Computer science has become one of the most coveted and important skills across all schools and industries and that is why USACO is very common. For any high school student that is passionate about algorithms and programming and wants a venue where they can learn and challenge themselves, the USACO course is good for you. However, if you want to perform well in your USACO exam, you should read the following preparation tips.
Start as soon as possible
It is essential to start your preparation early, about several months before the competition. Starting early will allow you to cover the essential topics and practise problems that are likely to appear in the exam. If you are just starting then you need to cover all the topics from bronze onward. If you have participated before and are starting at the upper level, you should start preparing the more complex topics and don’t focus on the topics of lower divisions.
Create a strong foundation
You should focus on building a strong foundation in computer science and programming basics. This includes concepts such as algorithms, data structures, dynamic programming, recursion, and graph theory. This competition will test your expertise and finesse in your chosen language, so you should be sure to have this foundation set in place. You should read books about the theory behind computer science, algorithms and not just coding.
Practise
If you want to be successful in USACO training and exam, you should practise in programming competitions. You need to practise through extensive amounts of problems available on the internet, starting with the easier questions to ensure your foundational understanding is there. You can end up with more difficult problems. You can get plenty of practise problems online.
Participate in contests
You will need to regularly participate in programming contests to help you improve your skills and get used to the time pressure of competitions. There are a lot of other practisecontests and other self-ran practises with the previous problems and the official competition.
Seek help and collaborate
You need to collaborate with other students and seek help from experienced programmers. You can join forums and programming clubs or talk to your computer science teacher for guidance. The online community for computer science is expansive. You should therefore use the network to get help answering your questions. You can answer other people’s questions to help you learn as much as answering your own questions.
Practise time management
Time management is crucial during your competition. You should therefore ensure you practise writing optimized and efficient code. You can practise solving problems under a time limit to help you learn how to manage your time effectively. Remember you only have three to five hours to complete complex questions under pressure. You should also ensure this code is efficient as there are time limits for every problem.
Review past competitions
You need to review past USACO competitions and analyze the solutions to help you understand the types of problems you should expect and how to approach them.
