MT

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MT

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United Kingdom Mathematics Trust
School of Mathematics, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT
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United Kingdom fax 0113 343 5500 web www.ukmt.org.uk
Mathematics Trust

Mathematical Olympiad for Girls 2022

Teachers are encouraged to distribute copies of this report to candidates.

Markers’ report
Mathematical Olympiad for Girls 2022 Markers’ report

Introduction
For many students, and possibly some teachers, this is the first experience of attempting a
Maths Olympiad paper. It may therefore be useful to understand how these papers are marked,
as students may be disappointed to receive a small number of marks for a problem they thought
they had almost solved.
Most questions in Olympiad papers are marked using what the call the ‘0+/10−’ principle.
This means that the markers first read the whole write-up and decide whether the student has a
viable strategy to solve the problem. It may be that there are some mistakes or small gaps in
their reasoning, but if those could be relatively easily filled in then this response is marked
in the ‘10−’ regime, with usually up to three marks being taken away for gaps and mistakes.
Common examples of small gaps are algebraic or arithmetical errors (provided they don’t
change the nature of the argument), missing one of several cases in a counting question, or lack
of geometrical reasons when calculating angles.
If, on the other hand, the student has only started to explore the problem and has only made
some useful observations, but does not have a strategy to generalise or prove them, then the
script is marked in the ‘0+’ regime. Up to three marks may be available for spotting a pattern or
trying an idea which, if progressed further, could lead to a solution. The example of the former
in the present paper would be, in Question 5c, noticing that in order to make 2𝑎 + 2𝑏 a multiple
of 3, one of 𝑎 and 𝑏 must be even and the other one odd. An example of the latter would be,
in Question 1, labelling the required angle and expressing some other angles in terms of it.
Notice that all those examples involve a substantial engagement with the problem, rather than
just trying one or two examples. Teachers should therefore reiterate to students that scoring
even one or two marks on any of these questions is a real achievement.
It is unfortunately often the case that students think that they have solved a problem but only
receive two or three marks. The most common reason for this is that their solution relies on
a series of unjustified claims. The prime example in this paper was Question 1, where many
candidates (correctly but without justification) claimed that the line 𝐶𝐸 bisects the angle 𝐵𝐶𝐷.
If those claims were purely made on the basis of observation or as a guess, then this does not
constitute a proof and can only receive marks in the ‘0+’ regime. Students in this situation are
strongly advised to read these comments and the official solution, to understand how they can
add sufficient detail to their proofs.
The Girls’ Olympiad paper is slightly different from other Maths Olympiads in that questions
are broken down into several parts. Most of the time, the final part is the “main question” and
the first part (or parts) are intended to suggest some useful results or good approaches to the
problem. The reason for structuring the paper in this way is that the setters know that many of
the candidates are not experienced in olympiad mathematics, and the hope is that by giving
these pointers, we enable them to engage with a question even if they are not familiar with
some standard olympiad technique or “trick”. A useful hint is to read the whole question first
and try to understand how the early parts may be helpful in solving the main problem.

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Mathematical Olympiad for Girls 2022 Markers’ report

General comments
With two of the questions this year being answer-only, candidates had more time to focus
on the remaining three questions, and this was evident in the improved quality of written
communication in Questions 1, 4 and 5. This year also saw an over 40% increase in the number
of entries.
Overall, the markers were impressed by the level of engagement with the paper. It was
particularly pleasing to see so many candidates using hints from early parts of questions to
solve some challenging problems.
The highest scoring question was Question 1, despite being geometry, which is traditionally
the least favourite olympiad topic. There were many well presented solutions with each step
clearly justified. Students should be encouraged by this, and attempt geometry questions in
future olympiads.
There were of course instances of solutions relying on unjustified assumptions, the most
common being that the line 𝐶𝐸 bisects the right angle in Question 1 (which turns out to be
true, but needs proving) and, in Question 5, that the fact that factorials grow faster than powers
of 2 somehow means that the given equation can have no solutions. The latter is not a sufficient
argument in itself – it should be clear that, for any given factorial, there is a power of 2 greater
than it. Students should be encouraged to think critically about statements that they make, and
test them using examples, to at least assess whether the statement could plausibly be true. For
example, they could be asked to find two powers of 2 whose sum is smaller than 10!, and two
whose sum is larger; or to find a power of 2 which is definitely greater than 100!.

