video: How to Keep Calm at Crunch Time - Ask Ian #31

April 19, 2016

To write code for a competition/ assessment is to like to play a sports match. Julia still has to work on mental toughness, and improve her probability to pass any code assessment. How to keep calm in crucial moment?

Spend a lot of hours to work on techniques, practice; but in the crucial moment, allow the pressure take control, and cannot execute as normal.

How to do your best?  practice, continue to improve and be in present. It takes a lot of discipline. A lot of experience under the situation. Be in present, problem solving.

Take notes from the talk in the video:

Key #1:
1. Be present. Do not think about past, do not think about future;

Do not allow yourself travel time line; What if you lose, do not take it too seriously; do not focus on the future outcome. Second guess themselves, it is not good.

Focus on present, problem needs to be solved.

2. Learn to embrace your nerves and anxieties. Everybody gets nervous, does not matter how good you are, how long you play. Every one has anxiety, every one has fears over winning or losing. It is natural response if you are put in the competition.

As a matter of fact, it is a great thing to feel nervous and anxiety. This shows that you care about outcome. Use it to sharpen your focus, sharpen your perform.

Do not put yourself in a downward spiral.

video link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t8KjshrxS48

Arguments:

Amazon hiring bar: better coding than 50% existing employees. Code assessment is just a basic skills indicator. Learn from the experience.

https://goo.gl/HkHyFV

Always memorize a bible verse to calm down:

How precious to me are Your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them! Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand.

Psalm139： 17 -18 NIV

June 14, 2016
Study 2 hours on the blog:
https://www.quora.com/How-can-I-get-over-my-failed-interview-at-Amazon


Study the article - July 4, 2016

http://firstround.com/review/Mechanize-Your-Hiring-Process-to-Make-Better-Decisions/

Mental skills to help players

April 9, 2016

  Competitive programming is like tennis sports. So, when Julia blogs her practice on problem solving on HackerRank, she also likes to journal her practice, for example, log time spent on.

 Here are the notes taken:

Mental Skills to Help Your Players

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E8-7LA9-UOY

Journaling practices/ Matches (27:24/39:58)

• Date, Time, Type of Play (Practice/ Match)
• Opponent ( if applicable)
• Length of Time
• Feeling
• Emotions
• Focus/ Concentration
• Nutrition/ Hydration
• 3 things you did well, 1-3 things to improve

Goal Setting:

• smart goals
• LT and ST goals
• Set for practice and competition
• Write them down!!!
• Reflect on motivation and you commitment to these goals
• Evaluate, assess, adjust goals as needed

Reference:

USTA Mental Skills and Drills Handbook

Action item: Read the book 20 pages. Take some short notes as well.