INTERNATIONAL SINGAPORE MATHS COMPETITION

INTERNATIONAL
SINGAPORE MATHS
COMPETITION
2019
(Primary 6)
1 hour 30 minutes

Instructions to participants

1. Do not open the booklet until you are told to do so.

2. Attempt ALL 25 questions.

3. Write your answers neatly in the Answer Sheet provided.

4. Marks are awarded for correct answers only.

5. All figures are not drawn to scale.

6. Scientific calculators may be used.

Questions in Section A carry 2 marks each, questions in Section B carry

4 marks each and questions in Section C carry between 6 to 10 marks
each.

Jointly organised by

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INTERNATIONAL SINGAPORE MATHS COMPETITION

Section A:
Each of the questions 1 to 10 carries 2 marks.

1. When asked how old he is, Mr Raju said, “I will be N years old in the year N2.”
How old is Mr Raju in 2019?
N = 45 and N2 = 2025
45 years old in 2025 means he was born in 1980. That makes him 39 years old in 2019.

2. If the difference of 0.25 and 0.025 of the amount of water in a tank 2.25 litres, what is the
volume of all the water in the tank?
250 – 25 units = 2.25 litres
225 units = 2.25 litres
1000 units = 10 litres

3. 40% of Tommy’s weight is equal to 24% of his father’s weight. If his father’s weight is 18 kg
more than Tommy, how much does Tommy weigh?
Tommy → 3 units
Father → 5 units
5 – 3 = 2 units → 18 kg
3 units → 18 ÷ 2  3 = 27 kg

4. Jason has a set of 3 equilateral triangles of different sizes.

The lengths of the edges of each of these triangles are in
the ratio 1 : 2 : 6. The three triangles are placed one on top
of another as shown in the figure. What is the ratio of the
area of the shaded part to the area of non-shaded parts?
Similar triangles area ratio → 1 : 4 : 36
Shaded : Non Shaded → (4 – 1) : (36 – 4 + 1)
= 3 : 33
= 1 : 11

5. A piece of string is cut into two unequal pieces, each of which is used for the perimeter of a
square. The sum of the areas of the two squares is 202 cm2. What is the length of the string
at first?
202 = 121 + 81
Combined perimeter = 11  4 + 9  4 = 80 cm

6. A, B and C are three cities on a map. A is north of B and ABC is 45°.

D is east of B and south of C.
a) In what direction is C from B? (1 mark)
b) For C to be as close to A as B is to A, what is the direction of C from A? (1 mark)
a) North-East
b) East

7. I think of seven whole numbers – four are consecutive odd numbers and three are
consecutive even numbers. The average of the three even numbers is 2 less than the
average of the odd numbers. If all the seven numbers are greater than 0, what is the smallest
possible value of the largest odd number?
The odd numbers are: x-2, x, x+2, x+4
Average of the odd numbers is: (x-2 + x + x+2 + x+4) ÷ 4 = x + 1
Average of the even numbers is: x+1 – 2 = x – 1
The even numbers are: x–3, x–1, x+1
Since all numbers are > 0, x > 3 and x must be an odd number.
Smallest possible value of the largest odd number: 5+4 = 9

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INTERNATIONAL SINGAPORE MATHS COMPETITION

8. A 2-kg durian in a shop was sold at $17 per kg. All the seeds of that durian make up 25% of
the durian by weight. How much did I pay for the seeds alone?
2 x 17 x 25% = $8.50

9. Study the pattern below. How many circles are there in the 16th figure?

Figure 1
Figure 2
Figure 3

Circles needed for nth figure = 4 + 8 (n – 1). So for the 16th figure, it is 4 + 8  15 = 124 circles

10. Sandy arranged 9 similar nails to form the following shape.

Draw to show how he can use 15 similar nails to form a second shape that is triple the area
of the first shape. Draw it in your Answer Sheet.
Triple area with similar stand-alone shape requires: 3 x 9 = 27 nails
Condition of 15 requires sharing of 27 – 15 = 12 nails.
The longest side of the figure is 3 nails. 12 nails = sharing/removing 4 sides.
Possible configurations:

Section B
Each of the questions 11 to 20 carries 4 marks.

