2010 AMC 10B Problems/Problem 15

Problem

On a $50$-question multiple choice math contest, students receive $4$ points for a correct answer, $0$ points for an answer left blank, and $-1$ point for an incorrect answer. Jesse’s total score on the contest was $99$. What is the maximum number of questions that Jesse could have answered correctly?

$\textbf{(A)}\ 25 \qquad \textbf{(B)}\ 27 \qquad \textbf{(C)}\ 29 \qquad \textbf{(D)}\ 31 \qquad \textbf{(E)}\ 33$

Solution

Let $a$ be the amount of questions Jesse answered correctly, $b$ be the amount of questions Jesse left blank, and $c$ be the amount of questions Jesse answered incorrectly. Since there were $50$ questions on the contest, $a+b+c=50$. Since his total score was $99$, $4a-c=99$. Also, $a+c\leq50 \Rightarrow c\leq50-a$. We can substitute this inequality into the previous equation to obtain another inequality: $4a-(50-a)\leq99 \Rightarrow 5a\leq149 \Rightarrow a\leq \frac{149}5=29.8$. Since $a$ is an integer, the maximum value for $a$ is $\boxed{\textbf{(C)}\ 29}$.

See Also

2010 AMC 10B (ProblemsAnswer KeyResources)
Preceded by
Problem 14
Followed by
Problem 16
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All AMC 10 Problems and Solutions

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