AngelKnows's blog

How to recover solving problem ability since not practicing for a long time?
By AngelKnows, history, 6 years ago, In English

I found that I forgot some details of some algorithms, but I felt it boring to learn these details again and I am more willing to learn new algorithms. The most important thing is that I can't get in the state of practicing problems. When I was in a good state, good ideas would come up naturally during solving problems. But I don't know how to reach this state again because it seems to have nothing to do with memories of concrete algorithms. What do top coders do to keep them in a good state for long although some of them don't practice frequently? For keeping memories of concrete algorithms, we can take notes. But what can we do for keeping the special feeling of solving problems?

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6 years ago, # |
← Rev. 2   Vote: I like it +18 Vote: I do not like it
  1. Do a few virtual contests to get back in your zone.
  2. Solve easy,easy-medium problems of your favorite type.
  3. Play type races

You haven't really forgotten anything, you just need to sharpen yourself.

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

    Type races are probably going to be useless. It doesn't really make a difference in contest. Lots of high-rated people have really low wpm (40s and 50s even). Meanwhile lots of noobs like me have decently high wpm and no rating. Unless you're literally chicken pecking at the keyboard you won't really need to practice it.

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      6 years ago, # ^ |
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      Obviously there isn't anything to learn from typeracing. But when I take a break and come back later to code, there seems to be a discomfort in coding (issues like not wanting to write bigger codes just because I'm too lazy). It is meant to relax your hand a bit, so that those nasty problems don't hurt me later.

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

I forgot some details of some algorithms, but I felt it boring to learn these details again and I am more willing to learn new algorithms.

Read that again but slowly.

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6 years ago, # |
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My college curriculum is very bad(very long exam time-table) and i have to deal with this problem very frequently. The thing that works for me is that i code a very long problem which i abhore to code at the moment. Doing this for 2-3 problems will surely get you into the groove.

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

you can also ask Angel

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6 years ago, # |
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You can solve problems.

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

I always have been wondering me, how tourist or Petr train,sometimes they are off for weeks and when they return they got the first places. I am out for one months and I am already out of shape, how do they maintain theirselves in shape?

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    6 years ago, # ^ |
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    And more important,how don't they forget the tropics that they learned years ago

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

      Not directly related to your question: how do you know the amount of time that other contestants spend on things related to CP, and how do you know if/when they have "off weeks" or "off months"?

      For example, I only know those things for people that are my relatively close friends, and I don't have that information for either of two contestants that you mentioned.

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6 years ago, # |
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Listening to twice will surely help you.

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6 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +26 Vote: I do not like it

Practicing.

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