Cryptokyo v1.1.

1 TMUA Prep Thread ’19

Disclaimer: I am not affiliated with the Admissions Testing Service in any way and
the topics covered may differ from those covered in the Test of Mathematics for University
Admission (TMUA). For official TMUA resources go to the Admissions Testing Service’s
website: https://www.admissionstesting.org.
These questions are of my own making taking inspiration from TMUA papers and are in-
tended as an additional free resource for test takers. But these questions may not necessarily
reflect those found in the TMUA.
Solutions to the problems are not in this document. Answers can be checked with other
TSR users or by tagging me.
Best wishes, Cryptokyo.

Problem 1. Evaluate the integral

1
1−x
Z
√ dx
0 1− x
Problem 2. Rationalise the denominator of

1
√ √
1+ 3+ 5
Problem 3. Find the coefficient of x6 in the expansion of

(1 + x)(1 + x2 )(1 + x3 )(1 + x4 )(1 + x5 )(1 + x6 )

Problem 4. A quadratic polynomial f (x) has two real roots α and β. We are given that
αβ = 1 and that α + β = γ. What is the possible range of values of γ?
Problem 5. The polynomial x2 + bx + c has roots α and β. Find α4 + β 4 in terms of b
and c.
Problem 6. Find f 0 (2) for

x3 + 8x2 + 11x − 20
f (x) =
x2 + 4x − 5
√
3
Problem 7. Without using a calculator compute the exact value of 19.683.
Inspired by the 1876 MIT Arithmetic Entrance Exam.
Problem 8. How many positive integers are there less than 1000 that are not divisible
by 2 or 3?
Problem 9. For which values of a does the equation

32x − a · 3x+1 + a2 = 0
have two distinct real solutions?
Cryptokyo v1.1.1 TMUA Prep Thread ’19

I a<0
II a>0
III No such values of a
IV a=0
Problem 10. The logarithm function log(x) is defined for x > 0. For which values of a
does the equation

log(x + a) = log(x) + log(a)

have a solution?
Problem 11. Find a counter-example to the statement if p is prime then 2p − 1 is prime.
Problem 12. We say a function is multiplicatively bounded if and only if f (xy) ≤
f (x)f (y) and f (0) > 0.

Is f (x) ≥ 1 a necessary condition for a multiplicatively bounded function?

Problem 13. For this question we assume our given function f (x) is differentiable and
thus is (Riemann) integrable.

We say f (x) is odd if and only if f (−x) = −f (x).

Which of the following conditions are necessary for f (x) to be an odd func-
tion?

I f (x) is a constant function.

II f (a − x) + f (a + x) = f (a), where a is any real constant.
Z a
III f (x)dx = 0, where a is some real constant.
−a
IV f 0 (x) > 0.
Problem 14. How many solutions are there to the equation

tan(2x − x sin(x)) = 1
for 0 < x < π?
Problem 15. A discrete random variable X takes non-negative values with distribution
P(X = k) = ab−k , where k ≥ 0 is an integer and a > 0 and b > 1 are real
numbers. Find a in terms of b.
Problem 16. Find the value of
         2 
1 4 9 16 n
log + log + log + log + · · · + log
2 3 4 5 n+1
in the form log f (n) where f (n) is some function of n.
Cryptokyo v1.1.1 TMUA Prep Thread ’19

Problem 17. We define the floor function bxc to be equal to the largest integer greater
than or equal to x. e.g. b2c = 2 and b 10
3
c = 3.

Which of the following is a graph of f (x) = bx + 21 c sin(πx + π2 )?

-4 -3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3 4

Graph 1

-4 -3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3 4

Graph 2
Cryptokyo v1.1.1 TMUA Prep Thread ’19

-4 -3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3 4

Graph 3

-4 -3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3 4

Graph 4

Problem 18. A sequence uk is defined such that u1 = a, u2 = b and un+1 = un − un−1 for
X62
n ≥ 2. Find the value of uk in terms of a and b.
k=1

Problem 19. A sequence of functions fk (x) is defined such that f1 (x) = α + βx and
Cryptokyo v1.1.1 TMUA Prep Thread ’19

1 d2 x
Z 
fn+1 (x) = xfn (x)dx
4 d2 x 0
∞
X
for n ≥ 1. What is the value of fk (1)?
k=1

SOLUTIONS
√ √
Problem 1. Note that 1 − x = (1 + x)(1 − x) to find that the integral is 5/3.
√ √
Problem 2. By removing the radical 3 + 5 from the bottom you obtain
√ √ √
7 + 3 3 − 5 − 2 15
(1)
11
Problem 3. The coefficient is 4. Consider how many ways you can make the number 6
using the numbers 0,1,2,3,4,5,6 by adding using each at most once. This is
related to the theory of partitions of numbers.
Problem 4. We need that |γ| > 2. Hint: polynomial discriminant
Problem 5. We now that α + β = −b and αβ = c and α2 + β 2 = (α + β)2 − 2αβ = b2 − 2c.
Now α4 + β 4 = (α2 + β 2 )2 − 2α2 β 2 = (b2 − 2c)2 − 2c2 = b4 − 4b2 c + 2c2 .
Problem 6. f (x) is x + 4 in disguise so the derivative is f 0 (2) = 1.
Problem 7. The answer is 2.7 as the result must be between 2 and 3 and can have at
most 1 decimal place as 19.683 has 3 decimal places. 7 is the only cube that
has last digit 3.
Problem 8. There are 499 such numbers divisible by 2, 333 by 3 and 166 divisible by 6
thus the answer is 499 + 333 − 166 = 666.
Problem 9. We must have a > 0.
a
Problem 10. This is really just x + a = ax ⇒ x = a−1
. So we have a > 1.
Problem 11. This is a bit of a silly one and the smallest such p is p = 11.
Problem 12. We have f (0) ≤ f (0)f (x) so f (x) ≥ 1. The condition is necessary.
Problem 13. The only necessary condition is condition III.
Problem 14. f (x) = 2x − x sin x is strictly increasing and f (0) = 0, f (π) = 2π. So there
are two such solutions.
Problem 15. a = 1 − 1/b.
n!
Problem 16. log
n+1
Problem 17. Graph 2
Problem 18. The answer of the sum is b.
Problem 19. The answer is 4α/3 + 2β.