[Testing] Gray testing

#	User	Rating
1	tourist	4009
2	jiangly	3823
3	Benq	3738
4	Radewoosh	3633
5	jqdai0815	3620
6	orzdevinwang	3529
7	ecnerwala	3446
8	Um_nik	3396
9	ksun48	3390
10	gamegame	3386

#	User	Contrib.
1	cry	167
2	Um_nik	163
3	maomao90	162
3	atcoder_official	162
5	adamant	159
6	-is-this-fft-	158
7	awoo	157
8	TheScrasse	154
9	Dominater069	153
9	nor	153

Hello, CodeForces!

I am Cristofor Zaharescu. I am a teacher, in the Liceul Tehnologic Alunis. I was rather intrigued about the fact that not so many newbies get to examinate certain problems rounds, which in my eyes if quite a foolish thing for the future of the CodeForces community. I feel like normalizing Newbies test in rounds will succeed in the following things:

Boosting self confidence. Knowing you are important, and the fact that you can contribute in rounds, is something that can really upper your mettle in resolving wordproblems, making it easier to improve and having a higher chance to perform fairly well in future contests, as well as lowering the likelihood of giving up on programming competitively.

Experience. The fact that people get to test problems early on is quite meaningful, due to the fact that, when the Newbies will improve, go up a couple of colours, and need to test harder problems, the feedback they will give is going to be more appropriate, so contests turn out to be better.

Getting to know other people. Testing a round can be an "interactive" process, as there will not only be one overall tester. People can make new friends, work-buddies, and being aware of the fact that you are not alone in such a big subject helps maintain a healthy future. Also, working with other people in ICPC-style contests is enjoyable.

Difficulty of the first problem. I myself have seen numerous problems that, theoretically, are quite easy for beginers, yet that require some strategies one wouldn't know at that level. A study has shown that having an easier problem in a genuinely hard exam gets student to obtain higher grades rather than a less challenging exam where none of the problems are exactly easy. This happens due to the fact that, no matter how easy the problem is, solving a problem uppens your confidence and motivation during the assessment. For a better understanding, let me give you an example:

Let's say we have a test where there are 3 problems: A, B and C. The average student is much more likely to score a higher amount of points if the ratings are (800 — 1200 — 1600), rather than (1000 — 1100 — 1300).

Now, an obvious inquiry you might have is "Well, what if they copy all of the problems and participate on an alternativ account?". First of all, the beginner tester should only have access to the first one or two problems, which he could already solve in a relatively small amount of time, it would not make much of a difference. The first problems can be found on Telegram copying servers or YouTube anyways, so if a person has delusive intentions, they could achieve them anyways.

To shortly conclude all I have stated, this change in the community, from where I am standing, will do greater good than bad.

Thank you for taking your time to read my oppinion,

Happy coding!

Cristofor

P.S.: If I made any spelling/grammar mistakes, or repeated myself to many times, please tell me. My english is something I am willing to work on in the near future.

History