Jigsaw Puzzle Association Ranking (JPAR)

What is JPAR?

A calculation of your puzzling performance compared to average USAJPA member performance across each USAJPA/sanctioned competition within the last 12 months.

  • Faster than average = Below 1

  • Slower than average = Above 1

How does it work?

For each event:

  • We compile:

    • Completion Times for all USAJPA members who competed (1).

    • Pre-existing JPAR for all USAJPA members who competed.

  • We calculate:

    • Expected Completion Times for each competitor by multiplying each member’s Completion Time by their inverse JPAR (2) and then we average those Expected Completion Times (3).

    • Event JPAR for each member by dividing their Completion Time by the average Expected Completion Time.

  • We calculate a final new JPAR for each member by averaging their previous JPAR with their new Event JPAR (2).

Important Notes:

  1. If a member does not complete their puzzle within the maximum time limit, an estimated completion time will be calculated based on their puzzling rate during the competition (pieces assembled/time limit).

  2. If member is competing for the first time:

    -Their time does not contribute to the Expected Completion Times

    -Their Event JPAR is not average with anything, but serves as their final JPAR.

  3. The Expected Completion Times calculation is especially important when events are comprised of mostly new USAJPA members. It ensures that, for example, the first place puzzler in a competition of average speeds ranks appropriately when their score is shuffled into the entire database with the top speed puzzlers in the nation.

  4. Puzzle difficulty is considered in ranking by default since ranking is relative to other puzzlers’ completion times.

  5. Only USAJPA member results are used for the JPAR calculations.

Coming soon: An in-depth explanation, example data, and calculation spreadsheet to test out the algorithm and learn why it’s important to calculate it this way.

Check your JPAR: On the webpage or download a copy HERE (Updated October 2024)

In the linked document you can find current member rankings, qualifying events used in the calculation, and the results that were included in the calculations! These results were updated as of October 6th, 2024.

Important Note: See archived results below that were Updated September 2024 to see JPAR without WJPC 2023 or WJPC 2024. This was done so that competitors can see how their rank changes solely based on the addition of WJPC 2024 results in the list above, Updated October 2024.

JPAR Archive:

Which main factors affect JPAR?

How can you improve your ranking?