Warning: Long sad problem below :(
A bit of background about me: I am a 10th grade student from India preparing for IOI...
Hello, my fellow coders,
I had a question in my mind. I know basic C++ STL, math (that's probably it!). I regularly take part in contests for 2 months as I have started CP 2 months back. Earlier I was able to do A and B in a Div 2 contest regularly. But now as I am giving more and more contests and trying to improve my skill-set and problem ratings, I am seeing a decline in my performance. I am not able to think of solutions to the problems. If I am able to think of them, I am sometimes not able to implement them...
I desperately want to improve myself. I feel very very demotivated every passing day... I know my questions are frustrating just like any other beginner but please bear with me. I practice every day for 2 hrs approximately. I am doing A ladder currently from this website (suggested by another great coder): https://codedigger.tech. After completing A I will move on to B one. I have no specific strategy to practice and improve my level. I am kinda testing shots in the dark. please help me. Also please tell me what strategies did you all follow to improve or increase your problem-solving capabilities in the comments. I will be obliged to read them. The last thing, I feel like I am not learning new things while practicing! I just practice and improve my implementation skills. But not learning new DS or Algo... Am I choosing the wrong problems? When I try to upsolve, I get stuck on a problem for 2 days. I watch youtube tutorial, editorial, ask friends still not able to solve it. I am not able to solve the problems I was not able to solve in the contest at all. IDK if I am still in my comfort zone... These were all the questions I had in my mind. Thanks for your time!
It's ok man don't worry much about your rating, practice solving harder problems you will eventually improve. Best of luck for your IOI.
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Believe me, consistency is the key. Dont think about your performance at your current level. Just keep practicing. I would say that A ladder (on a2oj.com) is pretty good. You could start solving questions from there. Also you could start practicing from the problemset itself by filtering the problems on the basis of your rating. Try to practice questions above your level. For example if your current rating is 1200, try practicing 1300-1500 problems. You'll get better with time. This happens to everyone when they feel they arent making progress, but things get better and really better with time and practice. Keep solving questions and read new algorithms as and when you encounter them. Once again a2oj ladders are really good, try to solve them along with problemset. :) Good luck .
How can anyone believe you,who even does not participated in a single contest?? : |
Thats a valid point. If you take a look at my submissions and check out the rating of the problems, youll see these are not the type of questions beginners solve. This is my alternate id that i created to practice and also remember to STAY AWAY FROM GIRLS. Also even if my id is not credible, my advice is honest and i dont think how it could harm anyone in any way.
i will share a strategy that helped me a lot particularly when my goal was to perform well in cf contests. At first, I identified my limit and the types of problems I don't feel comfortable solving. Listed them. I took a topic from the list one by one and practiced it until I got bored solving them. Here is the way I followed -> I identified the rating x such that I fear problems with ratings >= x. I filtered from the problemset only x rated problems on that topic. It helped me a lot and still helping me on the journey to reach purple I believe. Oh, when I stopped at some problem, I at max tried for 30 mins, if I am clueless I read the editorial. If I still didn't understand well, I saw others codes.
What if you didn't understand even after seeing other people's code? Add it to your to do list for some day and move on? Or just solve it somehow?
If you cannot understand even after looking at editorial/other code, that probably indicates that the problem is too advanced for you. If it is within reach, I feel that you should at least be able to understand the motivation of the solution after looking through code. If this is the case, I would just move on and wait for it to come up again when you are closer in skill level.