Name:

Grade:

2015 BCA Mock AMC 10

There are 25 questions to be answered over a period of 75 minutes. This mimics the format of the AMC
10/12.
Each question has 5 answer choices, exactly one of which is correct.
You will receive 6 points for every correct answer and 1.5 points for every question you leave blank. Thus
blind guessing is not in your favor. If you are able to eliminate 2 or more answer choices, it is generally
favorable for you to guess.

ANSWERS (circle at most one per question):

11

12

13

14

10

15

16

21

17

22

18

23

19

24

20

25

Name:

Grade:

1. Kelvin the Frog can butter 3 pieces of bread in 4 minutes and can pour 6 drinks in 2.5 minutes. How long
does it take him to prepare a meal for 12 people if all of them want a drink but only half of them want a
piece of bread?
(A) 9 (B) 13 (C) 15.5 (D) 18 (E) 21
2. An obtuse, isosceles triangle has one angle measuring 20 degrees. What is another angle in this triangle?
(A) 40 (B) 80 (C) 120 (D) 140 (E) 160
3. Kelvin the Frog has 32 nickels and Alex the Kat has 2 quarters. Kelvin gives Alex a certain amount of
his nickels so they have the same amount of money. How many coins does Alex now have?
(A) 11 (B) 12 (C) 13 (D) 14 (E) 15
4. Kelvin the Frog loves flies. In the deepest part of the jungle, there are blue flies, green flies, gooey flies,
and mean flies. How many flies must Kelvin eat to guarantee that he eats at least two of the same type
of fly?
(A) 2 (B) 4 (C) 5 (D) 8 (E) 9
5. AJ the Dennis is at the center of a 2 ft by 2 ft square. He runs to one vertex and then to another vertex,
both times in a straight line. What is the maximum distance he could have traveled?

(A) 2 (B) 2 (C) 2 2 (D) 2 + 2 (E) 3 2

6. Kelvin the Frog must wait in the jungle until Alex the Kat rolls two dice and ends up with a sum of 5 or
a sum of 8. If Alex the Kat rolls both dice exactly once, what is the probability that Kelvin can leave the
jungle?
(A)

1
6

(B)

1
4

(C)

1
3

(D)

1
2

(E)

2
3

7. In the land of dystopia, people use a different currency than in America. In dystopia, 7 Despair s equals
15 Orwell s and 3 Huxleys equals 5 Despair s. Which of the following is greatest?
(A) 3 Despair s (B) 3 Huxleys (C) 3 Orwell s (D) 2 Huxleys and 1 Orwell (E) 2 Despair s and 1 Huxley
8. The math team is putting together a 2-person team for a competition. 8 members will only do Algebra, 5
members will only do Geometry, and 2 members are willing to do either. If the 2-person team must include
one person doing Algebra and one person doing Geometry, how many different teams can be formed?
(A) 42 (B) 43 (C) 56 (D) 66 (E) 67
9. There are 10 members on a math team, but only 8 of them compete in any given competition. Given any
two members of the team, there was exactly one competition that they both did not compete in. How
many competitions did each math team member compete in?
(A) 27 (B) 28 (C) 36 (D) 45 (E) 55
10. Arturo is learning not-spanish and realizes that the not-spanish alphabet is the same as the english
alphabet, with two extra letters: n
and ll. If he picks two distinct letters from the not-spanish alphabet,
whats the probability exactly one of them is also an english letter?
(A)

1
14

(B)

13
189

(C)

26
189

(D)

52
189

(E)

13
14

11. Mr. Roboto takes a number, squares each of its digits, and adds the resulting numbers. So if the Styx
handed Mr. Roboto the number 23, Mr. Roboto would give them 13, because 13 = 22 + 32 . One day, Mr.
Roboto malfunctions and, instead of handing back the number hes supposed to, repeats the process 2014
more times (for a total of 2015 operations). If the Styx handed Mr. Roboto 292, what number would they
be handed back?
(A) 37 (B) 42 (C) 58 (D) 89 (E) 292
12. Points E and F lie inside quadrilateral ABCD such that DAE = EAF = F AB and ADE =
EDF = F DC. If ABC = 120 and BCD = 90 , find AED + AF D in degrees.
(A) 150 (B) 180 (C) 210 (D) 240 (E) 270
13. Kelvin the Frogs favorite number, n, is a perfect square when 42 is added to it and a perfect fourth power
when 1337 is added to it. Compute the sum of the digits of n2 .
(A) 12 (B) 14 (C) 16 (D) 18 (E) 20
14. Let P (x) be a quadratic polynomial satisfying P (1) = 1, P (2) = 8, P (3) = 27. Find P (4).
(A) 46 (B) 54 (C) 58 (D) 64 (E) 81

