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So I just bought Starcraft 2, but I can only play 1 day a week, which is Saturday. For the rest of summer, my parents say I have to study at least 8 hours a day, and they want me to get a perfect score on the SAT. Also, in school this year, I'm taking 4 APs and all honors, so I made a deal that if i bought SC2, I would only play on saturday.
Now, during beta, I was a diamond zerg with 110 apm, but I never got to play much as I got in at the end of the 1st phase of the beta, and played the second phase. The problem is that I have to go to a local university to play cuz my laptop isn't good enough to run SC2. So, I really want to know how I can get better playing just 1 day a week. But I can play about 6-7 hours that day. I'm think I just shouldn't give a damn about the campaign and just hardcore ladder for the entire time, but what else can I do? Should I make practice partners or something? I have some friends that play, but they never really played SC1, and are pretty bad. Anyways, I want to be good enough that I can compete in tournaments and stuff by the time I'm in college. Any suggestions are welcome!
P.S. please don't tell me to switch races as I'm determined to stick with zerg!
 
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Not much else to do than laddering unless you have good practice partners. You could watch vods and read on tl during the weeks. :p
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study for 8 hours a day during summer while in high school? are your parents serious?
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1 day a week wont cut it for tournament play, but fuck the campaign if you wanna get better. And yes you should make practice partners, or join a clan.
p.s. your parents sound crazy, once you get in college sat means nothing.
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On August 21 2010 09:15 TommyGG wrote:
study for 8 hours a day during summer while in high school? are your parents serious?
Well it wasn't for the entire summer, only like the last 15 days of it
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Is it possible to divide up your 6-7 hours of game time into at least 2 days? It's still the same amount of game time, and it'll definitely help you more. Besides, I think it would make your days easier if you could look forward to the 1-2 hr starcraft session after all the work is done.
Edit: Oh, the local university part. In any case, I don't think playing 6-7 hours one day, and one day only is optimal. It's like studying 7 hours one day, and not studying for the rest of the week.
Fuck your parents, do NOT aim for a perfect score on the SAT. Aim for "the best you can do." In the end, there's no difference between a 2400 and a 2370 for colleges. A large percent of students who get 2400 actually drop out of school anyways.
As for practice, just ladder? I would advise playing against your friends if they aren't good enough, and you're genuinely trying to improve. Otherwise, there's always the practice partner thread you could look up?
Perhaps try out some of those build tester custom maps. It optimizes your time much better, as you can continue practicing the same builds over and over.
Btw: APs in South Korea? What, do you go to Seoul Foreign School or something?
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On August 21 2010 09:18 Terrakin wrote:
1 day a week wont cut it for tournament play, but fuck the campaign if you wanna get better. And yes you should make practice partners, or join a clan.
p.s. your parents sound crazy, once you get in college sat means nothing.
Well its because I have a 4.0 gpa, but my sat score is only 1880
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On August 21 2010 09:19 Karliath wrote:
Is it possible to divide up your 6-7 hours of game time into at least 2 days? It's still the same amount of game time, and it'll definitely help you more. Besides, I think it would make your days easier if you could look forward to the 1-2 hr starcraft session after all the work is done.
Edit: Oh, the local university part. In any case, I don't think playing 6-7 hours one day, and one day only is optimal. It's like studying 7 hours one day, and not studying for the rest of the week.
Fuck your parents, do NOT aim for a perfect score on the SAT. Aim for "the best you can do." In the end, there's no difference between a 2400 and a 2370 for colleges. A large percent of students who get 2400 actually drop out of school anyways.
As for practice, just ladder? I would advise playing against your friends if they aren't good enough, and you're genuinely trying to improve. Otherwise, there's always the practice partner thread you could look up?
Perhaps try out some of those build tester custom maps. It optimizes your time much better, as you can continue practicing the same builds over and over.
Btw: APs in South Korea? What, do you go to Seoul Foreign School or something?
