Customer Reviews

Mensa Sudoku

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(16)

 

 

I see nothing 'Mensa' about this book. It's a just a big collection of medium-level puzzles. All the puzzles can be solved by inspection only (without any pencil markings or using advanced techniques), and I mean ALL of them!

Very similar to Rios's other book 'Black Belt Sudoku'.

If you want tough challenging puzzles, I highly recommend you look else where...

Sorry, but I didn't find these puzzles a bit challenging. I DO like the fact that the puzzles are supposedly in consecutive order of difficulty as you advance through the book. That's a nice feature. Because of it, I immediately began skipping ahead and never did find a puzzle that was challenging.

I bought this book in a brick & mortar store thinking it would be a challenging experience. How very wrong I was. These puzzles are beginner to intermediate level puzzles at best. I've gone through 73 puzzles and the only thing that gave me trouble was that they were so easy, I got sloppy and made dumb mistakes.

The worst part is the "Official Mensa Puzzle Book" seal on the cover and a line on the back cover stating "You could be a genius at sudokus!" What a load of crock.

In short, if you want a ton of puzzles to get started with, this book is fine. If you want a challenge, look elsewhere (the sudoku game on my phone is more challenging).

Unfortunately the title of this collection is midleading, serving more as a marketing ploy than as any indicator of the difficulty of the book. Though the book is put out by the Mensa Society, none of the puzzles here are of more than medium difficulty. After solving several puzzles from the front of the book, I tried a few at the very end to see if they were any more challenging. They aren't. The introduction states that the puzzles get harder as you work through the book, but as far as I can tell they are all about the same in level of difficulty and so far I have not gotten "stuck" on a single one. This isn't the absolute easiest collection I've come across, but all the puzzles can be solved in a short amount of time without having to pencil in anything to keep track of options, etc. There are 534 puzzles total, and solutions to all of them are provided in the back. "Mensa Sudoku" would be a great book for beginners who are just starting to figure out the tricks of the game, but won't provide much of a challenge to those already experienced with Sudoku. Personally, I tend to flip to this book when I want a break from my studies, but pick up other, more difficult books when I want a real mental workout.

Don't be fooled, this book isn't as difficult as the title might have you believe. Intermediate to advanced puzzlers will have no trouble working through the puzzles in this book.

What's great about this book, though, is the "bang for your buck" factor. Most puzzle books are going at about $8.00 for 100-150 puzzles... this book is $8 but you get 500 puzzles! What a deal!

Maybe change the title to "Mensa for Dummies?"
A total waste of money for anyone looking for any sort of challenge.

This book was a huge disappointment for someone who wanted to be challenged. I got Sudoku for Dummies around the same time, and discovered that all of the Mensa puzzles were easier than many of the Easy puzzles in the Dummies book. All of the Mensa puzzles can be solved by rote without any complex thought. If you want challenging, try the Tricky, Tough, or Diabolical puzzles in the Dummies book, or the variants like 16x16.

I bought this book thinking..."oh, good, finally a book that is going to challenge me"...I was wrong. This book is strictly for 10 year olds. Even the so-called 'Hard puzzles' are mindless and require very little thought. What a disappointment!

I was just introduced to these number puzzles recently and like everyone else have gotten addicted to them! This book intrigued me, so I purchased it. Although the "Mensa" in the title might scare some people off, don't let it. The puzzles are similar to many others out there. If you're persistant, you can solve them using the same methods you use for those in other books. I have had to make two attempts on some of them, usually because I'm tired and not observing the options closely enough, but most require only a little care in preparation and the usual logic applications.

This book is notable for having over 500 puzzles under one cover, which is definitely nice, but I like it because, unlike some of the smaller more portable puzzle books, the blocks are larger. I like to write in my "possibilities" legibly rather than in tiny notes and to erase those I've eliminated without obscuring those that are still possible.

While the answers are all available at the back of the book for those who like to double check them or to follow the logic of the solution, I prefer to just accept that it's right if it comes out and wrong if it doesn't!

Another fun way to waste a little time!

I agree with the majority of the reviews that these puzzles are way too easy. The only challenge I have now is to complete them in under 10 minutes.