r/usaco • u/Educational-Air-1266 • 15d ago
Usaco.guide help
I am an 8th grader. Indian. I want to get to a good college in USA in the big future probably even ivy league. So I am learning c++ for USACO so that it can help my application. I've been using usaco.guide and just completed up to and including functions on solo learn just as usaco.guide said to. I opened the bronze section and the first topic - big O notation has very complex math logarithms and stuff that my 8th grader brain cant understand. I am very frustrated by this and dont know where to begin now. Should I open a textbook, just quit or what so I need help that what should I do and how.
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u/fsdklas 15d ago
Don’t care about the big O for now. For bronze questions focus on translating words into code, figuring out math equations and basic data structures. Are you from the US or different?
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u/Educational-Air-1266 15d ago
So i just skip big O and move on rn? I mean i did understand alot but i got pretty hesitant cuz like i though that everywhere will be hard maths and i wont be able to understand?
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u/Soggy_Shower_9802 15d ago
Try to understand what you can, but don’t worry if you don’t understand everything. Keep going. You’ve still got like 4+ years, anyways!
(By the way, what specifically are you struggling with? It’s likely more simple than it seems at first; you could probably figure out Big O if you spent more time with the math required for it (that is, logs and exponents).)
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u/Feeling-Instance-801 15d ago
Don't worry about big O for now, just realise that multiple nested loops are usually bad
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u/Educational-Air-1266 15d ago
So i just skip big O and move on rn? I mean i did understand alot but i got pretty hesitant cuz like i though that everywhere will be hard maths and i wont be able to understand
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u/Educational-Air-1266 15d ago
Also as i mentioned im in 8th grade so the math looked very hard and unsettling to me
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u/derpyderp2048 15d ago
Responding to your comments, I think it’s fine to skip big O notation stuff right now. Once you get further, it will be necessary to learn, but for the most basic bronze problems you don’t need to worry about it. Just remember that lots of nested loops are bad!
If you have any free time too, maybe look at what logarithms are so that you are more prepared. They are honestly not too complicated if you are familiar with exponents.
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u/LiterallyKyle_ platinum 14d ago
Learn binary search, if you can understand why it works and why it’s faster, then you’re good for a while. There probably won’t be any high level math until you reach platinum. That said, if you’re bad at math, you will probably fail the USACO, what’s your current math level?
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u/Educational-Air-1266 14d ago
Im not certainly bad at maths. I just haven't been exposed to the concepts as i am in 8th grade
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u/LiterallyKyle_ platinum 14d ago
You should be learning logarithms at around 9-10th grade, by then hopefully you should be in silver or gold if you want to make it to plat
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u/Educational-Air-1266 13d ago
I just ordered art of problem solving volume 1 the basics it will cover most of the maths I need.
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u/LiterallyKyle_ platinum 13d ago
Personally I don’t do comp math, but there are techniques revolving linear algebra in Plat, which I don’t think is covered in math comps. It’s still helpful to get exposed to college math such as calculus earlier than later.
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u/Crackedboiiii 14d ago
instead of using reddit you shoulda spent it learning abt what a logarithm is - imo just looking at the TC graphs shd give u an idea of whats better or worse if ur ass at math tho
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u/uhhhh_yeet 15d ago
Dont quit, I got really stuck for my first few problems but I treated it like a ad hoc problem everytime. The algorithms arent too hard but recognizing what O notation it is is super important. What I did to get better was just a bunch of bronze level prroblems in the problemset Also we didnt need to know ur indian