The CENTRE for EDUCATION

in MATHEMATICS and COMPUTING

cemc.uwaterloo.ca

Gauss Contest
Grade 7
(The Grade 8 Contest is on the reverse side)
Wednesday, May 12, 2021
(in North America and South America)
Thursday, May 13, 2021
(outside of North America and South America)

Time: 1 hour ©2021 University of Waterloo

Calculating devices are allowed, provided that they do not have any of the following
features: (i) internet access, (ii) the ability to communicate with other devices,
(iii) information previously stored by students (such as formulas, programs, notes,
etc.), (iv) a computer algebra system, (v) dynamic geometry software.
Instructions
1. Do not open the contest booklet until you are told to do so.
2. You may use rulers, compasses and paper for rough work.
3. Be sure that you understand the coding system for your answer sheet. If you are not sure,
ask your teacher to explain it.
4. This is a multiple-choice test. Each question is followed by five possible answers marked
A, B, C, D, and E. Only one of these is correct. When you have made your choice, enter
the appropriate letter for that question on your answer sheet.
5. Scoring: Each correct answer is worth 5 in Part A, 6 in Part B, and 8 in Part C.
There is no penalty for an incorrect answer.
Each unanswered question is worth 2, to a maximum of 10 unanswered questions.
6. Diagrams are not drawn to scale. They are intended as aids only.
7. When your supervisor instructs you to start, you will have sixty minutes of working time.

The name, school and location of some top-scoring students will be published on the website,
cemc.uwaterloo.ca. On this website, you will also be able to find copies of past Contests and
excellent resources for enrichment, problem solving and contest preparation.
 Grade 7
Scoring: There is no penalty for an incorrect answer.
Each unanswered question is worth 2, to a maximum of 10 unanswered questions.

Part A: Each correct answer is worth 5.

1. When the five numbers 10 000, 1, 10, 100, and 1000 are arranged from largest to
smallest, the middle number is
(A) 10 000 (B) 1 (C) 10 (D) 100 (E) 1000

2. What is the perimeter of the square shown?

(A) 20 cm (B) 8 cm (C) 5 cm
(D) 50 cm (E) 15 cm
5 cm

3. What value goes in the box to make the equation 5 +  = 10 + 20 true?

(A) 30 (B) 15 (C) 35 (D) 20 (E) 25

4. The number of hours spent by five students on homework Time Spent on Homework
is shown on the graph. Which two students, adding their 6
5

Number of Hours
individual times together, spent the same amount of time
on homework as Dan? 4
3
(A) Joe and Grace 2
(B) Joe and Bob 1
(C) Bob and Grace 0

Bob
Susie
Joe

Grace
Dan
(D) Dan and Bob
(E) Susie and Grace Student

5. Which of the following fractions is closest to 0?

(A) 12 (B) 81 (C) 13 (D) 1
6 (E) 1
9

6. A bag contains a number of candies. The probability of Judith choosing a red candy
from this bag is 65 . The total number of candies in the bag could be
(A) 3 (B) 10 (C) 17 (D) 6 (E) 7

7. In the graph shown, which of the following statements is y

true about the coordinates of the point P (x, y)?
(A) The values of both x and y are positive.
(B) The value of x is positive and the value of y is negative. x
(C) The value of x is negative and the value of y is positive. P (x, y)
(D) The values of both x and y are negative.
(E) The value of x is 0 and the value of y is negative.
8. The line graph shows the distance that Andrew walked Andrew’s Walking Distance
over time. How long did it take Andrew to walk the first
2 km? 3
Distance (km)

(A) 15 minutes 2
(B) 1 hour, 15 minutes
(C) 1 hour, 45 minutes 1
(D) 2 hours
(E) 45 minutes
1 2 3
Time (hours)
 Grade 7
9. A list of five numbers repeats to form the pattern

5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, . . .

What is the 221st number in the pattern?

(A) 5 (B) 6 (C) 7 (D) 8 (E) 9

10. An ant begins its path at A, travels only right or down, A

and remains on the line segments shown. The number of
different paths from A to C that pass through B is
B
(A) 2 (B) 3 (C) 4
(D) 5 (E) 6 C

Part B: Each correct answer is worth 6.

