I Reached GM after 5 years

Правка en11, от prvocislo, 2023-01-03 16:53:04

Hello Codeforces! I did it! My main goal for 2022 was to reach red and I succeeded in the last contest of the year by getting +1 delta and going from cursed 2399 to 2400! I was very happy but scared to celebrate because I was worried that my rating would go down to 2399 again after the cheater removal. But now it’s 2401, so I think I’m safe now.

Why am I writing this blog? I'm very excited about this achievement, it means a lot to me and I want to share my happiness with Codeforces. Also people ask me in DM quite often about how I got onto this level or who I am in general, so I think it's time to summarize it all into one blog post.

Oh, wait… You don’t even know me, so why should you keep reading this blog post? Let me introduce myself a little first. I’m a high schooler from a small European country where few people do Codeforces. I love competing in OI and MO, I always did. One day, my father found the Codeforces website and suggested that I should start practicing there. At first, I was very confused. I quickly managed to get AC on Watermelon and some other 800 problems since I was doing OI before, but something was bugging me. People on blog posts had nice colors, and I couldn’t figure out how to get one. I didn’t realize I was supposed to do contests XD So after a while, I quit the website. Worst decision ever.

Luckily after a year or so, my friends told me how to do contests. Then I did my first contest. It was one of the most exciting memories I have. And then I did it again and again. Sometimes I didn’t do them for a long time because I was scared or because I didn’t have the motivation. But no matter how long I was gone, I always came back again and did more contests. The exciting feeling was still there. At the beginning of 2022, I made a resolution. I wanted to reach red before 2023. A few months ago, I gave up on it and decided to focus on MO instead because I didn’t have many friends who’d encourage me to do CF. But I didn’t give up, and it paid off! Now I have more motivation than ever to continue doing CP this year together with my friends, whom I now found thanks to competitions like IOI. My next goal is IGM; let’s see whether I can do it!

Back to the present. So, soon after the goodbye round, I got a DM asking me how I became red. There isn’t a correct answer to this question; different ways work for different people. But I will do my best now and talk a little about what helped me and what did not.

My observations about the training process:
My observations about the contests:

Soo, that’s it. Thank you, Codeforces, for making my ordinary days so exciting. Thank you everyone who encouraged me along the way. And thank you, reader, if you actually read this whole thing. You can also reach red. It might take years, but I believe anyone can do it if they work hard enough and enjoy CP as much as I do.

Теги red, my journey

История

 
 
 
 
Правки
 
 
  Rev. Язык Кто Когда Δ Комментарий
en12 Английский prvocislo 2023-01-03 17:08:54 0 (published)
en11 Английский prvocislo 2023-01-03 16:53:04 50
en10 Английский prvocislo 2023-01-01 17:35:39 285
en9 Английский prvocislo 2023-01-01 17:21:33 61
en8 Английский prvocislo 2023-01-01 17:19:36 24 Reverted to en6
en7 Английский prvocislo 2023-01-01 17:19:18 24
en6 Английский prvocislo 2023-01-01 17:18:23 115
en5 Английский prvocislo 2023-01-01 17:15:30 3 Tiny change: 'r with my CP friends, ' -> 'r with my friends, '
en4 Английский prvocislo 2023-01-01 17:13:32 68
en3 Английский prvocislo 2023-01-01 17:11:59 8934
en2 Английский prvocislo 2023-01-01 16:01:00 1383
en1 Английский prvocislo 2023-01-01 15:43:03 943 Initial revision (saved to drafts)