@imcool >> Very brave and honest move there. That alone explains how much do you want to quit this thing, then it becomes easier actually. When you know you’re doing wrong, there are more chances that you will come back to the track as compared to those who can’t accept that they are doing something wrong.
Regarding Long Contests, I would suggest that Long Contests are there to teach you many things.
In the following message, I will keep away the external contests that are held here which contain a lot of repeated questions from previous contests.
I came to know this in last 4 months, when I actively participated in the long contests, couldn’t participate to the full in some but in gradually I started learning a lot of things. And in April I am happy that I did 5 problems, but not actually satisfied as the questions are relatively easier this month.
I saw your question yesterday and went to try whether it works, and trust me, you can write better code than most people are writing there. Its not an AC that matters, even a WA/TLE gives me satisfaction if I know that I have learnt things that were not known to me earlier.
I have experienced that with each single problem in the Long Contest you learn something. There is a better way to cheat, I tell you. For example, I cheat like this: I see a problem, if I know the idea how to solve it, I implement it. If I fail, then I do it again and again. But if the problem is entirely new to me, then I search the internet NOT for the exact code for that problem, but I search for ideas that can help me solve that problem. This helps in two ways - (a). your knowledge level increases. (b). you gain a lot of confidence.
For example, I used to have a fear from Graph Algorithms that whether I can implement them correctly or not. Mar’13 came with a question FIRESC, I got the idea of doing it, and implemented DFS but went wrong. It was after the contest only that I learnt the proper way and my fault. This way, I can never forget what I cheated! But if you copy the exact code from ideone then you will not even remember what idea it used in it.
So, cheat, but cheat wisely. Keep the hunger for ideas and knowledge (raw materials) and build your own program, please don’t use the ready-made things.
One tip to keep yourself motivated, I will say, fix an aim, for example, “I have to clear the ACM warmups this year anyhow”, “I have to get at least a Google T-shirt this year”, or the best one “I have to prove myself that even without cheating I can achieve something” – for that you very well know there is one and only one way - hard labor! And believe me, the satisfaction it gives then, is out of this world!
Good Luck!