Thanks for the advice, I will definitely look at that practice partner thread. And im in America right now, and probably gonna move in like December, so thats why im taking SATs. And Idk if i will go to a US college, or korean one. Anyways, my situations is kinda complicated right now. But yeah, my parents said they'd be satisfied with a 2200 score
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asian parents and their standards make me lol
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On August 21 2010 09:23 Tazza wrote:Show nested quote +On August 21 2010 09:19 Karliath wrote:
Is it possible to divide up your 6-7 hours of game time into at least 2 days? It's still the same amount of game time, and it'll definitely help you more. Besides, I think it would make your days easier if you could look forward to the 1-2 hr starcraft session after all the work is done.
Edit: Oh, the local university part. In any case, I don't think playing 6-7 hours one day, and one day only is optimal. It's like studying 7 hours one day, and not studying for the rest of the week.
Fuck your parents, do NOT aim for a perfect score on the SAT. Aim for "the best you can do." In the end, there's no difference between a 2400 and a 2370 for colleges. A large percent of students who get 2400 actually drop out of school anyways.
As for practice, just ladder? I would advise playing against your friends if they aren't good enough, and you're genuinely trying to improve. Otherwise, there's always the practice partner thread you could look up?
Perhaps try out some of those build tester custom maps. It optimizes your time much better, as you can continue practicing the same builds over and over.
Btw: APs in South Korea? What, do you go to Seoul Foreign School or something? Thanks for the advice, I will definitely look at that practice partner thread. And im in America right now, and probably gonna move in like December, so thats why im taking SATs. And Idk if i will go to a US college, or korean one. Anyways, my situations is kinda complicated right now. But yeah, my parents said they'd be satisfied with a 2200 score
omg I'd hate to change this into a SAT thread (blog post), but can you tell me how you're doing in each section, and the essay as well? The only reason I want to help is because once you conquer the SAT, you can move on to SC2.
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On August 21 2010 09:20 Tazza wrote:Show nested quote +On August 21 2010 09:18 Terrakin wrote:
1 day a week wont cut it for tournament play, but fuck the campaign if you wanna get better. And yes you should make practice partners, or join a clan.
p.s. your parents sound crazy, once you get in college sat means nothing. Well its because I have a 4.0 gpa, but my sat score is only 1880
That's what my parents are trying to do to me, I'm just not going to care for anything but the essay since my math is good, reading is decent and writing is laughable since at that point of the test your going to be pretty brain dead. What grade are you in because if you taking 4 AP's in senior year, you can just not take them seriously. On the other hand you have college stuff to do so yeah...
Although I did buy Atlas Shrugged which my mom is complaining about reading even though I BOUGHT IT.
On topic play practice games with friends or other people around the same level as you, go light on ladder and forget about campagin. I say go light on ladder since the people you play won't really be your friends/practice partners and won't be telling you what you did wrong while you watch the replay that you lost/won.
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Go through practice partner thread (I don't know how good #tlpickup is), add people to f l and PM them on TL.
Once you have your partners, repeat builds 1 at a time for many, many games like pros do... too bad that if you want to be really good you have to take most of fun out of playing :/ but having 1day a week you should be sc starved enough to do it...
Just don't become a robot because of that  analyze your replays...
Don't disregard food, energy drinks and Infestors like me lol.
This is something you've probably already considered so I don't think I'm even helpful here
I wonder how NonY practices against AI, I remember he wrote about it somewhere...
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On August 21 2010 09:06 Tazza wrote:
So I just bought Starcraft 2, but I can only play 1 day a week, which is Saturday. For the rest of summer, my parents say I have to study at least 8 hours a day, and they want me to get a perfect score on the SAT. Also, in school this year, I'm taking 4 APs and all honors, so I made a deal that if i bought SC2, I would only play on saturday.
Now, during beta, I was a diamond zerg with 110 apm, but I never got to play much as I got in at the end of the 1st phase of the beta, and played the second phase. The problem is that I have to go to a local university to play cuz my laptop isn't good enough to run SC2. So, I really want to know how I can get better playing just 1 day a week. But I can play about 6-7 hours that day. I'm think I just shouldn't give a damn about the campaign and just hardcore ladder for the entire time, but what else can I do? Should I make practice partners or something? I have some friends that play, but they never really played SC1, and are pretty bad. Anyways, I want to be good enough that I can compete in tournaments and stuff by the time I'm in college. Any suggestions are welcome!
