The questions of pre-RMO test (2014) in West Bengal are given below.

The test was based on MCQs. However, the questions are NOT given in
MCQ form here.
Time: 2 hours
1. Suppose five numbers are in arithmetic progression. If their sum is 30, find the
middle term.
2. Suppose r1 > r2 > r3 0 and q1 > 0, q2 > 0 are integers satisfying r0 = q1 r1 +r2
and r1 = q2 r2 + r3 . Decide if gcd(r0 , r1 ) = gcd(r1 , r2 ). If not, find which one is
larger.
3. Let f : R \ {0} R be defined by f (x) = (x2 x + 4)/x. Is f 1 1? Is it
onto?
4. Let f : R R be defined as f (x) = a0 x3 +a1 x2 +a2 x+a3 , where a0 , a1 , a2 , a3
R, and a1 6= 0. Suppose f (x) = 0 has exactly one real root and that root belongs
to (0, 1). Decide if irrespective of what f is the quantity f (0)f (2014) is always
zero or positive or negative.
5. Let x be real number satisfying |x2 2x + 5| = 20. Find the set of possible
value(s) of x3 + 2x + 1.
6. Let A = {x R : ||x 5/2| 3/2| = |x2 5x + 4|}. Find A.
7. For a > 0, assuming all the logarithms to be well-defined, we define S(a) =
{x R : loga (x2 x 2) > loga (3 + 2x x2 )}. Suppose a + 1 S(a). Find
S(a).
8. The number 23104791 is divisible by 63. Find the set of possible value(s) of
the missing digit.
9. Suppose AOB = 75o , AOC = 30o . Let P move along OC and FA , FB be the
feet of the perpendiculars P FA , P FB from P to OA and OB, respectively. Let
Q be the mid-point of FA FB . Find the set of all such Qs.
10. Suppose AOB = 90o . Let C1 and C2 be two moving circles of equal radii such
that they touch each other, C1 touch OA and C2 touch OB. Denote by P the
point where C1 and C2 touch each other. Find the set of all such P s.
11. Suppose A and B are two distinct fixed points and P is a moving point such
that [2 length(P A)] > length(P B). Find the set of all such P s.
1

12. Find the maximum value of 4x 3y 2z subject to 2x2 + 3y 2 + 4z 2 = 1.

13. Find the maximum value of
a1 + + a20 = 1.

P20

i=1

i2 (21 i)ai subject to a1 , . . . , a20 0 and

14. If the cubic equation x3 + ax + b = 0 has two identical roots, show that 4a3 +
27b2 = 0.
15. Let A be the set of all real numbers a such that x2 + (2a 1)x a 3 = 0 has
two distinct real roots x1 , x2 and x31 + x32 = 72. Find A.
16. Let P (x) be a polynomial of degree 5. Suppose P (k) = k/(k+1) for k = 0, . . . , 5.
Find P (8).
17. Consider all the 5-digit numbers containing each of the digits 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 exactly
once, and not divisible by 6. Find the sum of all these numbers.
18. Find the sum of reciprocals of all positive divisors of 360.
19. Ten identical balls are put into four boxes. Find the number of ways this can
be done so that no box is empty.
20. In how many ways can you distribute 100 identical chocolates among 10 children
so that the number of chocolates everyone gets is a multiple of 3, allowing some
chocolates to be undistributed? [In solving this problem, you should take 0 to
be a multiple of 3.]