Anyone else here do this? My H and I have become obsessed since early pandemic. We take turns starting it each day, then eventually open it to the other. Pretty much always get the pangram and Genius, and more and more often get to Queen Bee, too.
It’s a great, low-key mind exercise. Though frequently we get annoyed at what words it does or does not take.
I talked about this recently in another thread. I do it sometimes! It’s really hard for me! It’s a way my mind doesn’t think - and clearly needs to!
For those that aren’t familiar….
Love it! Do it every day.
I’ve just started a couple of weeks ago. Love it!
I have problems with Spelling Bee and do much better at Letter Boxed. My oldest daughter, who reads a lot like me, is the opposite. Funny how everyone’s brain is different.
My engineering major daughter doesn’t read much at all and doesn’t like either of them.
Every day. But what is Queen Bee? I often stop once I reach genius level.
Me too!
Queen Bee is a hidden level where you get all the possible words and points. It looks like this: 
Got it! I have never gotten all the words - have gotten really close, with only a couple left unfound, but I usually bail after I hit genius. You’ve given me something new to strive for!
You can find out how many are needed for QB at this site, which has a lot of other stats that are interesting, plus answers (we never look at those and you won’t see them unless you mean to) It’s independent of the NYT: https://nytbee.com/
I just recently realized that the puzzle’s “Today’s Hints” gives you the QB numbers, too, which I had avoided looking at because I don’t want hints in general.
It can be maddening, but so satisfying when you get it!
Proud to say S24 has started helping me with Spelling Bee. I do the bulk of it and then he finds the more esoteric words. Last night and tonight he helped me get to Queen Bee. Too bad he can’t put that on his college apps!
Love Spelling Bee 
I started playing during Covid and it’s part of my daily morning wake up routine. If I make it to Amazing, I consider myself pretty amazing 
S22 shares our NYT account and sometimes finishes the puzzle during the day. I just hope he’s not playing during class!
I do it every day. I almost always find the pentagram(s) and make it to genius but very rarely get to Queen Bee since there are usually a few obscure words that I have never heard of before.
That’s true. We have done it long enough that between the two of us, have memorized many of the obscure words we didn’t know. But often when I check the next day, there are some headscratchers.
Also, I get really angry when it doesn’t take a word that is definitely a word. A month or two ago, it did not take “undaunted.”
We don’t have the puzzles as part of our NYT subscription so I can’t do the whole thing. It usually cuts me off at 7 words but that’s about right for me. I try to find the big one if I can. I enjoy the mini crossword more. It’s easy.
I was really annoyed by undaunted also!!
It won’t accept alee either, which is a legitimate word that is commonly used in crossword puzzles. Also, it’s interesting that, given the rules (no letter s and at least one pentagram), the number of possible puzzles is fairly limited as they have to reuse previous puzzles.
We paid for the puzzle subscription as an early pandemic response 