P.S. please don't tell me to switch races as I'm determined to stick with zerg!
Good Lord your parents are absolutely ridiculous. Just terrible decisions there.
As for your question, watch as many games as you can while you aren't playing, absorb all of that great stuff, and then practice it on your one day to play.
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Eh, I only had like a 1980 and a 3.8-3.9 unweighted. Extracurriculars matter more in a lot of cases than a couple SAT points or hundredths of a GPA.
Anyway, you'll want to do a couple hours of gaming, then a couple hours reviewing replays. I'd say try to sandwich it so play > replays > play, since otherwise a lot of what you get out of the replays will rust and go to waste.
Once you figure out a weak area in a replay, focus your play around improving that, while maintaining the rest of your game. Keep doing that until said area improves on par with the rest of your abilities, then repeat.
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On August 21 2010 09:28 UnexcitedZealot wrote:Show nested quote +On August 21 2010 09:20 Tazza wrote:On August 21 2010 09:18 Terrakin wrote:
1 day a week wont cut it for tournament play, but fuck the campaign if you wanna get better. And yes you should make practice partners, or join a clan.
p.s. your parents sound crazy, once you get in college sat means nothing. Well its because I have a 4.0 gpa, but my sat score is only 1880 That's what my parents are trying to do to me, I'm just not going to care for anything but the essay since my math is good, reading is decent and writing is laughable since at that point of the test your going to be pretty brain dead.
If you can power Brood War or SC2 for 4+ hours, you can definitely think straight for a shitty standardized exam for four hours.
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If it's just for the two weeks leading up to the september testing, It shouldn't be that bad. A good score landed me a 10k scholarship I turned down at a local state school. You're an international, though so I'm not sure how the SAT's affect admissions to Korean universities and I was not even aware that they were used. I assumed you had another test.
Play while focusing on only one aspect at a time. Work on hotkeys on one day to develop muscle memory and speed. The next week, focus on muta micro or something. And don't go overboard on foruming, watching pro-games, or watching replays. You learn how the metagame (am I using this word right?) shifts by watching pro-games, you learn builds and can discuss strategy on forums, and you find your own flaws by watching your replays. Going overboard on massing games is however acceptable.
On August 21 2010 09:28 UnexcitedZealot wrote:Show nested quote +On August 21 2010 09:20 Tazza wrote:On August 21 2010 09:18 Terrakin wrote:
1 day a week wont cut it for tournament play, but fuck the campaign if you wanna get better. And yes you should make practice partners, or join a clan.
p.s. your parents sound crazy, once you get in college sat means nothing. Well its because I have a 4.0 gpa, but my sat score is only 1880 Although I did buy Atlas Shrugged which my mom is complaining about reading even though I BOUGHT IT.
Why would you buy that book T_T, they give it to you for free if you are a junior or senior and you enter their scholarship. And you can get it from the library everywhere. And it's by Ayn Rand <3 Roark from Fountainhead.
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On August 21 2010 09:20 Tazza wrote:
Well its because I have a 4.0 gpa, but my sat score is only 1880
Talk about grade inflation jeez. Want to do well in the SAT? Do one section (at least) every day until the test. Classes and princeton review's tricks are generally pretty worthless. Just take the test again and again and again (ofc you're probably signed up in elite by now).
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Are you going to be a junior next year, is your 4.0 weighted or unweighted, and are you taking SAT classes? <==just wondering
Also, you need to let your parents know how the SAT works; I don't think you understand precisely yourself, so here goes (this is going to cram a lot of info into one attempt at explaining, so this isn't going to be a particularly sequential/ordered explanation, though I tried ):
Just about every country except for the United States has just a few--2 or 3--"big" or "top" universities. Admission into said universities depends on a single "BIG TEST" towards/at the end of high school. If you do well on this big test, you're in; if you don't do well, then you can go [insert fitting verb of a menial task].
