/sci/ - Science & Math

>>11301920
Thank you! It was somewhat fun but very frustrating nontheless, all my friends got better scores than I did :(

>>11306820
Hello! It didn't go amazingly well, I scored 82 out of 150. (30 problems, wrong = 0 marks, blank = 2, correct = 5, 1h30) Those were only the qualifiers and I had 0 training plus mediocre sleep, if I make it to the 2nd round (which is possible, you usually need more than 78 to get qualified but it's not based on score, they just take the top X scores), I promised myself I'd at least train a little!

>>11306904
Here are a few of them, some of the most interesting ones! (Keep in mind I still haven't seen all the material required to answer every question, so you may find those easy!)
No calculator allowed, only pen and paper!

1. A date is palindromic, and if it's writing is ddmmyyyy, if we are the 2nd of february 2020 (02022020), in how many days will we have to wait until the next palindromic date? (note : 2020 is 364 days long!)
[integer 0-999]

2. The sum of 3 distinct prime numbers is 40. What is the difference between the 2 largest numbers?
[0 / 12 / 16 / 20 / 24]

3.How many couples of (a, b) exist such that
[(2a-b)^2 - (a-2b)^2]^2 = 225 ?
[0 / 2 / 4 / 8 / An infinity]

4. The equation x^4 - 40x^2 + k = 0 (in unknown x) admits 4 real roots that make an arithmetic progression. What is the value of k?
[integer 0-999]

5. How many triplets (x,y,z) of consecutive integers exist such that x < y < z and xyz=x+y+z
[integer 0-999]

6. What is the expression in (pic related) worth?
[integer 0-999]

>>11307040
No, I live in belgium, I'm in highschool (18 years old but had to retake a year). And every highschool student gets to participate if their school participates.
Do any of you guys have tips to do better at problems? I'm always too scared to really get into maths because I don't want it to become another reason for self loathing because of poor performance, but I can't help and love mathematics...