~I'm already in my second year of high school, but my writing still resembles that of an elementary school student~
In the end, I reluctantly wrote this travelogue.
This is more of a memoir. It records the journey of a weak county, without guidance, struggling like a jellyfish with NOIP 1= in the world of OI.
First Encounter#
Living in a small county, my encounter with OI was quite unexpected.
It was during elementary school when I joined the Maker club, and somehow I was pulled into learning programming.
At that time, I had no idea what OI was; I just found the teacher's explanations of header files, the main function, etc., difficult to understand. I remember learning about the method to swap two variables by creating a temp variable, but unfortunately, I didn't know anything back then.
I participated in a programming competition in Qingdao. Surprisingly, I ranked first in the county selection and was the only one able to go to Qingdao for the exam.
Of course, when I got to Qingdao, I still knew nothing and could only blindly code based on the problem statements (I still remember spending a long time debugging due to an error in the while loop condition). In the end, I didn't even know what award I received.
Thus, my suspected OI journey in elementary school came to an end.
Deepening#
Upon entering middle school, in an effort to cultivate a hobby, my parents searched for programming training institutions for me. Initially, I tried a trial class at Aomeng, but since I couldn't understand it, and with recommendations from classmates, I found a programming teacher in the county.
However, there, the teacher seemed to focus more on engineering aspects, and the progress in algorithm knowledge was slow, with little practice on problems. It wasn't until the first year of middle school that I learned about CSP. I took the CSP-J exam and, unsurprisingly, did not pass.
The following year (2021), I studied for another year and took the CSP-J exam again, finally passing the preliminary round by a stroke of luck. At that time, there were three students from my school who passed the preliminary round: one was a senior in the first year, and another was a peer, but they were in the advanced group, %%%. I was the only one from that programming tutoring institution who passed the preliminary round, and I felt quite happy inside.
After finishing the preliminary round, while searching for answers, I accidentally discovered the Luogu website, realizing that I had registered on Luogu back in 2020. It was like meeting Luogu again.
In the second year of middle school, during the October holiday, I spent almost every day at the programming institution, first realizing that what I needed to learn was informatics competitions, and also realizing for the first time that knowing just the basic syntax was not enough to learn informatics competitions. So I started practicing problems on the YBT website.
Before I knew it, I reached the semi-finals and went to Shandong Foreign Language School to participate. I couldn't solve any problems, but under the strategy of brute force, I managed to score 247 points (a good score) and received a 1= award.
After winning the first prize, I was very happy. That year, all three students from our school who participated in the exam also won first prizes, two in the beginner group and one in the advanced group.
From @W_SUN's memoir:
In our school, we were quite noticeable, and because a senior in the second year achieved first place in both group J and group S, our school received the title of a gold medal school, which also brought us a lot of publicity.
However, I clearly didn't understand what competitions were at that time and didn't have any in-depth reflections. I still regarded ~informatics competitions~ programming merely as a hobby, nothing more.
What happened next? I realized I needed to learn algorithms, so I frantically supplemented my algorithm knowledge, bought the algorithm improvement course from AcWing, and searched for algorithm knowledge on Bilibili... However, this led me into another misconception, focusing only on the surface of algorithms without applying them deeply.
Confusion#
The following year was an incredibly confusing year. Without a teacher for professional guidance, I only skimmed the surface of algorithms, understanding their principles and solving some basic problems, nothing more.
During the winter break between the second and third years of middle school, I participated in SDSC, where I saw many seniors from AU and AG, filled with admiration, and I also wanted to be able to get a recommendation through competitions.
Entering the third year of middle school, I arrogantly signed up for CSP-S, but it dealt me a heavy blow, missing the preliminary round by half a point.
Then I began to give up. Throughout the third year of middle school, after the preliminary round, I hardly touched OI at all and devoted myself entirely to WHK. However, I did achieve some results and got into the key class at the county level.
Doing My Best#
During the summer vacation after the high school entrance exam, I participated in QBXT's training camp for algorithm improvement courses. The initial content was relatively easy to understand, but it gradually became more difficult. Nevertheless, I tried my best to keep up, and in the end, I gained a lot and had a new understanding of many problems.
Upon entering high school, I also gained a better understanding of what competitions really are. At that time, I set a goal to achieve NOIP 1= in my first year.
In the preliminary round of the first year, I scored high in group S, which gave me a lot of confidence. I took three evening self-study classes off to practice in the computer room. What happened? I had a fever before the CSP-S exam, scored 120 points, and passed NOIP with 1= but got all brute force for the rest, scoring 150 points, just 3 points away from getting first place. This means that in the last year when it was relatively easy to get NOIP 1=, I still didn't achieve it.
Thus ended my OI journey in the first year of high school.
Repeating the same mistake, after finishing NOIP, I hardly touched OI throughout the first year of high school. This was partly due to my academic pressure and also my own avoidance and laziness, not wanting to think about the past. ~Now that I think about it, if I had continued studying OI in the second semester of my first year, would I have achieved 1= this year?~
Unfortunately, there are no "what ifs."
Final Chapter#
Entering the second year of high school, it was also the last chance to engage in OI. However, this time, the training conditions were not as good as in the first year, and my mindset was also not as good. The only advantage was that my thinking was a bit more flexible, and my goals were clearer.
I also successfully passed the preliminary round of CSP-S.
During the problem-solving process, I gradually identified my shortcomings; I found it very difficult to tackle problems with higher cognitive difficulty. So I focused on strengthening practice in this area.
For the CSP-S semi-finals, thanks to CCF's easy T1+T2, I obtained an inflated score of 220 points.
Thus, I regained some confidence in OI. However, my preparation for the upcoming competition was focused on quickly solving T1 in the exam and seriously studying T2.
This led to a situation in the NOIP exam where, facing a more difficult T1, I panicked and ultimately did not attempt the brute force solutions for T3 and T4, resulting in a tragic exit with 140 points.
Summary#
My journey in OI has brought me quite a few gains.
Not being able to achieve the 1= I longed for can be seen as fate. How can life be without regrets?
The competition careers of OIers often begin with a NOIP and mostly end with a NOIP, as if a cycle is continuously repeating.
If this NOIP is your starting point, then I wish your OI journey is as brilliant as summer flowers.
If this NOIP is your endpoint, then I wish your OI memories shine like countless stars.
Quoted from @W_SUN:
I hope all OIers who are striving achieve their ideal results.
Just like when you first encountered OI, have a beginning and an end. Goodbye, OI.
I hope we can all keep our dreams alive and move forward! Goodbye, OI.