half-diminished chords

I’ve been working on the exercises in “How Not to Suck at Half diminished Chords” on the Jazz Advice blog, so I don’t have to rely on my bag of memorized licks every time I see a IIm7b5. All the exercises use the locrian scale on the chord. Mark Levine and others recommend using the melodic minor derived from the minor third of the chord; e.g., play the A melodic minor on an F#m7b5, which is the F# locrian scale but with a raised second degree (G# instead of G natural).