damn_T_T's blog

Help to improve my way of practice

By damn_T_T, history, 5 years ago, In English

I am doing CF for about one year. But still , I am newbie here. It is not like that A,B seem so hard.I become so nervous during cf round .

During contest suddenly my head becomes blank and I feel like I am caged and so I cannot think further . As a result , I cannot come to solution for any problem further .

It is destroying my confidence level day by day.

And during practice , I do not follow any particular strategy . Because I get confused what to do! Sometimes I solve from cf according to junior practise sheet(provided by an arabian coach may be, found online), sometimes I solve from light oj/uva and sometimes I learn Algorithms . Algorithms I know -

Bfs,dfs,mst,dijkstra,nim,trie,kmp,binary search,matrix exponentiation, dp(coin change,knapsack,LCS,LIS,edit distance)

I have solved average 9 to 10 problems on these topics.

I know more algorithms like segment tree,LCA etc on which I have just solved 2 to 3 problems.

I will be grateful if anyone will share their practice strategy and how can I overcome my problem of being caged during online contest? Any advice to practice more efficiently will be highly desired :)

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5 years ago, # |
← Rev. 2   Vote: I like it +14 Vote: I do not like it

Play sudoku 30 mins before contest it might relax you. "And if you couldn't solve a problem in the round don't get frustated look at the problem and think how you might solve manually and then convert it into code". I got this as a suggestion from my senior and playing sudoku is good (for me).

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5 years ago, # |
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I am doing CF for about two years. But still, I am newbie here, too. How can I improve?

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5 years ago, # |
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I like to think that efficiency is better than quantity, so if i'm not able to give my best at that moment, i preffer to do other things. I am saying for trainning, studing and doing CF. Maybe i should rest and get concentrate to learn something well later.

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5 years ago, # |
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bro i think u should try meditation or gymming i have another id in which i am specialist i started serious cp around 3 months ago(before that i wasnt that serious) i think u need to practice on atcoder ,topcoder, codechef etc too

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5 years ago, # |
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solve easy problem to improve ability to think (no editorial for easy+)

that is more important than learning algorithms problem

do more atcoder, good luck

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5 years ago, # |
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I think you should Make a summary,The probles may have the same Strategy, you shuold remember it,The details that you don’t pay attention to for each problems should be written down. then you Become stronger Believe yourself . Everything is possible

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5 years ago, # |
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For practicing, I would recommend the following strategy:

There is a website called http://clist.by which shows upcoming contests. Now I wouldn't necessarily recommend that you participate in every single possible contest, but I would say that it is a good idea to look at these contests, especially those that have editorials/tutorials posted and try to work through the problems with a calm mindset. If you aren't making any progress for a while, then look at the editorial. But go off of "time that you haven't made progress", not "time you have spent on the problem"...

I find that doing virtual contests also helps a lot in practice because you can feel the slight stress of the contest environment without the full risk of your rating on the line. I would recommend CF virtual contests maybe every one or two days if you would like to see some progress quickly.

All of this in mind, practicing doesn't ensure 100% that you will see results. It may take a few months even for you to get used to the stress that comes with partaking in contests. For me, it took a while to get past the phase of "oh no, now that I'm specialist, I shouldn't do this contest. I worked so hard to get here and what if I lose 100 rating or so and become pupil again?" This isn't a healthy mindset to have because if you fear failure, you essentially fear progress as well. That is the way CF works.

Anyways, hopefully this is helpful/motivational. I wish you luck in your practices and contests!

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5 years ago, # |
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I trained for some time with Junior Training Sheet that you're talking about, I solved only first two pages but then I started practicing using Codeforces difficulty indicator. Start with a difficulty that you can solve 20 — 30 % of problems by yourself in less than one hour and keep practicing at this difficulty until you can solve 70% of problems then move to a higher difficulty. I think only for 60 — 90 minutes and if I can't find a solution I read the tutorial. I usually don't solve problems before the rounds and keep my mind clear in the round day.

The last page of the Junior Training Sheet (Weekly Checklist) is really helpful, it covers some practicing mistakes that one might do while practicing. Read it and compare your practicing way with it.

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