I did the NY Times crossword for several years, and got to the point that it was pretty easy. The key is that all of their junk fill words come from the same ba

I did the NY Times crossword for several years, and got to the point that it was pretty easy. The key is that all of their junk fill words come from the same bank of words and clues. Sometimes you'd see the same clue three out of five days. You combine that with the Jeopardy-level trivia clues, that are hard if you aren't familiar at all but obvious if you are, and that just leaves the gimmick. Usually the gimmick isn't that tricky, if you get one, and can see the pattern. Except the damned rebuses. Those are always hard because they feel like they are breaking the rules.