anancodec's blog

Why my rating is decreasing in proportion of the increasing of my practice?
By anancodec, history, 6 years ago, In English

I am gradually going down.Maybe my rating is the last in codeforces. But my max was specialist without any practice. And now I am working hard(possible) but my rating is going down.Please seniors give me some tips.Where is my lacking?

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6 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +18 Vote: I do not like it

But my max was specialist without any practice

Yes but only before second contest

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6 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +16 Vote: I do not like it

Your max wasn't specialist without any practice, it was specialist after the first contest, going down -80 points every contest until hitting newbie.

You aren't practicing hard enough.

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    6 years ago, # ^ |
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    hard enough practicing means ??

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      6 years ago, # ^ |
        Vote: I like it +84 Vote: I do not like it

      My account: Oct 2016, 126 pages of submissions (probably shows less to you because of hidden groups or something like that)

      His account: Apr 2017, 7 pages of submissions, I can see "practice" that's just solving div2A and that's it.

      So... both in quality and quantity. If you're gonna say "but there are other judges" well I don't use cf only as well.

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6 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +3 Vote: I do not like it

I would recommend solve the Div2 B Ladder first and then Div2 C ladder at A2oj. This will most probably show you where you are lacking. Practice those areas.

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    6 years ago, # ^ |
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    Yeah! I am already doing that! But solving that(C,D) takes 12 hours or more. Should I solve those inspite of taking such heavy time or do anything else ? Please advice me!

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      6 years ago, # ^ |
      ← Rev. 2   Vote: I like it +6 Vote: I do not like it

      Believe me, But it takes time to catch on up with C/D after B. Till B you need Implementation and Basic Maths/Observations. When it comes to C/D, it starts to demand some Algorithmic/ Data structure knowledge, that are standard with a Great Speed in Contest for Implementation. I Feel that if you complete Div2 B ladder, you would have sufficiently improved in Implementing the ideas. After that i would recommend to do a standard Algorithms course online to know the Basics. In CP, the improvements are quite latent (you don't see change till you have worked on a all round way, as a question from a particular topic might not appear frequently). Practice is the key, there are no shortcuts.

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      6 years ago, # ^ |
        Vote: I like it +24 Vote: I do not like it

      It is better to spend 12 hours to solve one single problem and actually learn something, than to spend 12 hours to solve 1000 problems that are easy for you.

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        6 years ago, # ^ |
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        Thanks but you contradicted the coment of "LanceTheDragonTrainer". I am confused. Please help me to be on the right path.Which one to follow?

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          6 years ago, # ^ |
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          I mean it depends. 12 hours may be a bit much, but LanceTheDragonTrainer's 40 minutes seems to be too little.

          It can take time to figure out the solution to a problem. Researchers may work on one problem for years. I can think of many times when I have solved a problem hours later, having thought about it in the back of my mind for a while.

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6 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it -38 Vote: I do not like it

you have no talent

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6 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +14 Vote: I do not like it

Oh, come on, what do you expect by just solving 60 A's, 20 B's and few C's ? Huh ? level

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    6 years ago, # ^ |
      Vote: I like it +3 Vote: I do not like it

    where do you generate these graphs?

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    6 years ago, # ^ |
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    Well,its not like that I didn't attempt DIV1 problems or C,D,E numbers. I really try to solve those
    but I cant. Sometimes I can but it takes almost 12 hours or whole day.That's why the number of solving those is rare.What should I do about this situation?Please consider it!

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      6 years ago, # ^ |
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      What would I say is pretty much summed up by acraider in earlier comment. So work according to that.

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      6 years ago, # ^ |
        Vote: I like it +22 Vote: I do not like it

      If it takes you 12 hours/whole day, you are trying too hard (i.e. you are wasting your time). Sad to say, if you take 12 hours, I think, it's likely that you still don't really understand how to solve the problem at the end of it.

      So, what is the solution? Try easier problems. Gradually build up your skills. As a guide, try problems that take you at most 40 minutes to solve with your current skill. Then gradually take on harder and harder problems (but stay within the 40 minute rule).

      A pro tip: You don't have to sit there and stare at the problem the whole day. You can just look at the problem and think of the solution for 5 to 10 minutes. If you cannot come up with a solution, you do other stuff first. Then try to think of the solution when you are bathing, commuting on public transport, etc. If you cannot solve it during those periods, your best bet is to just look at the editorial. If the editorial does not help you, the problem is too hard for you. Just skip the problem and try an easier one.

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        6 years ago, # ^ |
          Vote: I like it +8 Vote: I do not like it

        The best one! Thanks for wonderful advice! Will be working earnestly on this!

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        6 years ago, # ^ |
          Vote: I like it +17 Vote: I do not like it

        Keep in mind that some editorials are low-quality. Sometimes the editorial is completely useless while a guy in the comments has brilliant 4 sentence solution.

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6 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +6 Vote: I do not like it

The community is being pretty toxic... Anyways, practice doesn't decrease your skill, but rating fluctuates a lot. A better question is 'what should I practice to get better?' To answer that better than any random post you can google, you should provide more information on how you are currently practicing and why you don't feel it's working. However, it takes a long time to increase your rating, so don't expect any words of advice that will skyrocket your skill immediately.

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6 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +30 Vote: I do not like it

Looks to me that your rating is not decreasing in proportion of the increasing of your practice though — it actually fluctuates.

Let's crack down to the mechanics of the rating system. In short, (sorry if this might be rude), but your current ability is somehow around rating $$$1000$$$-$$$1100$$$.

You, as any new accounts, started out with $$$1500$$$ rating — which is way beyond your level. Which means, obviously, in the few first contests your rating would plummet heavily. But, as the nature of the ELO rating system, you won't lose all the rating at one move, so the rate of plummeting was actually way lower (which gave you the "max rating" being specialist).

Throughout the time, when it has plummeted enough, you can see the fluctuation: your rating moves around a certain rating interval. In the case of a newbie, such intervals could be quite wide and the fluctuation could be very unstable due to its very nature: you are at the state of "hit-or-miss", either solve 1-2 problem(s) nicely or not being able to solve it at all.

And the solution to it, well, as people here already stated, is practice. To be honest, around 100 problems are not a huge number of practice in any shape, size or anything. You should try more. Start out with the easy ones first (even some easiest good ol' classics, they can help your implementation skills more than you could imagine), and then increase the difficulty of your training overtime. The process might be time-consuming when you just increased the difficulty, but over time you'll feel it is actually worthwhile.

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6 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +18 Vote: I do not like it 
I stopped participate when my rating is almost newbie
Seem to me that many people did this and never be grey
Maybe you should practice more with hard problems than participate in contests?
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