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Mathematical Olympiad for Girls 2022 Markers’ report

Mark distribution
The MOG 2022 paper was marked by a team of Aleksander Goodier, Amit Goyal, Amit Shah,
Andrea Chlebikova, Andrew Ng, Anne Andrews, Ben Handley, Cathy Beckett, Chris Garton,
David Vaccaro, Dominic Rowland, Dominic Yeo, Ersel Awan, Eve Pound, Geoff Smith, James
Cranch, Jeremy King, John Cullen, Joseph Myers, Kit Kilgour, Laura Daniels, Martin Orr,
Melissa Quail, Michael Illing, Naomi Bowler, Oliver Murray, Phill Beckett, Przemysław Mazur,
Richard Freeland, Robin Bhattacharyya, Sam Bealing, Stephen Tate, Thomas Lowe, Thomas
Read, Vesna Kadelburg, Wendy Dersley and Wendy Rathbone.
We received non-empty scripts from 3086 candidates.

100

80
Frequency

60

40

20

0
0 10 20 30 40 50
Olympiad mark

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Mathematical Olympiad for Girls 2022 Markers’ report

Question 1
The points 𝐴, 𝐵 and 𝐶 lie, in that order, on a straight line. Line 𝐶𝐷 is perpendicular to 𝐴𝐶,
and 𝐶𝐷 = 𝐴𝐵. The point 𝐸 lies on the line 𝐴𝐷, between 𝐴 and 𝐷, so that 𝐸 𝐵 = 𝐸𝐶 = 𝐴𝐵.
(a) Draw a diagram to show this information. Your diagram need not be accurate or to
scale, but you should clearly indicate which lengths are equal. (2 marks)
(b) Calculate the size of the angle 𝐵𝐴𝐸. (8 marks)

Solution
(See the official solutions document)

Markers’ comments
This question did not require any knowledge beyond basic facts about angles sums in triangles
and straight lines. The difficulty lay in coming up with a strategy, when none of the angles in
the diagram were given.
Over half the candidates solved the problem, but more than a third of them lost some marks
for lack of geometrical justification (i.e. stating which triangle or straight line are being used).
Then mean mark was 6.4 and the median was 8.
The most successful approach was to set 𝑥 = ∠𝐵𝐴𝐸 then express other angles in terms of the
single variable 𝑥. Filling these angles into the diagram as they calculated them was a great help
to the candidate as well as the markers.
Using multiple variables 𝑥, 𝑦, 𝑧, etc led to systems of equations which were often solved
incorrectly if at all. Using angle names to form equations such as ∠ 𝐴𝐸 𝐵+∠𝐵𝐸𝐶 +∠𝐶𝐸 𝐷 = 180
was even less successful, due to confusion between ∠ 𝐴𝐸 𝐵 and ∠ 𝐴𝐵𝐸 for example.
Many candidates made false assumptions such as:
• 𝐴𝐵𝐸, 𝐵𝐸𝐶 and 𝐸𝐶𝐷 are congruent triangles because they have two common sides (the
angles and third side are different in each case).
• 𝐵𝐶𝐸 is equilateral (the question says nothing about distance 𝐵𝐶, and it cannot be equal to
the others). 𝐵𝐸 is parallel to 𝐶𝐷 and perpendicular to 𝐴𝐵 (it cannot be for the isosceles
angles to work).
Other candidates made true assumptions such as:
• ∠𝐵𝐸𝐶 = 90◦
• 𝐸𝐶 bisects angle 𝐴𝐶𝐷
Although these statements happen to be correct, they are not given in the question and, in
fact, proving them essentially requires solving the question. Thus solutions based on those
assumptions were not rewarded.
Approaches using Pythagoras or Trigonometry end up requiring the use of more advanced
trigonometry, such as double angle formulae, so were not useful to most candidates.

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Mathematical Olympiad for Girls 2022 Markers’ report

Question 2
This question requires answers only.
In this question, two figures are considered to be different-looking if one cannot be rotated
to produce the other. For example, in the diagram below, the first two figures are not
different-looking, but the third one is different-looking from the first two.

(a) I have lots of congruent square tiles. Half of them are painted white and the other half
are painted black. I fit four of these tiles together to make a larger square.
(i) Draw the two different-looking squares I can make using two white and two black
tiles. (You can either colour your squares, or use the letters W and B to indicate
colours.)
(ii) How many different-looking squares can I make in total?
(3 marks)
(b) I have lots of congruent tiles, each in the shape of an equilateral triangle. Half of them
are painted white and the other half are painted black. I fit six of these tiles together to
make a regular hexagon.
(i) How many different-looking hexagons can I make using three white and three black
tiles?
(ii) How many different-looking hexagons can I make in total?
(7 marks)

Solution
(See the official solutions document.)