Name:

Grade:

15. Let ABC be a triangle such that AB = 5, and CA = 6. Let D be the intersection of the angle bisector of
A with side BC and M be the midpoint of side BC. Given that BD = 3, compute DM .
(A) 0.3 (B) 0.4 (C) 0.5 (D) 0.6 (E) 0.7
16. A sphere with radius r1 is inscribed in a cone with volume 54. A smaller sphere with radius r2 lies on top
of the original sphere such that it lies tangent to the cone and the bottom sphere. If the volume of the
smallest cone containing the smaller sphere is 2, find rr21 .
(A)

1
27

(B)

1
9

(C)

3 3

(D)

1
3

(E)

1
3

17. Kelvin the Frog starts at the upper left dot in a 6x6 grid of dots. Kelvin wishes to reach the opposite
corner through a series of hops, each either down or to the right. However, Ryan the Ryan will eat Kelvin
if Kelvin hops to any of the central 4 dots. How many different paths can Kelvin take without being
eaten?
(A) 34 (B) 52 (C) 70 (D) 132 (E) 252
18. The roots of the quadratic x2 + ax + b are r and s, and the roots of the quadratic x2 + bx + a are r + 1
and s + 1. Find ab.
(A) -3 (B) -1 (C) 0 (D) 1 (E) 3
19. What is the last digit of 12015 + 22015 + . . . + 20152015 ?
(A) 0 (B) 2 (C) 4 (D) 6 (E) 8
20. The number 2015 has the property that each of the first 3 digits are less than the last digit. How many
4-digit numbers, including 2015, have this property?
(A) 285 (B) 1092 (C) 1337 (D) 1740 (E) 2024
21. Kelvin the Frog is solving a 2015 2015 crossword puzzle that has exactly one black square in every
column. Kelvin is stuck and decides to cheat by moving the black squares. Every minute, he can move
any one of the black squares either up or down 1 square. Let n be the expected number of minutes it will
take Kelvin to move all of the squares to the central row. Find the sum of the digits of n.
(A) 17 (B) 18 (C) 19 (D) 24 (E) 27
k
of an
22. In a certain fantasy game, all characters begin with a positive integer k armor, which blocks k+10
incoming attack. For example, 40 armor would block 80% of an incoming attack. Kelvin the Frog notices
that, after buying some integer amount of additional armor, he now blocks 10% more damage than he
would before his purchase. What is the largest possible amount of armor that Kelvin could have bought?
For example, Kelvin might have started with 40 armor and bought an additional 50, thus going from 80%
damage reduction to 90% damage reduction.

(A) 5 (B) 50 (C) 810 (D) 9801 (E) 9890

23. Kelvin the Frog and Alex the Kat stand at two distinct vertices of an equilateral triangle, the sides of
which are perfect mirrors with length 1. Kelvin the Frog shoots a laser at some angle 0 < < 60 (i.e.
within the interior of the triangle), and hits Alex the Kat after some finite amount of bounces. What is
the length of the shortest path that the laser could have traveled?

(A) 3 (B) 5 (C) 6 (D) 7 (E) 2 3

24. We say a b (mod m) if and only if m | a b. Suppose a, b, c are positive integers less than 13 such that
2ab + bc + ca abc

(mod 13)

ab + 2bc + ca 3abc (mod 13)

ab + bc + 2ca 5abc (mod 13)
Find the remainder when a + b + c is divided by 13.
(A) 2 (B) 4 (C) 6 (D) 8 (E) 10
25. Define f (b, x) to be the number of terminal zeros there are when x is written in base b; i.e. the number
of zeros x ends in when written in base b. For example, f (6, 360) = 2 as 360 = 14006 . Find the number
of 2 b 100 such that f (b, 100!) is odd.
(A) 43 (B) 44 (C) 45 (D) 48 (E) 54

2015 BCA Mock AMC 10 Solutions

ANSWER KEY:

Ans

Ans

Ans

Ans

Ans

11

16

21

12

17

22

13

18

23

14

19

24

10

15

20

25

1. B . Each of the 12 people want a drink, but only 6 of them want a piece of bread. Since Kelvin can
pour 6 drinks in 2.5 minutes, he can pour 12 drinks in 5 minutes, and since Kelvin can butter 3 pieces of
bread in 4 minutes, he butters 6 pieces of bread in 8 minutes. Thus, it takes Kelvin 5 + 8 = 13 minutes
to prepare the meal.
2. D There are two possible isosceles triangles with an angle of 20 . Either 20 is one of the two equivalent
angles leading to a 20 20 140 triangle, or 20 is the vertex angle, leading to a 20 80 80 triangle.
Of the two, only the first is an obtuse triangle, so the other angle is 140 degrees.
3. C .
Solution 1: Kelvin begins with 32 5 = 160 cents and Alex begins with 2 25 = 50 cents. Suppose
Kelvin gives n nickels to Alex. Then 160 5x = 50 + 5x = 110 = 10x = x = 11, and so Alex
has 11 + 2 = 13 coins.
Solution 2: Since Kelvin begins with 160 cents and Alex begins with 50 cents, the total value of all
the coins is 210 cents. Hence, after the exchange, both Kelvin and Alex will have 105 cents. This is
equivalent to 2 quarters and 11 nickels, so Alex has 13 coins.
4. C . If Kelvin eats at least 5 flies, some two of them will be the same type by the Pigeonhole principle. If
Kelvin only eats 4 flies, he might have eaten 1 fly of each time, resulting in no two flies being of the same
type. Therefore, the answer is at most 5 and at least 5, making the answer 5 .
5. E . Call the square ABCD and the center O. Without loss of generality, we can assume that AJ travels
from O to A and then from A to some other vertex. As AC > AB = AD, the longest possible path occurs

when AJ travels from O to A and then from A to C, which is a distance of 12 + 12 + 22 + 22 = 3 2 .

6. B . There are 4 possible ways that Alex could roll a 5 ({(1, 4), (2, 3), (3, 2), (4, 1)}) and 5 possible ways
that he could roll an 8 ({(2, 6), . . . , (6, 2)}), so there are 9 possible ways that Alex could roll a 5 or an 8.
9
1
There are 62 = 36 total possibilities, making the probability of Kelvin leaving
=
.
36
4
7. B . Suppose Despair = 15k for some k. Then Orwell = 7k and Huxley = 25k, hence 3 Huxleys is the
greatest amount of currency. Alternatively, we can find that Despair >Orwell from the first relation, and
that Huxley>Despair from the second. Hence Huxley>Despair >Orwell, so the maximum possible value
from 3 bills occurs when they are all Huxleys.
8. E .
Solution 1: The team could consist of one member who does only Algebra and one who does only
Geometry, which there are 8 5 = 40 ways to choose. The team could also consist of one member
who is willing to do either and any subject-specific member, which there are 2 (8 + 5) = 26 ways to
choose. Finally, the team could consist of the two members who are willing to do either subject. In
total, there are 40 + 26 + 1 = 67 possibilities.


Solution 2: Without restrictions, there are 15
must subtract
2 = 105 possible teams. Of those, we


off the teams containing two members who do only Algebra, of which there are 82 = 28, and the


teams containing two members who do only Geometry, of which there are 52 = 10. In total, there
are 105 28 10 = 67 possible teams.


9. C . There are 10
2 = 45 pairs of math team members, so there are 45 competitions in total. Of those,
each member skips exactly 9, so each member attends 45 9 = 36 competitions.
10. C . Either the first letter is an english letter, with probability 26
28 and the second is not, with probability
2
2
,
or
the
first
is
not
an
english
letter,
with
probability
and
the second is, with probability 26
27
28
27 . The
26 2
2 26
2 2 26
26
total probability is thus

=
=
.
28 27 28 27
27 28
189
11. A . Let an be the result after n iterations of the process. We have

