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1.The chart shows how many pets four children own. How many more pets does Mia own than Leo?[3]
Text description of the figure
A bar chart with four bars labelled Ana, Leo, Mia and Sam. The vertical axis is marked in steps of 2 from 0 to 10. The bars reach 4, 2, 8 and 6 respectively.
A2
B3
C6
D8
E10
2.What is 1 + 2 + 3 + ... + 20?[3]
A190
B200
C210
D220
E420
3.Ana has three times as many stickers as Bo. Together they have 48. How many does Bo have?[3]
Text description of the figure
A bar model. Bo's bar is one box. Ana's bar is three boxes of the same size, drawn beneath it. A bracket spanning all four boxes is labelled 48.
A12
B16
C24
D32
E36
4.Two towns are 300 km apart. A car leaves each town at the same moment driving toward the other, one at 60 km/h and the other at 90 km/h. How long until they meet?[3]
A2 hours
B3 hours 20 minutes
C4 hours
D5 hours
E1 hour
5.A pack of 24 pencils is shared equally among 4 children. Each child then gives 2 pencils to a teacher. How many pencils do the children have left altogether?[4]
A4
B6
C16
D18
E22
6.A cube 3 units on each side is built from unit cubes and painted all over the outside. How many of the small cubes have no paint on them at all?[4]
A0
B1
C6
D8
E27
7.A diagonal joins two corners of a shape that are not next to each other. How many diagonals does a hexagon have?[4]
A6
B9
C12
D15
E18
8.A bag holds 5 black and 6 white stones. You repeatedly remove two stones: if they match you put a black one in, if they differ you put a white one in. What colour is the last stone?[5]
Ablack
Bwhite
Cit depends on the order of the moves
Dthe bag never gets down to one stone
Ewhite if the first two stones match
9.On a 4 by 4 board, how many aligned squares of any size are there, counting 1 by 1, 2 by 2, 3 by 3 and 4 by 4?[5]
A16
B20
C26
D30
E36
10.A drawer holds 12 red socks, 10 blue socks and 8 green socks, all mixed up. You take socks out one at a time in the dark. What is the smallest number of socks you must take to be certain of having three of the same colour?[5]
A4
B7
C9
D13
E3
Kangaroo Atlas · https://kangaroo-atlas.vercel.app · seed 2 · CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · Independent project, not affiliated with Math Kangaroo in USA, NFP.
Answer key — Math Kangaroo practice
Each wrong choice carries the thinking that produces it. When a student picks C, this is what they were doing.
1.C — 6KA-0015Reading tables, charts, and graphs
AI read the vertical scale as going up in ones instead of in twos.
BI counted the gridlines between the two bar tops instead of reading the values off the scale.
DI gave Mia's total instead of the difference between Mia and Leo.
EI added the two amounts together rather than subtracting to find how many more.
2.C — 210KA-0057Clever regrouping (pair to round numbers)
AI paired the numbers from the outside in but left the 20 out of every pair, so I added only up to 19.
BI estimated the total as a round number instead of working it out.
DI used eleven pairs of 20 instead of ten pairs of 21.
EI multiplied 20 by 21 and forgot that pairing counts every number twice.
3.A — 12KA-0110Bar models for part–whole
BI split the 48 into three parts instead of the four the bars actually make.
CI halved the total, as if the two of them had the same number each.
DI found Bo's share correctly but then gave Ana's number instead.
EI gave Ana's total, which is three of the four boxes, rather than Bo's one.
4.A — 2 hoursKA-0162Rate, time, distance
BI used only the slower car's speed and divided 300 by 90 the wrong way round.
CI averaged the two speeds to 75 km/h and divided 300 by it, which ignores that both cars move at once.
DI divided 300 by 60, using only the slower car.
EI halved the distance to 150 and then divided by 150, applying the closing speed twice.
5.C — 16KA-0019Multi-step arithmetic word problems
AI found what one child has left and gave that instead of the total for all four.
BI divided 24 by 4 and then subtracted 2 twice, mixing up per-child steps with total steps.
DI subtracted 2 pencils once from the whole pack instead of once from each of the four children.
EI subtracted the 2 before sharing, so only one lot of 2 ever came out of the total.
6.B — 1KA-0089Building and counting with unit cubes
AI assumed every small cube touches the outside somewhere.
CI counted the cubes at the centre of each face, which are painted on one side.
DI counted the corner cubes, which are the most painted rather than the least.
EI gave the total number of small cubes instead of the unpainted ones.
7.B — 9KA-0150Try small cases first
AI counted one diagonal from each corner and stopped there.
CI counted three diagonals from each corner but forgot that each one gets counted from both ends.
DI counted every line joining two corners, including the six sides.
EI multiplied six corners by three diagonals each and never halved.
8.A — blackKA-0043Invariants and monovariants
BI noticed there are more white stones than black ones and guessed the majority colour would survive.
CI tried a few orders, saw different-looking positions along the way, and assumed the ending must vary too.
DI did not notice that every move takes two stones out and puts one back, so the count falls by exactly one each time.
EI assumed the first move settles the outcome instead of looking for a quantity that no move can change.
9.D — 30KA-0047Counting by position (sliding window)
AI counted only the sixteen smallest squares and stopped there.
BI counted the small squares and the single big one, and forgot every size in between.
CI counted the 2 by 2 squares as four rather than nine, splitting the board into blocks.
EI used 4 by 4 positions for every size instead of shrinking the range as the square grows.
10.B — 7KA-0157The pigeonhole principle
AI thought that one more than the number of colours must give three of a kind, which only guarantees a PAIR.
CI got to two of each colour, then added one more for each colour instead of one more in total.
DI assumed the worst case meant emptying the largest pile of 12 reds first.
EI answered with the number of socks I want rather than the number I must take to be sure of them.