THERE_IS_NO_RETURN's blog

what is the difference between high and low rated users mindset?
By THERE_IS_NO_RETURN, history, 2 years ago, In English

so i have a question, what do you think the difference between high and low rated users strategy, thinking and ideas (if there any) regardless making alts and writing stupid questions? how does this mindset prevent/boost user rating?

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2 years ago, # |
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From my experience of being a low-rated coder, I think that high-rated coders derive intrinsic pleasure from problem-solving while the low-rated coders are (generally) doing it for some other reasons — maybe the glory, maybe to grab the opportunity to work for a big-tech company. Also, persistance and challenging themselves constantly are also things that high-rated coders have but low-rated coders generally do not have.

It's fine, I am a Newbie, go ahead and downvote my comment if you want to. :)

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2 years ago, # |
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I've noticed that higher rated users are (usually):

  • Not looking for a magic trick, secret sauce, magic roadmap, magic problemset or whatever kind of shortcut, but putting the time/effort instead.
  • More confortable spending more time struggling/thinking on problems before giving up or looking at the solution.
  • More interested in problem solving and deeper understanding, rather than chasing AC's, or counting problems, or passing tech interviews.
  • Enjoying CP while being less stressed out about having X rating.
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2 years ago, # |
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The main difference is that they have trained their minds well such that they feel humble towards their position whereas low rating people usually freak out on seeing tough questions. Instead they ponder upon questions calmly saying this is easy but doing this is a big challenge that's why we can see these common practises in the top coders.

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2 years ago, # |
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I think they are more effecient in their learning from their mistakes and they are more engaged.

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2 years ago, # |
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As a high (medium?) rated user, bored enough to write useless comments, I think you won't receive a good answer because different people think differently regardless of their rating. The more interesting question is strategy, I think low rated users usually don't read most problems and try to solve problems more or less in the order they appear, of course I don't expect a newbie to solve problem F,G... yet sometimes you might be able to solve D and not C or B.

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    2 years ago, # ^ |
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    Sadly enough, I don't think I ever skipped a problem in a contest (at least the majority of the time), and this costed me a lot of rating points in some Div 1 + 2 rounds lol. I feel like it is some psychological problem tbh, like if I am not able to solve B or C, then I subconsciously think that I would not be able to solve D just because of the general difficulty trend, and I guess you need to have confidence in yourself to overcome this fear.

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      2 years ago, # ^ |
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      You should definitely try to skip problems. I usually solve abce rather than abcd in combined/d2 rounds in about half of rounds I participate and thus placing above majority who solved only abcd. And my fillings are usually that E is (subjectively, ofc) easier than D: oh, you should do this, then this, AC, then struggling with D for remaining costest time. I remember once in global/combined round I solved abf, lol

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    2 years ago, # ^ |
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    I understand your comment about the diference in strategy but I just want to clarify that simply optimizing ones strategy or confidence will not make that much of a difference in your rating. The significant diference between a high rated user and a low one is a lot time practicing CP, having a good mathematical background and/or intrinsic talent.

    Some other possible answer would be believing more in yourself and solving hard problems in your practice. Honestly I think this types of advice are BS and could be summarised into just "trying harder".

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