First, you must follow @twitbrain. Do it now if you aren't already a follower!
There are two twitbrain "challenge problems" each hour. The first person to reply with the correct answer is the winner. Each win is worth one point.
Second, be ready to Reply to @twitbrain when you see the problem. Tweet the answer only, with no commas, for example, "@twitbrain 1221".
Within one minute of a correct answer, Twitbrain will tweet the name and time of the winner. If you are a follower, you will see it.
Check the standings on the Twitbrain web site. Your name will appear as long as you are in the top 10!
Use your head, not a calculator! All the top players use no calculator or pen-and-paper. In fact, if you take the time to key in the problem or write it down, the point may already be won. Work it in your head, you may be faster than you realize.
Beware that there are some very fast players, so don't delay! This game is about the right answer, first.
Use a real-time Twitter client like Tweetdeck. It lets you see the question without refreshing the page.
Tweetdeck also lets you set up a real-time search column so that you can see everyone else's answers.
Prepare your Twitter client so that you only need to enter the answer and submit the reply. This means you have "@twitbrain " typed in ahead of time. If your client submits the tweet when you press Enter, it will be faster than pressing a button. It is not necessary to reply to the exact tweet the problems comes in, because TwitBrain receives all tweets that mention @twitbrain.
Operator precedence - this means that multiplication is done before addition or subtraction, unless there are parentheses. Some examples:
4 + 5 * 2 (is 4 + 10, or 14, not 9 * 2)
(4 + 5) * 2 (is 9 * 2, or 18)
Don't assume that someone else has already won. If you know the answer, tweet it! You may just win!
Be kind to your followers - delete your tweets to @twitbrain after a winner has been determined!