11. Chaisee is baking some cookies to bring to the children at a Child Care Centre. However, she
cannot remember whether the centre has 44 or 48 children. How many cookies should she
bake at least so that she will be able to give each of the children an equal number of cookies
no matter if the centre has 44 or 48 children?
44 = 2  2  11
48 = 2  2  2  2  3
LCM: 2  2  2  2  3  11 = 528 cookies

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INTERNATIONAL SINGAPORE MATHS COMPETITION

12. Divide the rectangle into quarters by drawing two straight lines; one of the lines must pass
through point A.

13. I have 3 piles of cards. Each pile has 4 cards and each card has a different letter on it.
Taking a card from each pile, I can form 3-lettered words. These are some of the words I can
form:

BEG EGO GAP GOD LID PIN TAN WEB

What are the letters in each pile of cards? (all answers must be correct)
The letters are grouped: WGNL EDTP BOAI

14. A bottle has 3 types of nuts – peanuts, cashew nuts and almonds. 45% are peanuts. The
cashew nuts and almonds are in the ratio of 2 : 3. There are 69 more peanuts than cashew
nuts. How many nuts are there in the bottle?
Percentage of Cashew and Almond: 1 – 45% = 55%
5 units = 55%
2 units = 22%
45% – 22% = 23% = 69 nuts
100%: 300 nuts

15. When Don was twice as old as Kim, Lin was 20 years old. When the ratio of Lin’s age to
Don’s age was 5 : 3, Kim was 10 years old. If Lin is the oldest among them, find Kim’s age
when Lin is 55 years old.
20
Lin is 15 years older than Kim.
When Lin is 55 years old, Kim is 40 years old. Lin 5 5 5 5 5
Don 5 5 5
Kim 5 5

10

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INTERNATIONAL SINGAPORE MATHS COMPETITION

16. Two brothers want to own the same Gundam figurine. If both save regularly, it will take the
2
younger brother 90 days to afford the figurine and the older brother 3 of that time. How long
must they save if they combined their savings so as to co-own the figurine?
1
Younger saving rate: of the cost
90
1 1
Older saving rate: 2 = of the cost
90∗ 60
3
1 1 5 1
Combined rate: + = = cost
90 60 180 36

Combined savings: 36 days

X
A B
17. ABCD is a rectangle. X and Y are points on AB and
CD respectively such that XY is perpendicular to BD.
If AX = CY = AD, find DXY.
Since XY and BD intersect at 90°, then DXBY must
be a rhombus. Then DXY = BXY.
D C
Also AXD = 45°, so DXY = (180 – 45) ÷ 2 = 67.5° Y

18. If 70% of a class of pupils wear spectacles, 75% of them like Mathematics, 80% of them
prefer indoor games, and 90% of them said that their favourite hero is Spiderman, at least
what percentage of the class of pupils wear spectacles, like Mathematics, prefer indoor
games and whose favourite hero is Spiderman?

Ans: 15%
wear spectacles

like Math

perfer indoor games

hero is Spiderman

19. The sum of the page numbers on two pages of a book that is facing each other is 4x – 1.
Express the smaller page number in terms of x.
Let the smaller page number be 1 unit. The other page number = 1 unit + 1
2 units + 1 = 4x – 1
The smaller page number = [(4x – 1) – 1] ÷ 2
= 2x – 1

20. Amy has 220 unit-cubes. 150 of them are blue cubes while the remaining are red cubes.
She wants to build a 216 unit3 cube that has only a single colour on its outer faces. What is the
fewest number of unit-cubes, and of what colour, does Amy need in addition to what she has?
Inner core of 216 cm3: (6 – 2)3 = 64
Outer blue cubes needed: 216 – 64 = 152 (<150, need 2 more blue)
(both answers must be correct)

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Section C
Questions 21, 22, 23, 24 and 25 carry 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10 marks respectively.