an

an

22 + 9 2 + 2 2

89

82 + 92

145

12 + 4 2 + 5 2

42

42 + 22

20

22 + 02

42

16

12 + 62

37

32 + 72

58

52 + 82

89

At this point we can stop, as a9 = a1 . As a result, an = an+8 for all n 1. Since 2015 7 (mod 8), we
have a2015 = a7 = 37 .
12. C . Let DAE = EAF = F AB = and ADE = EDF = F DC = . Then 3+3 +90+120 =
360 = 3 + 3 = 150 by considering quadrilateral ABCD. We also have AED = 180 and
AF D = 180 2 2, hence AED + AF D = 360 3 3 = 360 150 = 210 .
13. C . We have n + 42 = a2 and n + 1337 = b4 for some integers a, b. Then b4 a2 = 1295 =
(b2 a)(b2 + a) = 1295 = 5 7 37. We can assume, without loss of generality, that a is positive, and hence
b2 a < b2 + a. This allows us to check only (b2 a, b2 + a) = (1, 1295), (5, 259), (7, 185), (35, 37). The
last pair is the only one which gives integer solutions, and this gives b = 6, a = 1 = n = 41. Hence
n2 = 1681, the sum of whose digits is 1 + 6 + 8 + 1 = 16 .
14. C .
Solution 1: Let the quadratic be P (x) = ax2 + bx + c. We have
P (1) = a + b + c = 1
P (2) = 4a + 2b + c = 8
P (3) = 9a + 3b + c = 27
Hence P (3)P (2) = 5a+b = 19 and P (2)P (1) = 3a+b = 7, hence (5a+b)(3a+b) = 2a = 12 =
a = 6. Thus b = 11 = c = 6, making P (x) = 6x2 11x + 6. Then P (4) = 96 44 + 6 = 58 .
Solution 2: We use the method of finite differences. Since P (x) is quadratic, this guarantees that the
second row will be constant. Therefore,
P (1)

P (2)

P (3)

P (4)

27

7
(Constant:)

19
12

?
12

and working our way back up the table gives us

P (1)

P (2)

P (3)

P (4)

27

58

7
(Constant:)

19
12

31
12

= CD = 18
15. A . Since BD = 3, the angle bisector theorem tells us that 53 = CD
6
5 = 3.6. Thus
1
BC = BD + CD = 3 + 3.6 = 6.6, and so BM = 2 6.6 = 3.3. Finally, DM = BM BD = 3.3 3 = 0.3 .
16. D . Consider a planar cross-section going through the vertex of the cone and a diameter of its base. Then
we can rephrase the problem in 2 dimensions as follows. Let ABC be an isosceles triangle with vertex A
and O1 be the center of its inscribed circle, then let O2 be the center of a circle tangent to AB, AC, and
O1 . Furthermore, the area of the triangle containing O2 is 91 the area of ABC. Let T1 be the tangency
AO2
2 T2
point of O1 with AB and T2 be the tangency point of O2 with AB. By similarity, O
O1 T1 = AO1 . Let
AM1
2
M1 be the midpoint of BC and M2 be the point where O1 and O2 are tangent; hence AO
AO1 = AM2 . But
AM1
1
=
by the area condition, completing the problem.
AM2
3
17. B . Suppose Kelvin is at point A and he wants to get to point B. We can label each point X in the grid
with the number of ways to get from X to B using only down and right moves (avoiding, of course, the
central four dots); our answer will then be the label of point A. Clearly there is only one way to reach B
from the rightmost or the bottom edge (successive down moves or successive right moves, respectively),
so our original grid looks like
A

Now, from each point, we can either go to the right or down. Hence we know that
# of ways to get from X to B = # of ways to get from point below X to B
+ # of ways to get from point to right of X to B
and so we can fill in our table, starting from points closer to B and working our way backwards:
52

26

16

11

26

10

16

11

18. E . By Vietas formulas, we have r + s = a, rs = b, (r + 1) + (s + 1) = b, (r + 1)(s + 1) = a. Since

(r + 1) + (s + 1) = r + s + 2 = a + 2 = b = a = b + 2 and (r + 1)(s + 1) = rs + r + s + 1 = b a + 1 =
a = b = 2a 1, we have a = 2a + 1 = a = 1 = b = 3 = ab = 3 .
19. A . We say that a b (mod m) if m | a b; in this case a b (mod 10) means that a, b have the same
last digit. Note that nk+4 nk (mod 10), or less technically last digits of successive powers repeat every
4 terms. For example, 342 32 (mod 10).
Solution 1:
2015
X
i=1

2015

2015
X
i=1

i =

2015
X
i=1

!2
i

2015 2016
2

2

02 0

(mod 10)

.
Solution 2: We have 12015 + 22015 + . . . + 20152015 13 + 23 + . . . + 20153 (mod 10). Also, since
13 113 213 . . . (mod 10), we know that this is also equivalent to 201(13 + 23 + . . . + 103 ) +
13 + 23 + 33 + 43 + 53 (mod 10). Straightforward calculation yields that 13 + 23 + 33 + 43 + 53 5
(mod 10) and 13 + 23 + . . . + 103 5 (mod 10), hence our answer is 5 + 5 0 (mod 10).
20. D . Suppose the last digit is k. Then the first digit can be anything between 1 and k 1, and the second
and third digits can be anything between 0 and k 1 inclusive. Hence, there are k 2 (k 1) possible 4-digit
numbers with last digit k. Since k ranges over 1 to 9, we wish to calculate
9
X

