NeroZein's blog

Factors that affect rating growth
By NeroZein, 5 weeks ago, In English

I've always wondered about the optimal way to practice (I even did spam some reds back in the days), and while there definitely isn't any "magic" that's going to accelerate your growth, a mere psychological factor did result in immense growth for me after being stuck for so long (my rating increased from 1523 to 1853 in three months and my level was consistent, in other words it wasn't just some lucky contests). Yet, I still have many questions unanswered. For instance, can sometimes too much practicing lead to detrimental results?

Because of this, I, alongside Lime. designed a brief survey (it takes less than two minutes to fill) to gather insights from programmers across different levels. Currently, we have 94 responses. Hopefully, after having big enough sample, I'll be sharing the results on what factors really affect one's growth and what don't.

Please take two minutes to fill the survey here: survey

If you believe there are additional factors that I should include in the survey—perhaps something unique from your personal experience—please don’t hesitate to DM me or comment down below.

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5 weeks ago, # |
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Sounds fun! Goodluck (:

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5 weeks ago, # |
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done.

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5 weeks ago, # |
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Done

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5 weeks ago, # |
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hope afew red coders would take the time to fill it

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5 weeks ago, # |
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I like the initiative and look forward to the results, I have some questions though :

In what time unit is the answer to average daily practice supposed to be ?

I think there is some ambiguity around "rate after the first contest" too. Do you mean rating ? If so, CF rating used to start from 1400 but it starts from 0 now so how to handle that ?

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    4 weeks ago, # ^ |
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    Hi,

    Sorry for the inconvenience, you're right, it should be rating rather than rate. Unfortunately, when I noticed it many people had already filled it, and changing it might mess up the Excel sheet.

    For the latter part of your question, I believe the chance of having a user that had started and had their most active year that early is very insignificant, so I didn't give it much thought.

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4 weeks ago, # |
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done

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4 weeks ago, # |
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a mere psychological factor did result in immense growth for me after being stuck for so long

What psychological factor did affect to your performance? Can you tell more concrete? I don't think psychology change something

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    4 weeks ago, # ^ |
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    When I participated in contests before that sharp increase in rating, I took my rating too seriously. Then as our TST was just a few months away, I stopped even checking the standings during the contest and solely focused on doing my best regardless of what might happen to my rating. This mindset also helped me in the TST itself. When I qualified for the IOI for the first time I was still an expert, and I think did great because I had no expectations of actually making it. On the other hand, during our last TST, I was too focused on earning 1st place. However, I ended up performing terribly and ranked 3rd instead.

    In addition, there are plenty of research papers that discuss the effects of external motivation and the benefits of focusing on your effort instead. I recommend you check Dr. Carol Dweck's research on.Growth Mindset if you're interested.

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      4 weeks ago, # ^ |
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      Thank you for answer, but I think factor that you said isn't so important. In my opinion you just have high IQ and it is main factor for getting high rating

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        4 weeks ago, # ^ |
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        That's such a cope comment. Talent can only take you so far.

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          4 weeks ago, # ^ |
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          No, hard work can only take you as far as how talented you are / how much innate ability you have to problem-solve. A $$$70$$$ IQ person can work super hard, but they might never reach pupil. Also, talent is not the thing that takes you far. It is just the factor that decides how effective your work will be.

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4 weeks ago, # |
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Is the answer for how much time on average did you practice in a day supposed to be in hours? That's what I assumed, but I think you should specify the unit there.

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4 weeks ago, # |
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Done.And good luck!

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4 weeks ago, # |
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Done ;)

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4 weeks ago, # |
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thanks <3

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4 weeks ago, # |
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looking forward to see the statistics.

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4 weeks ago, # |
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Alright Done

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4 weeks ago, # |
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I found questions to be hard to answer, questions like "what is you most active year", or "rating at that start of this year and in the end", or "how many contest did you take part in". It is better to use codeforces API to get this kind of information.

I almost started to put some random approximations without thinking. But I stopped myself not to ruin the statistics, and decided to write this comment instead.

I think the only possible way to make a quiz valid is to

a) make it short

b) make sure that all of the questions are easy to answer

c) for additional info about person use real data by using codeforces API and other methods

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    4 weeks ago, # ^ |
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    omg why you didn't exceed purple

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    4 weeks ago, # ^ |
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    Yes, you're right. Unfortunately, I don't have experience using Codeforces API. I'll take this into consideration next time.

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4 weeks ago, # |
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One of the best blogs I've seen, thank you guys.

I wanted to clarify two points since I was previously affected by these matters.

  • focusing on studying topics a lot. A month before the SCPC for this season, I was training daily to participate in gyms and focus on studying advanced topics "perhaps above my level". this led to a good result in SCPC, but my rating dropped from 1700 to 1440 after that. I took a break for 10 days, then I resumed training normally to reach from 1470 to 1860 within 40 days.

  • related to Colin Gallen's video about virtual participation and creating a " your virtual rating". if your virtual rating is far from your current rating, you are affected by something within your official participation (mostly standing), otherwise you will get your virtual rating as your current rating in a short period.

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    4 weeks ago, # ^ |
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    Glad you liked it!

    Your first point is valid. However, I didn't include it in the survey because I think it's stated in multiple tips-for-improvement blogs.

    Your second point is completely valid! In fact, Colin Gallen's videos about using your "unconscious mind" and similar videos that are not directly related to the training strategy largely influenced this blog :)

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    4 weeks ago, # ^ |
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    how many xCPC named competitons are there

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4 weeks ago, # |
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Nice Initiative

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4 weeks ago, # |
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Excited to see the results!!

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4 weeks ago, # |
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A really funny factor I have noticed is the amount of sleep I get prior to a contest.

In my timezone, Codeforces rounds take place very late so I have to take a nap at noon or in the afternoon to get enough energy (if you will). In every single one of my last few rated contests, a positive delta corresponds to a day with hours of extra nap time. Likewise, a negative delta corresponds to a very tiring day with no naps in between (or that I have taken a nap but spent all my energy on a different contest).

So sleep well and eat well before taking Codeforces rounds I guess, or anything for that matter.

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4 weeks ago, # |
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orz

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4 weeks ago, # |
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NeroZein how to reach master?

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4 weeks ago, # |
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done

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4 weeks ago, # |
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I have done the survey even though am still newbie. When can we see the results from the servay?

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    4 weeks ago, # ^ |
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    There is no set time yet! but it should be soon enough

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