3x3x3
CROSS

Plan ahead the cross solving process during 15 seconds inspection time in official tournament. A cross is solved optimally in 5 to 7 moves. If you take more than that, you should start looking at your method of solving the cross. There should be much faster way of doing it.

Before starting the timer, you should have a good idea of the position of the four edges that are going to make up the cross. Plan ahead and solve the cross at the bottom. This will allow you to look into what lies ahead in the upper layer so that you can move on into F2L as soon as you finished the cross. Plan the most finger friendly moves required to solve the cross, and sometimes this requires the cross to be solved on top or on the side.

The color of the cross is a personal preference. However, once you choose a color, stick to the same color all the time, so that it will greatly reduce the F2L recognition time.