# NO MORE TOUGHIES ON BRILLIANT

I have been using brilliant since may 2013 and it really fascinated me then. But now , I can find no such algebra or number theory or combinatorics problem which have rating above 2000 . I request the brilliant staff to post some really difficult algebra and combinatorics problems .

Note by Ujjwal Mani Tripathi
6 years, 4 months ago

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Agree. One big problem with this is that if you're trying to boost your rating in a particular category, you need those "toughies" to bring it up. Unfortunately, when attempting to boost it solving lower Level problems will often do nothing to raise your rating, and yet if you make a "mistake" (when many times it's not), your rating can take a sudden dive. We end up not wanting to solve any problems, since 1) there are no "toughies" to help our ratings, and 2) the "easy" ones can be disastrous and of no benefit to our ratings.

Really, what is Brilliant's motivation behind this policy? I can understand that the Brilliant staff don't have the time to develop these problems, and must rely on Brilliant Community to provide them, but at least we shouldn't be punished for trying out "easy" problems while we're waiting for the "toughies" to show up.

- 6 years, 4 months ago

Yes! And what's worse, is that for people like me who have super low levels, the only problems Brilliant lets you see is ones that if you answer right, you get five points in rating, and if you answer wrong, you lose fifty. It sucks! I don't like the "problems just at your level"! It's like hiding good problems because somebody might not be able to solve them. The whole point of Brilliant is to learn! That usually involves learning through mistakes and trying new things. How can you try new things when you're afraid of being seen as "stupid" just because a problem says you are. It really frustrates me. And, I have noticed that almost no problems are super hard, too.

- 6 years, 4 months ago

Wow, I didn't know that even "low Level users" have this problem too. That is amazing. Yes, I agree with you, this should be a fun place to foodle around with problems, for better or worse, because we learn from our stupid mistakes. But Brilliant keeps slamming us every time we miss. Just now I gave "0" as the answer to the problem 2/3 = N/15, and saw my rating drop 34 points. I then gave "1" as the answer, and saw it drop another 11 points. Gee, we have to be REALLY CAREFUL with these easy problems! You're right, I'm learning a lot from this!

- 6 years, 4 months ago

Oh, you're sure learning, but it sure ain't math. :D

- 6 years, 4 months ago

Another reason for this is that many good problems are unrated.

- 6 years, 4 months ago

The whole problem is how to determine which problems are to be rated. Who's checking? There's only so many people on the Brilliant staff. They need a small army of mathematicians to thoroughly vet the problems.

- 6 years, 4 months ago

Yes, that's correct to some extent. But as far as I remember, earlier (when the new version of Brilliant had just been introduced) good level 5 problems were being shared! How was it happenning at that time, then?

But, I would like to add that there's still no site like Brilliant! :)

- 6 years, 4 months ago

Oye Sambit, u were in SXHS right. I am Ashtik, remember me?.??

- 6 years, 4 months ago

Another problem is that problems that are really difficult are being solved by lower leveled users using Wolfram Alpha. If you look at what should be difficult number theory problems and calculus problems, they are only rated level 3 or so because they are solvable using wolfram alpha. Recently there have been more problems with the title along the lines of 'Wolfram Alpha can't solve this: Can You?" and they have been rated significantly higher than other lower rated problems that are actually harder. If you look on the recently solved list for some of these lower rated problems there are typically a bunch of people who are level 4/5 but every 5th solver is someone who is level 1 in the topic which contributes to the rating being downgraded. As I said this is particularly prevalent in calculus where integrals can easily be entered into the search box.

Regardless, I do agree that the Brilliant Staff should continue to make their own weekly set of problems that are solely made by them, not the users. They were of much better quality on the previous website and of a higher difficulty. I noticed that last week Calvin Lin made a weekly set composed of other users' problems which is a step in the right direction but I haven't seen a new one published this week.

- 6 years, 4 months ago

I agree with you.

- 6 years, 4 months ago

Agree with it...thats why posted this discussion in which i asked them to be back with old format Give your support by resharing and voting here

- 6 years, 4 months ago

Absolutely right.

- 6 years, 4 months ago

The problems are being posted, and reshared.

Do a search for "." (to see all problems), filter by level (5) and topic (Algebra / Number Theory), and you will see a bunch of problems.

Staff - 6 years, 4 months ago

Yes, I do that, I know where to find them. The fact remains that there just aren't that many Level 5 problems in some categories. I'm sure things will get better as time goes on and Brilliant expands.

- 6 years, 4 months ago

thank you Calvin ......

- 6 years, 4 months ago