It’s important to keep your brain active throughout the day – and one of the best ways to achieve this is by challenging yourself to a brainteaser. But while brainteasers can help strengthen the mind as you’re putting your lateral thinking skills to the test, they can sometimes be too tricky for most people to solve.
That’s exactly what TikTok users came to learn after trying to solve a question asked on game show 1% Club Australia. According to the clip, “only the top 5% of brains will be able to find the missing letter” in a crossword within 30 seconds. Displayed in a grid format, players have been tasked with solving the missing letter shown by an asterisk.
The grid reads:
R E T T
E L G N
I S S I
M E H T
D N I *
While some users boasted about solving it within the timeframe, others searched the comment section for the answer. One user said: “Got it in 30 secs, but have to pause, the pressure of the music, the countdown, the waffling presenter makes it more difficult than what it is!”
Another user added: “Got it within 2 seconds … so easy.” A third user said: “Some of these are easy and some are impossible.” One more user added: “I thought d because then it would fit the pattern that every vertical line has only different letters, and the horizontal lines have different letters.”
Another user said: “Easier then expected. I saw ‘Missing’ and figured it out from there.” A final user added: “F was the only letter I guessed but I had zero confidence in it.” Later in the clip, the host reveals the answer to be the letter F before the grid spins around to clearly read the word ‘find the missing letter’.
Highlighting the importance of brainteasers, a statement on Mindvalley reads: “Lateral thinking is a form of problem-solving that utilises a more creative, less direct approach to the problem. Analytical, logical problem-solving encourages vertical thinking, which is an approach we’re often taught when dealing with math equations. Lateral thinking is the indirect approach. It helps us view problems in an entirely new light. It helps us find unique, creative solutions we might never have before imagined.
“The brain is neuroplastic, meaning it has the ability to shift and change over time. Many people believe our brains age as we do, growing less powerful, less capable, and less competent over time. “What most don’t realize, however, is that you have the ability to manipulate your brain the way a sculptor molds clay. The brain is susceptible to all we expose it to—people, music, work— and even the physical environments we traverse on a day-to-day basis. Everything we partake in has the potential to subtly shift the wiring of our brain.”
