Talk:2014 AMC 8

Overview : I got problems 1-20 correct on my first try. Although I got the last 5 wrong, i have since then improved on my technique on how to solve the problems I missed. I will be further discussing on several of the problems that almost tricked me and I could've potentially gotten wrong.

1. When first looking at Harry's way of solving the problem, he got 1, using PEAMS. When you use Terry's answer, you get 11. Now the problem tricks you here by asking the difference between H and T. If you aren't paying attention, you may subtract 11-1=10. However, that is not the right answer. If you pay attention to what it is asking for, H-T, that would be 1-11=-10. Therefore A is the right answer.

10. Although this problem seemed easy, one part of it tripped me up. The problem says that the first AMC 8 was given in 1985. And Samantha took the 7th AMC. 8 at age 12. Now, we have the calculate the year she was born. The 7th AMC happened in 1991 not 1992. You have to carefully consider the fact that the first AMC happened in 1985, counting as 1. You can't just add 7 to 1985. Therefore, 1991-12 = 1979, A.

14. I find problem 14 quite interesting personally. I first started by finding the area of the rectangle, 30. Then I considered that both shapes had equal area. That means that 5 x 1/2 x b had to equal 30. Solving, b=12. Now, using the Pythagorean Theorem, we come to the conclusion that DE=13, B.

20. We start by finding 1/4 the area of each circle with varying radii. We get 7,3,1. Adding these, we get 11. The area of our rectangle is 15. 15-11=4, B.

-panda0925 :D