11. Laila writes a list of numbers. Her first number is 4. Each number after the first is 7
more than the previous number. Which of the following numbers appears in Laila’s
list?
(A) 45 (B) 46 (C) 47 (D) 48 (E) 49
12. The letter A has a vertical line of symmetry and the letter B does not. How many of
the letters H L O R X D P E have a vertical line of symmetry?
(A) 1 (B) 2 (C) 3 (D) 4 (E) 5
13. In the diagram, AB and CD intersect at E. If 4BCE is B
equilateral and 4ADE is a right-angled triangle, what is D
the value of x? xº
(A) 90 (B) 60 (C) 25 E
A C
(D) 45 (E) 30
14. Which of the following is the sum of three consecutive integers?
(A) 17 (B) 11 (C) 25 (D) 21 (E) 8
15. A positive integer whose digits are the same when read forwards or backwards is
called a palindrome. An example of a palindrome is 13931. What is the sum of the
digits of the next palindrome greater than 13931?
(A) 14 (B) 11 (C) 19 (D) 10 (E) 8
16. The number 6 has exactly 4 positive factors and the number 9 has exactly 3 positive
factors. How many numbers in the list 14, 21, 28, 35, 42 have exactly 4 positive factors?
(A) 1 (B) 2 (C) 3 (D) 4 (E) 5
17. The original price of a shirt is reduced by 50% to obtain a second price. The store
advertises an additional sale, and so this second price is reduced by 40% to obtain a
third price. What is the discount of the third price off the original price?
(A) 80% (B) 10% (C) 70% (D) 65% (E) 45%
18. In the diagram, 4ABC is isosceles. M is on BC so that
BM = M C. If the perimeter of 4ABC is 64 and the A
perimeter of 4ABM is 40, what is the length of AM ?
(A) 10 (B) 8 (C) 16
B M C
(D) 12 (E) 24
 Grade 7
19. Two different digits from 1 to 9 are chosen. One digit is
placed in each box to complete the two 2-digit numbers
5
shown. The result of subtracting the bottom number
from the top number is calculated. How many of the 5
possible results are positive?
(A) 36 (B) 32 (C) 30
(D) 34 (E) 38
20. Two standard dice are rolled. What is the probability that the sum of the numbers
on the top faces is a prime number?
5 7
(A) 12 (B) 12 (C) 12 (D) 56 (E) 13

Part C: Each correct answer is worth 8.

21. A large number is written with a one followed by many zeros (1000 . . . 000). When 1
is subtracted from this number, the sum of the digits in the result is 252. How many
zeros are in the original number?
(A) 27 (B) 28 (C) 29 (D) 42 (E) 252
10 cm
22. In the diagram shown, each figure after Figure 1 is formed
Figure 1
by joining two rectangles to the bottom of the previous 5 cm
figure. Each individual rectangle has dimensions 10 cm
by 5 cm. If Figure n has a perimeter of 710 cm, the value Figure 2
of n is
(A) 29 (B) 43 (C) 66
Figure 3
(D) 172 (E) 65

23. To encode a message, James first replaces each letter within the message with its
corresponding number, where A = 1, B = 2, · · · , Y = 25, and Z = 26. Next, James
multiplies each number by 3 and then subtracts 5, and continues this process a total
of n times. For example, when n = 2 the letter D is encoded to the number 16.
If James encoded a four letter message to the four numbers 367 205 853 1339, what
is the value of n that he used?
(A) 2 (B) 3 (C) 4 (D) 5 (E) 6

24. How many different pairs of positive whole numbers have a greatest common factor
of 4 and a lowest common multiple of 4620?
(A) 4 (B) 5 (C) 7 (D) 8 (E) 11

25. Jonas has 1728 copies of a 1 × 1 × 1 cube with the net

shown, where c is a positive integer and c < 100. Using
c
these 1728 cubes, Jonas builds a large 12×12×12 cube in
such a way that the sum of the numbers on the exterior c c 100 c
faces is as large as possible. For some values of c, the sum
c
of the numbers on the exterior faces is between 80 000 and
85 000. The number of such values of c is
(A) 39 (B) 38 (C) 37
(D) 36 (E) 35