The puzzles rely heavily on homonyms and using different sets of them where one of the words might fit in one group or another. Fir example one group might include bulldozer and backhoe so when you see that you immediately add “crane” to that group. Unfortunately there is also another group with bird names like parakeet, finch, and magpie that is actually the correct group for crane.
And the tricky part is if, say, you know that “bulldozer, backhoe, crane” are working vehicles, so it is one potential grouping, and you also happen to know that “parakeet, magpie, crane” are birds but you don’t know what “finch” is and looking it up feels like cheating, so you just guess. So you guess “finch” is a vehicle and bam, wrong.
spoiler for the linked puzzle
I had no idea that “fluke” was a kind of fish, as well as a chance occurrence. So that caused a similar situation to the above.
Sometimes you can use process of elimination with the other groups, but if you can’t solidly make a group of four (especially if you know you, say, have a potential bird group but you are aware you do not know that many birds; and likewise with a potential working vehicle group) you often end up guessing.
And sometimes I just cannot figure out what category they are going for, even if I could place it given the category name. I am a native English speaker and like to think I am not below average intelligence.
I definitely have times like that. The other day, Mariah Carey songs was the topic and I had no idea, which wouldn’t have been a problem but one of the other categories stumped me as well, so there was no way I could win.
Same issue as you! I wonder if this is mainstream knowledge I should be expected to have, but like most tech nerd types celebrities and pop culture are a gap in my knowledge (which, to be honest, I have no interest in correcting), or if this is honestly obscure stuff that manages to masquerade as mainstream knowledge because a big-name celebrity is attached to it. I mean, her high school graduation year is probably on Wikipedia but not something you should reasonably expect anything but her fans, former classmates/teachers, and family to know.
The one that got me like that was a couple of days ago. It was jug band instruments, and jug was one of the options but it went with something else, and it took me a while to figure out it was saw.
The puzzles rely heavily on homonyms and using different sets of them where one of the words might fit in one group or another. Fir example one group might include bulldozer and backhoe so when you see that you immediately add “crane” to that group. Unfortunately there is also another group with bird names like parakeet, finch, and magpie that is actually the correct group for crane.
And the tricky part is if, say, you know that “bulldozer, backhoe, crane” are working vehicles, so it is one potential grouping, and you also happen to know that “parakeet, magpie, crane” are birds but you don’t know what “finch” is and looking it up feels like cheating, so you just guess. So you guess “finch” is a vehicle and bam, wrong.
spoiler for the linked puzzle
I had no idea that “fluke” was a kind of fish, as well as a chance occurrence. So that caused a similar situation to the above.
Sometimes you can use process of elimination with the other groups, but if you can’t solidly make a group of four (especially if you know you, say, have a potential bird group but you are aware you do not know that many birds; and likewise with a potential working vehicle group) you often end up guessing.
And sometimes I just cannot figure out what category they are going for, even if I could place it given the category name. I am a native English speaker and like to think I am not below average intelligence.
I definitely have times like that. The other day, Mariah Carey songs was the topic and I had no idea, which wouldn’t have been a problem but one of the other categories stumped me as well, so there was no way I could win.
Same issue as you! I wonder if this is mainstream knowledge I should be expected to have, but like most tech nerd types celebrities and pop culture are a gap in my knowledge (which, to be honest, I have no interest in correcting), or if this is honestly obscure stuff that manages to masquerade as mainstream knowledge because a big-name celebrity is attached to it. I mean, her high school graduation year is probably on Wikipedia but not something you should reasonably expect anything but her fans, former classmates/teachers, and family to know.
Ya that all makes sense. And I can see it when viewing the answers too. I just need to be allowed more wrong attempts to solve.
The one that got me like that was a couple of days ago. It was jug band instruments, and jug was one of the options but it went with something else, and it took me a while to figure out it was saw.