Markers’ comments
Almost all candidates attempted this question, and just under a third solved it fully. The mean
mark was 5.9 and the median was 6.
Being an answer-only question, it is difficult to know what mistakes candidates made, but some
of the most common incorrect answers give us a few clues.
• The answer to (a)(ii) was often given as 2, suggesting that candidates didn’t realise there
are shadings other than those with two squares of each colour.
• The answers to part (b) were often 3 and 13, or 2 and 12, rather than 4 and 14, suggesting
that those candidates counted the colourings with three of each colour incorrectly, but
then had a correct count for the rest of the cases. Such answers received partial marks.

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Mathematical Olympiad for Girls 2022 Markers’ report

Question 3
This question requires answers only.
√3 √3
Define
√3 𝑓 (𝑥) to be the integer
√3 part of 𝑥; for example 3.375 = 1.5 so 𝑓 (3.375) = 1,
9 ≈ 2.08 so 𝑓 (9) = 2, and 27 = 3 so 𝑓 (27) = 3.
(a) Write down the first six positive cube numbers. Hence write down the value of 𝑓 (122).
(1 mark)
(b) If 𝑥 is a positive integer with 𝑓 (𝑥) = 3, find the possible values of 𝑓 (2𝑥). (3 marks)
(c) Find all positive integer values of 𝑥 such that 𝑓 (𝑥) + 𝑓 (2𝑥) + 𝑓 (3𝑥) = 10. (6 marks)

Solution
(See the official solutions document.)

Markers’ comments
This question had a very slightly lower mean mark than Question 2 (5.7 vs 5.9), but more fully
correct answers, with just over a third of candidates scoring full marks. The median was 7
marks, a whole mark higher than Question 2.
Again, it is difficult to tell what thought process led to incorrect answers, but some common
mistakes were:
• Dealing incorrectly with the end of the interval in part (c), most commonly including 32
and sometimes excluding 27. In some cases this may have been the mistake with notation,
i.e. writing ≤ 32 when < 32 was intended.
• Including numbers up to 41. This includes all the values for which 𝑓 (3𝑥) = 4, but
between 32 and 41 we have 𝑓 (2𝑥) = 4 as well, so the three function values sum to 11
rather than 10.
• In part (b), some candidates gave the answer as “between 54 and 126”, which are the
correct values of 2𝑥, rather than 𝑓 (2𝑥).
All of those answers received partial marks. One the other hand, candidates who carelessly
wrote down five or seven cube numbers, or included 0 as a positive cube number, did not
receive a mark for part (a).

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Mathematical Olympiad for Girls 2022 Markers’ report

Question 4
This question requires full written explanations.
Freya and Hilary play a game. Freya first chooses a positive integer 𝑎, with 1 ≤ 𝑎 ≤ 2022.
Then Hilary chooses a positive integer 𝑏 in response, with 1 ≤ 𝑏 ≤ 2022, where 𝑏 may
equal 𝑎.
Next they consider the sequence with 𝑛th term given by 𝑎𝑛 + 𝑏 (for 𝑛 = 1, 2, 3...). If at least
one term in the sequence is a multiple of ten then Freya wins the game and if not Hilary
wins the game.
(a) Explain why, if Freya chooses 𝑎 = 2017, Hilary cannot win the game. (1 mark)
(b) If Freya chooses 𝑎 = 2015, for how many values of 𝑏 will Hilary win the game?
(2 marks)
(c) For how many values of 𝑎 is it guaranteed that Freya will win the game, no matter
Hilary’s choice of 𝑏? (7 marks)
You should make it clear which values of 𝑎 are included in your count, why Freya
always wins for those values of 𝑎, and how Hilary can win for all other values of 𝑎.

Solution
(See the official solutions document.)

Markers’ comments
A lot of candidates engaged really well with this question, with around a sixth scoring full
marks and another sixth scoring 8 or 9. The mean and median mark were both 5. On the other
hand, over a quarter scored no marks. Of the rest, most realised what was going on (that they
needed to look at the multiples of the last digit of Freya’s number), but were not able to explain
this clearly.
There were some clear and succinct write-ups, including several excellent uses of more advanced
modular arithmetic results. What was most pleasing, however, was to see so many candidates
using basic arithmetic and simple language of last digits to produce detailed and careful
explanations.
Many candidates who probably thought they had solved the problem received between 6 and 8
marks. Some of these were due to small oversights, such as miscounting the numbers (in both
parts (b) and (c)), or forgetting to count them at all, or confusing the two players (this was not
heavily penalised).
The most costly mistake, however, was forgetting that there were two statements to be proved:
(1) When 𝑎 ends in 1, 3, 7 or 9, Freya wins for all values of 𝑏.
(2) When 𝑎 ends in 0, 2, 4, 5, 6 or 8, there are values of 𝑏 which allow Hilary to win.
Out of the candidates who only proved one of these statements, a majority proved only (1),
although there was a considerable number of those who proved only (2). It is really important to
realise that these two statements are not equivalent, and thus both need to be explicitly proved.

