i have recently participated in ioi and my score wasnot very good (98/600) , and i just wanted to ask for adivce , what is the plan or what does it take to get a medal in ioi or let me say how to have better understanding for problem solving before the ioi i tried to solve problems on techniques but i think that what i did was wrong cuz i didnot practise on thinking in general also i have to study well to prepare for the college so i need to work in a smart way and ideas ?
http://mirror.codeforces.com/blog/entry/2332#comment-176240
thnx dario-dsa
As someone who got gold in this IOI, I can tell you that simply practice makes perfect. The more you practice the better you will be. What I actually do and helps me a lot is that whenever I fail to solve a problem, I read the analysis and after I understand it, I try to find the reason I didn't come up with it, I try to imagine what kind of thought-process would lead me to that solution and why I didn't think on that way. It helps me a lot.
For example in second day of IOI task Friends. I got scared since the general case (in random graph) is unsolvable and I thought the problem would be very hard, therefore I didn't spend enough time trying to figure the actual solution.
Learning from mistakes is the best way to go in my opinion. Good luck :)
As someone who only got silver in this IOI, I agree with you. Though silver may be good enough for some contestants, it is not satisfying for me. I've blamed myself for not practicing enough, and I'll definitely solve more problems to prepare for the next IOI.
Also the task Friends, I'd gotten most of the clue needed to solve the problem, but when the time was getting less, I became panic and started writing random codes -- of course that failed and I lost the chance.
Well, I got silver on my first IOI, failing some really stupid problems, so don't beat yourself too much, just be motivated for the next IOI :)
I am motivated. I was in a neutral emotion when writing the comment. I just didn't notice my comment looks sad.
Anyway, see you next year!
I hope to see u both :D and also to get a medal :)