Calculating the Score for the Daily Crossword

[RobertL814599]

How is your score calculated?  Today I finished the puzzle faster than any other day, with zero wrong letters entered and my score was tied for the lowest I've ever scored.  So it isn't just "time" and it isn't just "number of incorrect letters entered, then corrected".  So what is it?  Should I change my strategy?  Solve long words first in their fullest instead of solving short words to provide letters to solve the long words?  My strategy will of course depend on how the scores are caluclated.

And I don't want anyone to change the calculationg method.  I'm fine adapting, but to WHAT?

Thanks in advance.

[RobertL814599]

Thank you for your message.  It does answer the question I asked, but it also triggers a follow-up question. Ihoe you don't mind.

In today's puzzle (6/30), I scored the maximum available per your scoring algorithm, 1870 and there were 187 letters to fill in.  Then I looked at the scoreboard, which can show (your choice) the high scores for (a) Today; (b) This week; or (c) This month.  I looked at the (a) choice, namely Today.  There were scores of 1890 and 1880 as well as 1870.  So this means one of three things:

(1) "Today" might not mean "today's Puzzle", but any puzzle completed today, or ...

(2) Not everyone gets the same puzzle for "Today", possibly with a different number of letters required, or ...

(3) Perhaps the Time to Complete enters in some way?

If there is a unique "Today" puzzle that everyone gets, then I believe the maximum for "Today" should only be considered based on that puzzle, not on any puzzle completed that day.

Thank again for your answer to my first question.  I hope you can answer the follow-up.

[AARPLynne]

@RobertL814599 I don't know the answer but I could have the tech team look into it for you. Thanks for your followup question!

[rj42927453]

So way back in 2019 the questions that were asked (they were also my questions) weren't satisfactorily answered.  What did the tech team say about scoring?

[MichaelE11234]

Now that some time has passed, the method of scoring has become clearer to me.    1.  Time is not a factor in scoring puzzles.  Whether it takes 10 minutes for me to complete a cryptic or an hour, the score on the completed puzzle depends solely on the cells completed without help.  The program apparently is set up to run a clock, but it has no bearing on anything,  2.  Any puzzle that is posted can be played that day and end up in the "Today" column.  So a puzzle from last week that contains more cells than the one posted for "today" will be at the top of the scoring chart if it is completed "today."

One last item, since I only do the daily cryptic crossword, (and not always on the same day.). This cryptic crossword, which is designated as "easy", is targeted for an audience in the UK.  Each day, several of the clues and answers contain words or phrases or places that would only be familiar to people living in the British Isles.  I don't know how many UK members of AARP there are, but there have to be more USA people in the membership.  I have written to AARP about this bias, even asking for a more USA targeted constructor to be added to the cryptic line-up, but have generally been ignored.  I guess the upside is that I'm learning all these new British slang expressions that I will never use here in the U.S. and which often makes completing the puzzles without help almost impossible.