k 2 (k 1) =

k=1

9
X

k3

k=1

9
X

k2

k=1

9
X

!2

9 10 19
6

k=1

= 452 285
= 2025 285
= 1740
21. B . Label the middle row 0 and each other row with its distance to the middle row. Then, for each column,
1
the expected number of minutes to reach the center is 2015
(1007+1006+. . .+1+0+1+. . .+1006+1007),
1
10071008
10071008
or 2015 (2
) = 2015 . As there are 2015 columns which are independent of each other, the total
2
amount of expected minutes to align the squares in the central row is 1007 1008 = 1015056, the sum of
whose digits is 18.
22. D . Suppose Kelvin began with k armor and now has n. We wish to maximize n k. We have
n
k
1

=
n + 10 k + 10
10
10n 10k
1
=
(n + 10)(k + 10)
10
100n 100k = nk + 10n + 10k + 100
nk 90n + 110k + 100 = 0
(n + 110)(k 90) = 10000
(n + 110)(90 k) = 10000

It is easy to see that we wish to minimize 90k, which gives us k = 89 = n+110 = 10000 = n = 9890,
hence the maximum armor Kelvin could have bought is 9890 89 = 9801 .
23. D . Suppose Kelvin stands at point A and Alex stands at point B. Instead of having the laser bounce
off the mirrors, imagine instead it continuing on in a straight line path. Tile the plane with equilateral
triangles as follows:
B
A

A
C

C
B

B
A

Then a would-be path can be viewed as a line between point A and the image of any point other than A.
One of the closest ones is bolded above. Thus we seek only the length of AC 0 . Since AB 0 = 2, B 0 C 0 = 1,
and AB 0 C 0 = 120 , let X q
be the perpendicular from C 0 to AB 0 so that XB 0 C 0 = 60 = B 0 X =

3
3
1
0
0
+ (2 + 12 )2 = 7 .
2 , C X = 2 . Hence AC =
2

24. A . Because 13 is prime and a, b, c are positive, there exist a1 , b1 , c1 such that aa1 bb1 cc1
(mod 13) with 1 a0 , b0 , c0 < 13. Then
a1 b1 c1 (2ab + bc + ca) 1

(mod 13)

1 1 1

(ab + 2bc + ca) 3

(mod 13)

1 1 1

(ab + bc + 2ca) 5

(mod 13)

a
a

as a result,
2c1 + a1 + b1 1

(mod 13)

c1 + 2a1 + b1 3

(mod 13)

+a

+ 2b

(mod 13)

Adding these gives us 4(a1 + b1 + c1 ) 9 (mod 13), hence a1 + b1 + c1 1 (mod 13). Therefore
(a1 , b1 , c1 ) = (4, 6, 2) (mod 13), making (a, b, c) = (10, 11, 7). Then a + b + c = 28 2 (mod 13).
25. C . Let vp (n) be the largest k such that pk | n. For example, v2 (24) = 3 as 23 | 24 but 24 - 24. It is
k
. This
easy to see that f (b, 100!) = vb (100!). Suppose b = pe11 pe22 . . . pek ; then f (b, 100!) = min f (pie,100!)
i
100
100
allows us to focus only on primes. Furthermore, vp (100!) = b p c + b p2 c + . . ., so we can precalculate
v2 (100!) = 97, v3 (100!) = 48, v5 (100!) = 24, v7 (100!) = 16, and now there is 1 prime for which vp (100!) = 9,
1 for which vp (100!) = 7, 2 for which vp (100!) = 5, 2 for which vp (100!) = 3, and 10 for which vp (100!) = 1.
Let us first count the b with largest prime divisor at least 11. There are 10 1 + 2 3 + 2 5 + 1 7 + 1 9 = 42
of these numbers, as multiplying a given prime by anything from 1 to 9 will not affect f (p, 100!). We now
need to focus on numbers whose largest prime divisor is at most 10. If it is 7, then f (b, 100!) will be even
as v7 (100!) = 16, and if it is 5 we have the same problem as v5 (100!) = 24. Thus we focus on b = 2x 3y .
v2x (100!) is odd when x = 1, 5, and v3y (100!) is never odd, hence the only potential candidates are ones
where b = 2 3y and b = 25 3y , the former of which admits only y = 0 and the latter of which admits
y = 0, 1. Hence there are an additional 3 possibilites in this case, for a grand total of 42 + 3 = 45 .