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The par score exists to help you level up to a whole crossword, one clue at a time.
In a full crossword, you're very often solving clues where there are already letters in the answer - letters from other answers. These are called checking letters.
Question: If you solve that full crossword, how many revealed checking letters should you need per clue?
Answer: half.
If each answer, on average, gets half its checking letters from other answers and gives half its checking letters to other answers, you'll solve the crossword.
And that's the par concept.
In a Minute Cryptic clue, we approximate how many checking letters the answer would have, and set par as half of that number. (We also factor in a hint per clue).
Examples:
If you average par or below on Minute Cryptic clues, you should be able to solve a full crossword of Minute Cryptic clues. The lower the score, the better you're doing!
We're drawing inspiration from golf!
Like cryptic clues, every golf hole is unique, and has its own par score, which is primarily determined by the length of the hole. You can have really tricky par 3s and fairly straightforward par 5s. But, in general, par 3s should take fewer shots than par 5s. The same is true of letters in cryptic clues.