HOWEVER, the United States is a different matter. There are numerous top universities and a startling variety of schools from which you can choose. There are schools that excel in a particular course of study, liberal arts schools, extremely expensive schools, community colleges, etc. Thus, there is no single, objective test that determines where you're going to go. Your parents most likely are under the impression that the SAT is this "BIG TEST". Needless to say, it is not. In America, there are numerous factors that come into consideration when admissions officers are deliberating (GPA, SAT, extracurriculars, essays, and perhaps more).
So what IS the point of the SAT? Well, look at it this way. There are schools all over the country, and they all are different. At one school in California, you might take be struggling to scrape out an A because your AP Psychology teacher is a total sadist who gives you hours and hours of homework. At another one in Texas (just random states--I'm not trying to imply anything here haha), the AP Psychology teacher might give you an A as long as you don't get out of your seat as everyone watches the comedy movies he plays every day. Colleges, therefore, need some sort of standard with which to measure and compare students--the SAT is this standard, and its customers are the colleges (I'll get to that in a moment) and not you.
(You're forced to take the SAT; what are you going to do? Not take it? Take the ACT? No, students all over America are taking the SAT, and if you don't, it's your college you won't be getting into.)
Because the SAT is meant to be the standard, this also means that the SAT's job is simple: crank out a bell curve. The colleges are going to use the SAT scores to compare students all over the US, and the SAT better give them a bell curve, or else the colleges won't care about the SAT's results. In other words, the SAT needs to have its scores produce a bell curve, or else colleges won't use it to compare students. Also, as I stated before, the SAT's customers are the universities and colleges. Why? If colleges find out that the SAT's scores aren't in a neat and tidy bell curve, then the shit starts to get real. Obviously, if they can't use the scores to compare students, there's no reason to use the SAT. If this were to happen, THEN the SAT would lose its business, because no one would have to take a test that doesn't matter.
As a side-note, the SAT needs to maintain its bell curve by whatever means possible. This means making the test as hard as they can without utterly screwing everyone over. Think if it this way: if the bell curve were to shift to the right, what would that mean? It would mean that everyone is scoring higher. the SAT DOES NOT want this. The aforementioned situation would mean that the SAT's scores are unreliable, and if a student has a high score, then who cares? Everyone's scoring that high. On the other hand, if the bell curve were to shift to the left--that is, if people's scores became lower--then how does that impact the SAT? All they have to do (and they've done this before) is proclaim that the American school system sucks, that the teachers aren't teaching the right stuff, yadda yadda yadda. College board (the creators of the SAT) isn't on your side and will do whatever it takes to confuse you.
OKAY, so back to the significance of the SAT. This is what you need to tell your parents (though you can tell them anything else I've stated too, if you want). How exactly does it factor into college admissions? Basically, certain faculty of the top schools--let's go with MIT here--get together and decide the "cut-off" point of the SATs. Let's say that MIT decides the cut-off is 2200, because otherwise stupid students might come in, and their Nobel prize-winning professor will want to go to UC Berkeley and teach math to all the smart kids there, because there's no point in teaching a bunch of lazy, stupid students. What happens with the students that make the cut-off? The admissions officer looks at the score, and turn over your application and continue reading. What happens if you *gasp* don't make it? The admissions officer laughs and tosses it in the junk pile of crushed dreams with the rest of the layabouts, right? WRONG. If you happen to not make it, then you just need something extra. You are by no means automatically rejected then and there.
"Why not?" you ask. Well, let's say there's a student who has always been at the top of his class, with highest marks and scintillating compliments from his teacher; he's one of the most studious people out there. Unfortunately, he got really nervous on the SAT that one time and messed it up (or took it several times, and each time, he got scared and did poorly). What now? Is he doomed?
![[image loading]](http://i536.photobucket.com/albums/ff328/spacedocking/BarackObamaAwHellNawMacro.jpg)
Of course not!
