…with Gary Moss

What pattern do you see?
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Look at the arrangement of the ‘hot spots’ (the colored spots). See how many of them are set five spaces apart. What, if anything does that suggest to you?
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If you just thought or said, “Aha, there are premium points to be made by knowing and playing five-letter-words,” you get an A+.
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Yes, the optimum scores in scrabble are made by playing bingos (using all 7 tiles off your rack on a single turn), but that is not possible on every play. The better players know that there are other ways of obtaining high scores too.
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A play like the one at the right, with the ‘Q’ on a TLS and the word covering a DWS, would score more than 70 points. That is as many points as many bingos.

When you are ready, I have prepared lists of all the 5 Letter Words containing the high point tiles. Words like ‘jowar,’ ‘kevil,’ ‘qanat,’ ‘xeric’. and ‘zaire’. The lists are in PDF format, ready for you to print -or- I can put these words onto WHIZ CARDS for you.

There is so much to learn, but the secret to building memory lies in your approach . . . ‘spaced repetition’ on a set regimen is the answer. Think about all the things that you are good at. You became good at those things by doing them over and over and over again. This is no different.

Knowing the 5s will make a significant difference in your game.