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Mathematical Olympiad for Girls 2022 Markers’ report

In fact, many candidates weren’t at all clear which of the two statements they were proving. It
was common to see explanations such as: “For Freya to guarantee a win, the last digit of 𝑎
must be 1, 3, 7 or 9. This is because the multiples of those numbers can end in any digit.” The
first sentence says the same thing as Statement (2) (if 𝑎 does not end in those digits, then Freya
can lose), but the second sentence is a proof of Statement (1).
Similarly, it is not sufficient to say “Freya can win when 𝑎 ends in 1, 3, 7, 9 because their
multiples can end in any digit, so one of them will add with the last digit of 𝑏 to make 10.
Multiples of 0, 2, 4, 5, 6, 8 don’t end in all digits, so Freya is not guaranteed to win.” This
implicitly assumes that the only way Freya can win is if multiples of 𝑎 end in all digits (Statement
(2)), but the explanation in the first sentence does not prove that; it only proves that this is one
of the ways Freya can win (Statement (1)). It is actually quite challenging to write down a
simple argument which proves both statements (1) and (2) at the same time. The easiest way to
prove Statement (2) is to simply give one example, such as 𝑏 = 1, for which Hilary can win in
those cases.
Scripts which only proved one of the two statements were likely to score 7 or 8 marks, so
candidates were still rewarded for understanding the essence of the problem. However, there
will be olympiad questions where such an omission would be more costly. Logical precision is
the cornerstone of mathematics and we would strongly encourage students to think about these
issues carefully.
We observed some misconceptions to do with digits and multiples, that may be of interest
to teachers. One was to confuse the numbers ending in, for example, 3 with multiples of 3.
Another similar one is to think that all numbers ending in a prime digit are prime. (And it
would be interesting to ask students whether the converse of this is true!)
There was some confusion over whether 0 counts as a digit, as suggested by the commonly
seen statement that “multiples of 7 can end in all digits from 1 to 9”, and a clear avoidance of
the case of 𝑏 ending in 0.
These may appear to be small details in the context of school mathematics, but in more advanced
work, and not just in mathematics, such “edge cases” become increasingly important and
thinking about them would be of great benefit to students.

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Mathematical Olympiad for Girls 2022 Markers’ report

Question 5
This question requires full written explanations.
(a) Given that 𝑚 is a positive integer,
(i) What are the possibilities for the last digit of 2𝑚 ?
(ii) What are the possible remainders when 2𝑚 is divided by 3?
(2 marks)
(b) Find all positive integer values of 𝑛, 𝑎 and 𝑏, with 𝑎 ≤ 𝑏, such that 𝑛! = 2𝑎 + 2𝑏 .
Justify carefully why there are no other possibilities.
(8 marks)
Note: For a positive integer 𝑛 we define 𝑛! = 𝑛 × (𝑛 − 1) × (𝑛 − 2) × · · · × 2 × 1.

Solution
(See the official solutions document.)

Markers’ comments
This was a difficult problem, which required careful combining of several results to produce a
full solution, and we were genuinely impressed that almost 10% of all candidates made serious
progress in part (b), with 120 achieving full marks.
Many followed the hints to look at divisibility by 3 and 10 (or 5) and made insightful observation
about the last digits of 2𝑎 and 2𝑏 . Some where then able to use the pattern of the last digit to
deduce that 𝑎 and 𝑏 must differ by an even number, but were not able to combine this with the
pattern of remainders when divided by 3, which would quickly lead to the conclusion that 𝑛
can’t be greater than 4.
We saw many very well written solutions, most using the hints from part (a), but some using
divisibility by 7 instead. It was also great to see a large number of students engage with the
question by answering part (a) and investigating part (b) enough to find the two solutions.
Some saw the form of the two valid solutions and just assumed that 𝑎 and 𝑏 would have to
be consecutive numbers, but that can’t be assumed. However, trying different numbers and
spotting patterns is a useful starting strategy, even if it does not count as proof.
The most common mistake in this question was including 0 as a possible value of 𝑎 or 𝑏;
students should be reminded that zero does not count as a positive number. Another common
mistake was to say that remainders on division by 3 are 13 and 23 ; remainder is defined to be a
whole number.
Some students thought that numbers getting bigger and gaps growing meant that there would
be no further solutions – but that’s not a proof.
Some candidates didn’t think carefully enough about whether 0 can actually occur as the last
digit of a power of 2, or as a remainder when a power of 2 is divided by 3. Some argued that,
because 2𝑚 is even, the last digit can only be 0, 2, 4, 6 or 8; this is of course, true, but it does
not follow that all those digits actually occur.

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