u/Calcium_414

Okay, first off it was more like 10 wins over 13 games but hyperbole aside, I saw a short where Magnus explicitly said that he doesn't calculate further than 2-3 moves ahead.

That's all, but it gave me like belief that I don't need to try to do something that the GMs weren't even doing. But the concept of calculating deep into a position is a misconception I believe a lot of players have, not just beginners.

So regardless of your level, if you think that you have to be a mega-brain calculator, you don't. Just make sure you aren't relatively worse in a position 2-3 moves from now.

EDIT: for the people saying he doesn’t brute force calculate every line, no shit. But like what I took from what he said is I just look at a move at face value and see if it has some like continuation, obviously dismiss like moves with no follow up and yeah he has intuition to filter out moves but it’s still really applicable

We stand 2 weeks out from the AP Calc AB exam. I'm really upset with myself. I know I will be able to get a 5 most likely, but I had ambitions for a perfect score and I know it was actually feasible and not just a delusion. We have a class of 15 at our school (in Vancouver) and we have been done Calc in February, after which our great teacher has provided us with over 250 FRQs and a 1000 MCQs. I mean, she has meticulously designed how this course over the years for all her students so that we are best equipped for success when the test rolls aroundn. In her years of teaching, 90%+ of her students achieve 5s, with only 4 3s on record. So I have definitely been given the resources to make this perfect score happen. Last time someone got a perfect score in British Columbia, Sargun Bajaj in 2012, he got like a 100k scholarship from SFU just from the exam.

I know I am more than capable of achieving this. I have an argument for being the smartest in the school, when we do problems I catch others with small mistakes. But at the same time I haven't put in the hours. I've done like 15 FRQs and like 2 MCQs. I'm lazy. Even when we were doing our Pre-Calc and Calc course material I didn't do any work. And now the chance for a 108/108 has likely slipped away from me. So I just have a few questions:

A) What does one even get for achieving a perfect score, other than being able to say you did it (which in its own right is still a very good thing, stands out on applications, resumes, and such and such)

B) What is wrong with me? And don't like beat around the bush or sugarcoat it - give it to me straight. Why did I fuck up?