Алиса Микулина

Олимпиадный Марафон (14 блоков), курс подготовки к региональному этапу ВОШ RE:Course, курс подготовки к олимпиаде "Высшая проба", онлайн-занятия Writing, Speaking, Olympic Highlight, индивидуальные занятия

  • Победитель регионального этапа Всероссийской олимпиады школьников 
  • Победитель олимпиады "Высшая проба"
  • Победитель Евразийской олимпиады
  • Победитель олимпиады РГГУ
  • Призер олимпиады СПбГУ
  • Призер КФУ
  • Герценовская олимпиада +5 баллов

Was it hard? — Yes, very hard.

Was it exhausting? — Awfully exhausting.

Would I do it all over again? — I definitely would, without hesitation.

The life of an olympiadnik is really complicated. Not difficult, no, you can’t call it difficult. It is arduous. Wiping you out every single day till you are crawling under your blanket feeling that you’ll fall asleep the very second your head touches the pillow. Then, while already half asleep, you remember you still have 300 words left to learn, take your phone with Anki open and learn till they are all finished. Only now you know the day is finally over. You close your eyes, knowing you’ll wake up at 6 AM to add new words and head to school.

Sounds frightening? I agree. But now, looking back at what I’ve managed to gain this year, I know all the sleepless nights spent learning words and Country Studies were not in vain. I know, that if I had a chance to repeat it all, I would not hesitate and would indulge in learning at monstrous paces once again.

Learning is addictive, especially when you have a goal set that’s constantly in your mind. And I had a goal that kept me moving on. It found some space in my brain and, like a minuscule seed, started to develop, to grow so quickly, that I had nothing to do but to try and reach it. The goal was obvious and clear. The goal was VOS.

I’m not the type of person who lies on the couch thinking “Oh, it’d be cool to have a VOS diploma.” If I have a goal set, I am ready to move heaven and earth to achieve what lives in my head. The idea itself was crazy. I, of course, had been an olympiadnik for two years already, and had four diplomas, have been a RE winner, but my level of English was somewhat not enough for being on top of the world (and VOS). Radical changes in my ways of studying were needed, and I knew what to do.

Each Marathon task, each little bit of information in my proximity was perused and learnt. Each unknown word met on my way was written out and added into Anki. Not only I needed Upwego tasks, but I also used my own sources (books). I needed Advanced and Proficiency vocabulary, so the decision was made — 50 words per day, and no going back. I survived 2 months adding new words at that pace, and don’t think it was easy. By the end of that period, my daily due count of words in Anki reached 1800 and I had real troubles having any sleep whatsoever with such a number of words to learn. I was awfully tired. Often I slept on the shoulder of my classmate at school (thankfully, he did not mind and only always told me I need to sleep more). When it became totally unbearable, I started gradually decreasing the number of words (thanks to Kate Yakovleva, mostly, because without her explaining to me that dead Alice is no good, I would never give up on my idea myself). By the end of January, I had 40 new words per day. Then 30, 20. Beginning from March I have 10 new words per day and am quite happy with myself.

Weekly speakings, writings, marathon tasks, practice, practice, practice, practice — it all had its results. I did it all, believing it would help, but felt no result coming at all. However, it was me who didn’t notice the changes, but at one point Kate started telling me how shocked she was by the speed of my skills getting better. I did not feel it, but her regular reminders helped me realise (and finally believe) the fact that all my struggles paid off. I was finally getting better. I was finally close to achieving my goal.