What if they get an application from a kid, and his SAT score is simply abysmal; the admissions officer is about to reject him, turns the page, and finds out his application is written entirely in SPANISH? Turns out this kid's a genius in Argentina but doesn't know a word of English!
Better yet, the admissions officer opens up an application, sees a disgustingly poor SAT score, shakes his head at the embarrassing GPA, and then reads the essay. Apparently, this guy created a software program when he was 13 years old and sold it to Microsoft for $750 million. Are they going to reject this guy? NO WAY IN HELL!!! This kid's just unmotivated! He's going to go to MIT, graduate, become the CEO of Intel, donate billions of dollars to MIT, and MIT is going to take the money and make a building in his name!
Thus, the SAT is far from the "BIG TEST"; it definitely helps, but it does not singlehandedly determine whether you get into your school of choice. Another thing you should tell your parents is that the SAT is equated (which is actually curving, but they're not about to admit that) to make a bell curve, so anything from a certain score to another is essentially the SAME score (i.e. 2290 and up, unless you get a perfect score, is basically the same score in the eyes of college admissions officers; this is to account for curving and variation).
WOW that was long, but I hope it answered your question! ^^
Time for AP Euro homework now :/
EDIT: sorry for the giant SAT post, but I wanted to let you know :3
I think 1 day a week won't cut it (depending on how well you want to get) unless you mass game (which would be bad for you academically :<)
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+ Show Spoiler +On August 21 2010 11:28 Hidden_MotiveS wrote:If it's just for the two weeks leading up to the september testing, It shouldn't be that bad. A good score landed me a 10k scholarship I turned down at a local state school. You're an international, though so I'm not sure how the SAT's affect admissions to Korean universities and I was not even aware that they were used. I assumed you had another test. Play while focusing on only one aspect at a time. Work on hotkeys on one day to develop muscle memory and speed. The next week, focus on muta micro or something. And don't go overboard on foruming, watching pro-games, or watching replays. You learn how the metagame (am I using this word right?) shifts by watching pro-games, you learn builds and can discuss strategy on forums, and you find your own flaws by watching your replays. Going overboard on massing games is however acceptable. On August 21 2010 09:28 UnexcitedZealot wrote:Show nested quote +On August 21 2010 09:20 Tazza wrote:On August 21 2010 09:18 Terrakin wrote:
1 day a week wont cut it for tournament play, but fuck the campaign if you wanna get better. And yes you should make practice partners, or join a clan.
p.s. your parents sound crazy, once you get in college sat means nothing. Well its because I have a 4.0 gpa, but my sat score is only 1880 Although I did buy Atlas Shrugged which my mom is complaining about reading even though I BOUGHT IT. Why would you buy that book T_T, they give it to you for free if you are a junior or senior and you enter their scholarship. And you can get it from the library everywhere. And it's by Ayn Rand <3 Roark from Fountainhead.
Damn it makes me feel stupid for wasting 13 bucks on a crappy book. I really dislike Atlas Shrugged compared to the Fountainhead. Do prefer having a solid copy I own for the essay contest where I get to compete against graduates and miserably fail in a magnificent blaze by my poorly written and thought out essay-to-be
To SevereDevil: Except everyone taking it now probably doesn't want to take a 4 hour long shitty exam including me...again... for the third time -_-
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On August 21 2010 09:27 Karliath wrote:Show nested quote +On August 21 2010 09:23 Tazza wrote:On August 21 2010 09:19 Karliath wrote:
Is it possible to divide up your 6-7 hours of game time into at least 2 days? It's still the same amount of game time, and it'll definitely help you more. Besides, I think it would make your days easier if you could look forward to the 1-2 hr starcraft session after all the work is done.
Edit: Oh, the local university part. In any case, I don't think playing 6-7 hours one day, and one day only is optimal. It's like studying 7 hours one day, and not studying for the rest of the week.
Fuck your parents, do NOT aim for a perfect score on the SAT. Aim for "the best you can do." In the end, there's no difference between a 2400 and a 2370 for colleges. A large percent of students who get 2400 actually drop out of school anyways.