21. In a conservatory are 3000 butterflies of three types - the White Tiger Butterfly, the Peacock
Butterfly and the Blue Moon Butterfly, in the ratio 7 : 8 : 5. After a few months, the number of
butterflies increased by 255. The White Tiger Butterfly has increased by 12%, the Peacock
Butterfly has increased by 7%. By what percentage has the number of Blue Moon Butterfly
increased?
7+8+5 = 20 units: 3000 butterflies
1 unit: 150 butterflies
5 units: 750 Blue Moons
Increase of the other 2 species: (12% x 7 + 7% x 8) x 150 = 210 butterflies
Increase of Blue Moons: 255 – 210 = 45
Percentage increase: 45 ÷ 750 = 6%

22. Daisy has a total of 720 Singapore and Indonesian stamps. She did a one-for-one exchange
of 60 Singapore stamps and a fraction of her Indonesian stamps for Korean stamps. She
then has an equal number of Singapore, Indonesian and Korean stamps. What fraction of
Indonesian stamps did she exchange for Korean stamps?
Total number of stamps stay the same since it’s a 1 for 1 exchange.
Stamps per type after: 720 ÷ 3 = 240 stamps
Singapore stamps before: 240 + 60 = 300 stamps
Korean stamps exchanged from Indonesian stamps: 240 – 60 = 180 stamps
Indonesian stamps before: 720 – 300 = 420 stamps
3
Fraction: 180 ÷ 420 =
7

23. Five bags of different colours (Red, Green, Blue, Yellow and White) each contains a ball (also
Red, Green, Blue, Yellow and White).
The following are the predictions that 5 students made:
Student 1: The Yellow bag contains a White ball. The Blue bag contains a Yellow ball.
Student 2: The Yellow bag contains a Blue ball. The Green bag contains a Red ball.
Student 3: The White bag contains a Red ball. The Red bag contains a Green ball.
Student 4: The Blue bag contains a Yellow ball. The Green bag contains a Green ball.
Student 5: The Yellow bag contains a Yellow ball. The Red bag contains a White ball.
After inspecting the bags, it was found out that each student had made at least
1 correct prediction. Which of the bags contains a ball of the same colour?

Student Statements
1 A B
2 C D
3 E F
4 G H
5 I J

If Statement A is true, then Statement I is false and Statement J must be true.

However, the yellow bag and the red bag cannot both contain the white ball.
Therefore, Statement A must be false.

If Statement A is false, → Statement B must be true. (Blue bag contains yellow ball)
→ Statement G must be true as well.
→ Statement I must be false and Statement J must be true.
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INTERNATIONAL SINGAPORE MATHS COMPETITION

(Red bag contains a white ball)

If Statement J is true, → Statement F must be false and Statement E must be true.
(White bag contains a red ball)
If Statement E is true, → Statement D is false, and Statement C must be true.
(Yellow bag contains a blue ball)
The remaining green bag must contain a green ball.

24. I have four sealed envelopes. One of them contained a cube number and the remaining three
contained numbers which were factors of the cube number. The product of these three factors
is equal to the cube number. If two of the factors are 14 and 4, what is the smallest possible
cube number?
14 = 2 x 7
4=2x2
14 x 4 = 23 x 71
A cube number consists of factors with powers of multiples of 3.
Third factor = 7 x 7 = 49
Cube number = 4 x 14 x 49 = 2744

Multiplication A:
25a. How many different products can you get by filling the blanks
in Multiplication A with the digits 1, 2, 3 and 4? (2 marks)
4 x 3 x 2 x 1 = 24
×
b. What is the greatest product of Multiplication A? (2 marks) Greatest product
321 x 4 = 1284

Multiplication B:

c. How many different products can you get by filling the blanks
in Multiplication B with the digits 1, 2, 3 and 4? (2 marks) ×
4 x 3 x 2 x 1 = 24
Greatest product

d. What is the greatest product of Multiplication B? (2 marks)

41 x 32 = 1312
Multiplication C:

e. What is the greatest product you get by filling the blanks ×

in Multiplication C with the digits 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5? (2 marks)
431 x 52 = 22412 Greatest product

End of Paper