This might seem like a bit of an exaggeration but I genuinely mean it when I say WTF ... In today's div3 contest, I could have been rank ~500 or so but instead have finished at ~1500 ranking. Why? Because in solving E, my solution was entirely correct except for the fact that I returned a char from one of my template functions instead of an int....
This is heartbreaking especially since that could have pushed me to expert. It's a hard pill to swallow, but I suppose I need to be even more diligent in checking the basic stuff about the implementation before questioning the correctness of more substantial details whenever I am debugging.
This is also a heads-up to people reading this -- do not suffer from this BS like I have smh.
if you are good enough you will eventually reach expert. Just enjoy solving the problems. dont chase ratings.
Yeah that's true. If I were to ignore rating in this situation, there's nothing for me to be upset about since I was actually able to perform quite well in solving today's problems overall.
Thank you for the response.
focus on what can be, unburdened by what has been!
beat me to it
Annoying, but what could've been in a single contest is pretty meaningless to dwell over. However, thinking what you could've been longer term can be more insightful or heartbreaking, depending on how well you adapt to your self feedback.
I was once in your place as well. I reached 1599 in just a few contests
It was then that my rating started spiraling, and it took me many many more contests to reach Expert. So, don't give up!
It gives me perspective to see that other people have also had these kinds of experiences.
I think it's okay to suffer from such BS every once in a while, else we might repeat that in some other crucial moment.
Today I thought I might perform bad, so I decided to participate unrated. Ironically, this turned out to be the best contest I've ever participated in—I ranked 650th.
In last div 3 I solved till E pretty quickly and could've got around 600 rank but guess what 2 of my solutions (D and E) gave WA in system testing for very silly mistakes and dropped my rank to around 5206...Literally lost around 130 points for no reason (+80 to -50)..If that didn't happened I would've been Expert in last contest itself but ya shit like this happens and all we can do is move on.