As for practice, just ladder? I would advise playing against your friends if they aren't good enough, and you're genuinely trying to improve. Otherwise, there's always the practice partner thread you could look up?
Perhaps try out some of those build tester custom maps. It optimizes your time much better, as you can continue practicing the same builds over and over.
Btw: APs in South Korea? What, do you go to Seoul Foreign School or something? Thanks for the advice, I will definitely look at that practice partner thread. And im in America right now, and probably gonna move in like December, so thats why im taking SATs. And Idk if i will go to a US college, or korean one. Anyways, my situations is kinda complicated right now. But yeah, my parents said they'd be satisfied with a 2200 score omg I'd hate to change this into a SAT thread (blog post), but can you tell me how you're doing in each section, and the essay as well? The only reason I want to help is because once you conquer the SAT, you can move on to SC2.
I get about a 10 or 12 on the essay, about a 600 on math, same for critical reading and a 680 for writing. Yeah, thx for your help, i just want to get to play sc2 too. And Im going to be a junior by the way
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This is pretty sad though man, you study all day every day then play sc for 8 hours on saturday......
You better be fucking good all that brainwork should help
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Hey thanks everyone that explained the SAT to me and stuff especially Z3kk that wrote an awesome post about the SAT and the American school system. But I was also wondering, are extra curriculars that important? I asked a college admissions office person on yahoo answers, but she said they really weren't and that they have a make it, or not make it thing depending on the gpa and sat score(unless its the guy that sold intel for 750 million dollars). Hearing this, I quit marching band cuz I hated it and was only doing it for extra curriculars. Also, do extra curriculars have to be school related? I don't really like doing stuff for the school but the problem is I can't get a job(it would be illegal don't ask why) and I quit TaeKwonDo because of all the work, but I did get to that red/black belt thing.
But basically, my parents said this will be the hardest time in my life and if i pass it, i will go to a good college and stuff where i will be able to fool around and play lots of sc2 lol. They even said they would buy me like a thousand dollar computer to play on all ultra settings. And most of you are saying this life is screwed up, but this is the asian parents way. In korea, its worse, trust me.
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One day a week, you're a lucky one... I haven't been able to legitimately play since like 8th grade.
College Admissions counselors will drive you (and me) absolutely insane. There are simply ridiculous variations in advice given by different counselors, and you can't have a ONE SIZE fits all plan for everyone. Obviously you need to maintain a base (SAT, GPA, etc...), but arguing over taking 4 SAT IIs instead of 3 is pretty absurd (currently happening to me).
But yeah, High School classes/tests are definitely not meant to be the "hardest time of your life" -that's utter bullshit. Getting into a college is definitely a meaningful goal, but just because you got in doesn't mean "Mission Accomplished".
I will say becoming an overachiever is all about the motivation -even if you think something is a superficial or meaningless activity that you're only doing for college, the dedicated, hardworking students will do the said activity anyway. Having a life outside of college-related extracurriculars (such as TeamLiquid) is both a blessing and a curse. Everything else tends to become boring -the things that are important in the eyes of admissions officers.
There are people who get in without doing anything at all, and those who do everything but only get into safety schools. The goal is to be neither -you don't want to be an exception in any case.
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On August 21 2010 13:06 Tazza wrote:
But basically, my parents said this will be the hardest time in my life and if i pass it, i will go to a good college and stuff where i will be able to fool around and play lots of sc2 lol. They even said they would buy me like a thousand dollar computer to play on all ultra settings. And most of you are saying this life is screwed up, but this is the asian parents way. In korea, its worse, trust me.
It depends greatly on your major, current high school, and prospective university's rigor, how hard college will be compared to your high school.
You can chose to be the proverbial big fish in a small pond, eg: getting accepted to the honors program and asking to transfer to the normal program, or you can be the medium fish in the big pond. I myself would chose the former now, however there are many who argue to be the latter.
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if its just for 2 weeks have some fun, i wouldnt bother with getting competitive at all, even casual gamers play more than 1 day a week
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EPT![[image loading]](http://i38.tinypic.com/vr3k7c.jpg)