By that time, all the first tours were over, with not a single one failed, and the battles with the final tours began. Fear, exhaustion, nervousness wrapped up with daily practice were something I got used to. Vedomstvennaya in Discord :D. A HSE course. HSE itself. KFU. Failed Ranepa. And what I craved for the most — RE. RE was good, but the days of waiting for the results were unbearable. I call Ministry of Education of Ryazan about 20 times every day, I cry my eyes out both at school and at home because of anxiety. Finally, I receive a call, while sitting at the Maths lesson. Everyone in my class knows what a call this is, everyone waits in silence. I pick up, breathe in, concentrate on the words flying into my ear and my heart drops. I put the phone down. 84,5. I’m in hysteria, I don’t know what to do. I know it’s not enough, and the judging is not fair. I look at my work and _know_ my points were lowered, so I appeal. I appeal and get 2 points back. Not even one, but 2! points — something nobody could’ve expected. It was one of the funniest occasions of appeal in my life, because I talked utter nonsense and they all believed. I laughed a lot, but deep inside I felt it. 86,5 is not enough. Not enough for it to happen. Not enough for ZE. I waited. With Kate’s and my friends’ and parents’ support I waited nervously, crying every day in my pillow, covering my tears each morning and “learning to breathe properly,” like they instructed at RE.

RGGU with funny texts :))). A trip to Nizhniy Novgorod 2 hours after RGGU. Eurasian in Nizhniy Novgorod. Lomonosov with me writing a whole piece of art there. SPBU when I had an intolerable bellyache and with an amazing story about weather in SPB and a lecture about electricity and electrons to a kid :D High points at HSE (rezy v Marte).

ZE passing scores. 91. Failure of everything. A crack inside. Void filling each part of my soul and body. I knew I should’ve been there. I knew it was not fair. I knew my level was enough, only the world wanted to communicate some message to me by not letting me get there. Silent screams at nights again, again tears wiped away every morning, apathy and yet not a single day of giving up my way to the top. Marathon tasks done perfectly well, new words added to Anki, new job filling my mind with something else but for VOS.

I work, I study, I move on. Moving on is awfully hard, I had to strain each part of my brain to make it understand I couldn’t opt for giving up, because VOS was not everything in life. UShB with programmers who didn’t even make sure their platform works XD. Herzen that was the most boring olympiad I could ever have thought of. PVG. _P_V_G_ I got there! I have no idea how, but I GOT THERE! It was the craziest thing about the year, but!!! I even got 96 points at the final tour! One point away from a diploma, but who cares, when I got 96 _at_ _PVG_? I wrote an appeal, of course, and that appeal was another piece of art and humour (they did not accept it, so now we know that PVG has no sense of humour). Throughout the year humour kept me alive and smiling. My poems and stories are worthy of anyone’s attention, and mostly it’s humour that made my life better all year long.

I got 5 diplomas: 3 winners (HSE, Eurasian and RGGU) and 2 prizers (SPbU and KFU). I’m truly proud of my achievements. I’m mostly in love with my SPbU diploma, because my work there was a sheer artwork, and, of course, they liked it to the point of making me a prizer.

I was at home when ZE was going on, with awful feelings patching up inside me. I was in Moscow at RGGU ceremony for winners when the results were about to appear. I was saying goodbye to Moscow and was on the train when they announced the winners and the prizers. I knew I could not be there even in theory, yet I was crying. And it was the worst period of crying ever, I sat there, stuck to my train seat having no other feelings but pain inside. And yet again, I calmed myself down and started learning words. Because tears are temporary, and words remain. My people calmed me down again, and I’m so much grateful I have them all.

Is giving up your goals easy? Especially the ones on which you’ve spent hundreds of hours to come true? I can say that it’s unbearable. I still haven’t. I still feel pain each time I think of it. I’m writing this article and know pain is alleviating. It will gradually go away, just a bit later. When I’m ready for it.

VOS was just my trigger this year. It caused the most of desire to study, it caused the most pain, but through this pain I raised my level of English enormously and got diplomas I’m proud of.

As I once heard, it’s difficult to imagine a blonde blue-eyed slim beautiful girl work hard day and night to get to the top. Yet I don’t follow the rules and am absolutely happy I never do.

I am happy to be an olympiadnik. I am happy to be where I am now. I would repeat the same arduous year, because even if it sounds difficult, it is filled with a desire to move further — something I have always needed.

© Екатерина Яковлева, 2016–2022