I recently placed 3rd at MAO state convention in Gemini. The only questions my partner and I kept missing were letter combinations. Can anyone please tell me some common patterns that pop up a lot? I only know a few such as first letters of numbers starting from 1 (OTTFFSSENT...), converting all letters to numbers to find a pattern, and first letters of months, days, etc.

If you can't think of any then it's fine, but I just don't get how some people can get them so quickly (time limit for Gemini is 5 minutes per a page of problems). Am I supposed to be looking at it with a certain perspective or is it just experience I'll get over time?

Thanks and I would appreciate any responses,