Part 1: C Code in a C++ File

Day one of camp: a train ride that went nowhere, an exam written in the wrong language, and a room with only me in it

The night before camp, I slept in Samut Prakan. On the morning of September 26, I took an air-conditioned bus to the BTS, on my way to sit an early-admission exam at Kasetsart University, after which I planned to travel on to camp in time.

The train was almost at the university when I found out the exam had been postponed. Kasetsart was flooded, and the postponement came as suddenly as anything I've ever seen.

I had no choice but to ride the BTS all the way back to Mo Chit and catch another bus. The first day of a camp I had waited three years for began with a journey that went nowhere.

A camp in Sing Buri

This POSN Computer Olympiad centre runs under King Mongkut's University of Technology North Bangkok (KMUTNB), and is split across two centres: Suankularb Wittayalai Nonthaburi School and Satri Ang Thong School.

I was studying in Sing Buri, so I had to pick the nearest centre, which was Satri Ang Thong. But the camp wasn't held at the school. It was at the Golden Garden Resort, a hotel in Sing Buri itself, very close to my home in Chai Nat.

The camp ran from September 26 to October 10: fifteen days.

The first exam room

I reached camp around noon. The morning session was probably on language basics, such as how a program starts, but I missed it, because I was still on my way back from an exam I never got to sit.

The afternoon brought the P-test, a placement exam on the basics before real lessons began. I signed in before entering the room, then sat down to take it.

The camp's grader looked exactly like TOI Zero, UX and UI alike. I knew it well. But there was one thing I hadn't prepared for.

The camp's grader only compiled C++.

I had always written Python. I could look at a problem and know how I'd solve it in Python. But in C++, I barely knew how to write anything. What I had was the C I'd learned in lower secondary and again in Grade 10 and 11 at school.

So I did the only thing I could: I wrote C inside a C++ file and hit submit.

I got a few points. When the number went up, all I thought was, "Well, at least it's not zero."

No friends from my school

That year, I was the only student from my school who made it to camp. No friends came with me. But I didn't feel very lonely. I could talk to people like anyone else.

The camp took good care of us. There were snacks at every break, and sports in the evening. On the first day I didn't play anything. I went straight to my room.

There were about 35 of us at camp, two to a room. But my roommate couldn't make it, because their home was flooded. So that first night, I slept alone.

In the evening, I went back over the P-test and wrote down the problems from memory, keeping them for my roommate to read when they arrived.

If you'd like the style of P-test questions from this camp, leave a comment and let me know.