Hints and tips for solving brainteasers
Recognising the type of puzzle you’re looking at will help you determine how best to solve it.
Cryptic crossword clues
A cryptic clue leads to its answer as long as it is read in the right way. What the clue appears to say when read normally is a distraction and usually has nothing to do with the answer. The challenge is to find the way of reading the clue that leads to the solution.
Look out for indicators than an anagram is included. Or perhaps there are hidden codes within the words. Could the letters be substituted for numbers?
For example, ‘A’ could equal 1, ‘B’ could equal 2, and so on. Or it could be more complex - letters could be represented by their subsequent Scrabble score, or their corresponding atomic number in the periodic table.
Rebus
A rebus is the combination of letters, words and pictures to produce a word or phrase. For example, the below shows the word ‘SECRET’ repeated a number of times:
SECRET
SECRET
SECRET
Sayings/Phrases
Think about how the words in a puzzle might be used in other common sayings phrases. Maybe they have alternate meanings, or opposites? Or perhaps they share a common property with other words and can precede or follow the same word.
For example, in this brainteaser, the words can be divided into two sets:
ALLEY, BOB, BULL, HANG, HOT, POLE, THUNDER, WATCH
