and JAMLIKE and getting an additional 50 marks. Now stop imagining and go master these words.
• Four Vowel Sevens: In my opinion, it is more likely to have more vowels on rack than consonants and this trick comes in handy. The big plus is that the words are reasonably few but the occurrence of four vowels is high. At the end of the day you are going to know more words but I believe this is a good point to start.
• No vowel words: These words rhyme with rhythms. And if you are still looking for a meaning in my sentence above, I suggest you buy glycyls. Tsktsk!

Important Notes About Word Lists

1. As you learn words, try to note their hooks and if possible, “how they behave.”
2. Whatever idea of a wordlist you have in mind, execute it. You can for instance, create stems from your contact list names with 6 letters to break the boredom. Or if you want to take it a notch higher, master DEREGULATIONS.
3. Have some fun learning these new words. Everybody wants to know them. Keep on trying new methods and keep us in the know.

Important Notes About Gameplay

1. When playing, give the game full attention, try and make the least regrettable decisions always.
2. There is no fun in losing, they lied.

“Mi hucheza hii game kujibamba”

However, every loss teaches you something (let us not take the credit of your opponent winning away nonetheless). You need to be careful when you are trailing; avoid phonies at all cost, don’t concede one and prepare the bard for your blossom.

If you have to lose, narrow the margin decently.

• Remember to congratulate your opponent rather than rant about picking badly and many other excuses that seem to imply that your soul was ready for a victory but luck was not on your side. We all need to promote good vibes and morale at all levels of play.
• “Hakunanga kuokota matope, hiyo ni kubonga matope.” Eng. Richard Okechi.

The way I see it, every turn you have a chance to dispose tiles from your rack, you can return them to the bag and get others in return or place them on the board and get awarded for your brilliancy. And to motivate you to dispose as many tiles on the board, they give 50 marks for free if you can throw away all your tiles at once. This way, every move is decision to make, whatever tiles you have you need to survive and thrive, and rhyme too.

An Example on how to Split your Quizzes.

Vs Five letters……. Total…488 anagram groups

First split by no. of anagrams

1             ……. Not hook words…group a

                ……. Hook words…………group b

               Group a……. no. of unique letters (5) …. 88 anagram groups

                              ………. else……………………………….70 anagram groups

               Group b……. Point value (8) …………53

                              ……. Point value (9) ………….32

                              ……. Point value (10) ……….30

                              ………Point value (11) ……….52

                              ………Point value (12) ……….16

                              ……. Point value (13+) …………28

2           ….Point value(<10)……..35

               …. Point value(10+)………28

3              ….28

4             ….9

5            ….3

6+          ….2

For this kind of categorizing, hook words are easier to master assuming you already have some mastery of words of the preceding length.

Now go ahead and master V fives (this is one of them to start you off) and tell me how it goes.

Btw, I just noticed the split by point recently and it is the best trick I have ever learnt so far. Here below, the Z list shows exactly why it is a cool idea.

Z Sixes.

15p… Hooks… 50

               Not… 57

16p… Hooks… 39

               Not… 33

17p… Hooks… 62

               Not… 62

18p… Hooks… 42

               Not… 60

19p… Hooks… 32

               Not… 32

You can build the rest of the rest from here.

Also note that you can use further splits for your convenience. My intention here was to offer a guide and not a marking scheme of how things should be done. Find what persuades you the most.

With the point split method, you start with words like ZEATINS go to ANZIANI and somewhere in the middle MERGUEZ before you get to PACZKIS and SHMALTZy.

You really don’t have to write down, there is a lot to know, just use leakage and move on.

Additions

1. Xerafin word study system accessed via their website. This sounds like a nice way to learn on the go and to refresh your memory (the browser has a button for that).
2. Learn the art of quackling your games. But thou shalt not be preoccupied with recording your racks and moves to an extent that you lose track of your game.
3. You can pay for premium Anagram Quizzer to use their premium features like the cardbox and saving quizzes.
4. Tutorials for using Zyzzyva are available on YouTube, I know the channel, I can link you up!
5. If you have just started playing, accept that you need to put in time to study too.  A few hours a week can do the trick but consistency is key.
6. “You need to know all the words, they are equally important, “Oyez. Got me thinking, do these senior scrabblers ever get lost for words.
7. I know an app that can show you the letters that go before or after a word, if you are interested, I can hook you up!

Written by Richard Okechi – +254707500366 – richardokechi@gmail.com