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Westpac Informatics Competition (1 Viewer)

nerdsforever

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Hi, I'm going to be doing the Wetpac Informatics Competition and its my first time doing it. Has anybody done this competition before? If so, are the questions hard? What type of questions are they testing?

I'm planning to study for it through my math textbook but people have told me there is no way to study for math competitions. How can I prepare for this test?

thanks :p
 

Continuum

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Uhh... there's no way to study for them. Most of it is just based on logic and mathematical thinking.
 

lyounamu

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nerdsforever said:
Hi, I'm going to be doing the Wetpac Informatics Competition and its my first time doing it. Has anybody done this competition before? If so, are the questions hard? What type of questions are they testing?

I'm planning to study for it through my math textbook but people have told me there is no way to study for math competitions. How can I prepare for this test?

thanks :p
Are you referring to typical Westpac Mathematics Competition??? There isn't a way to study for them. Only way to 'study' them is to buy some past papers and have a look at the typical questions you can get.

It is not that difficult. However, last 5 questions are quite abstruse. I only got 2 right. If I got one more right I would have got prize money. :mad: (I got into top 0.6%. Prize money is like 0.3%)
 

foram

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lyounamu said:
Are you referring to typical Westpac Mathematics Competition??? There isn't a way to study for them. Only way to 'study' them is to buy some past papers and have a look at the typical questions you can get.

It is not that difficult. However, last 5 questions are quite abstruse. I only got 2 right. If I got one more right I would have got prize money. :mad: (I got into top 0.6%. Prize money is like 0.3%)
I forgot pythagoras in the middle of it, and failed a dead easy question.
 

nerdsforever

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There's a question I remembered from the test:

The sniffer dog at the airport stops next to a trolley with 60 suitcass. One suitcase contains poisonous peanits. The dog can tell which peanuts are hidden in any group of suitcases, but it gets tired after too much sniffing. What is the smallest number of groups of suitcases it needs to sniff in order to isolate the one with the peanuts:

A) 6
B) 12
C) 19
D) 30
E) 45

what do you think the answer is?
 

lyounamu

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nerdsforever said:
There's a question I remembered from the test:

The sniffer dog at the airport stops next to a trolley with 60 suitcass. One suitcase contains poisonous peanits. The dog can tell which peanuts are hidden in any group of suitcases, but it gets tired after too much sniffing. What is the smallest number of groups of suitcases it needs to sniff in order to isolate the one with the peanuts:

A) 6
B) 12
C) 19
D) 30
E) 45

what do you think the answer is?
A.
 
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lsam

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Think about it. You just have to pick the smallest number of groups that can dividide 60, which is 6.
 

Gauss

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the answer is A

We are looking for an output X, where in this case x is the smallest positive integer divisor of 60. from the ones listed this is six, yet note that the answer would be one if listed. 0 is a case we do not consider in these informatics questions.
 

Gauss

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if 59 were not prime and we factored this imaginary 59 non prime the smallest factor would be our answer.
 

Aquawhite

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Good question and was quite simple really. The dog can't sniff too much so you need the smallest number of groups. That was a very logical question.

I have participated in the test the previous 2 years. It is much higher than your maths ability should be so even getting a credit in this test is very good. They are very much revolved around problem solving and knowing a few equations. There is always a question where it wants you to add all the numbers in a sequence... Know the formula.... Which I must actually ask my teacher what it is again... lol.

I can't believe I forgot again.
 

nerdsforever

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lol yeah. the answer is really A. pretty simple actually, but I cant believe i skipped it. I have issues with time management in exams, comps and tests. I never get to finish the WEstpac Maths comps
 

lyounamu

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nerdsforever said:
lol yeah. the answer is really A. pretty simple actually, but I cant believe i skipped it. I have issues with time management in exams, comps and tests. I never get to finish the WEstpac Maths comps
I think I sorta remember that question. It was too easy that I wasn't sure if I got it right.
 

Aquawhite

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I hate the questions that are like that.... they are so simple and you can work it out in like a few seconds but then you think.... NO WAY! that's far too easy and you spend heaps of time on it tryint to think of another way to get the different answers... in the end you often get them wrong... It's so silly how we stuff up the easy ones.
 

nerdsforever

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Aquawhite said:
I hate the questions that are like that.... they are so simple and you can work it out in like a few seconds but then you think.... NO WAY! that's far too easy and you spend heaps of time on it tryint to think of another way to get the different answers... in the end you often get them wrong... It's so silly how we stuff up the easy ones.
lol true. Like a question was:

113 - 5

in my exam. And I thought it was so simple that I couldnt get it wrong, and I checked it heaps of times
 

Aquawhite

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nerdsforever said:
lol true. Like a question was:

113 - 5

in my exam. And I thought it was so simple that I couldnt get it wrong, and I checked it heaps of times
BAHAHA! Lol. :D That's a little easier than I was referring to! But yea along the lines of that. I am good at algebra (probably my strongest point in maths... besides trig [100% in all topic tests]) and sometimes there a few algebraic question that are really simply like:

2c + 3c(2b) = ?

Though this question is VERY easy I had to check it soo many times... :)
 

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