Worksheet generator

1.E — 60KA-0026Percentages and simple discounts

• AI worked out the size of the discount and gave that as the new price instead of subtracting it.
• BI treated a quarter off as half off and took the price down to 40.
• CI applied the 25% reduction twice, taking 80 down to 60 and then 60 down to 45.
• DI subtracted 25 euros rather than 25 percent, treating the percentage as an amount of money.

2.D — 4320KA-0059Estimation and order of magnitude

• AI worked out the drips in an hour and stopped there.
• BI multiplied by the 24 hours but forgot the 60 minutes in each one.
• CI used 6 hours in a day, thinking of waking hours rather than a whole day.
• EI used 600 minutes in an hour rather than 60.

3.C — HKA-0142Line and rotational symmetry

• AI found the vertical fold and assumed a horizontal one must work too.
• BI found the horizontal fold and stopped without testing the vertical one.
• DI counted the vertical fold twice rather than testing a horizontal one.
• EI mistook turning the letter upside down for folding it, which is rotation rather than symmetry about a line.

4.A — 8KA-0144Translating a sentence into an equation

• BI subtracted 8 from 19 rather than working the two steps backwards.
• CI subtracted the 3 from 19 and gave that without halving it.
• DI added the 3 to 19 instead of subtracting it.
• EI doubled 19 and added 3, applying the machine forwards instead of undoing it.

5.C — 61KA-0030Arithmetic sequences and the nth term

• AI added the step 18 times, counting the gaps between terms one too few.
• BI multiplied the step of 3 by 20 and forgot that the first term is already in place.
• DI used a first term of 3 instead of 4 while adding 20 steps.
• EI added the step 20 times to the first term instead of 19 times.

6.B — 4% lowerKA-0065Percentages and simple discounts

• AI applied only the decrease and forgot that the price had already risen.
• CI assumed a rise and a fall of the same percentage cancel each other out exactly.
• DI got the size of the change right but the direction wrong.
• EI added the two percentages together instead of applying them one after the other.

7.B — 10KA-0087Scaling and similar figures

• AI added the difference between the areas' square roots to the side rather than multiplying by their ratio.
• CI doubled the side because the larger area is roughly double the smaller.
• DI used the ratio of the areas as if it were the ratio of the lengths, then adjusted.
• EI multiplied the side by the ratio of the areas divided by three, mixing up which ratio applies to lengths.

8.B — 21KA-0104Recursive rules

• AI counted the two starting terms as one, so I stopped at the seventh term.
• CI added the two before it but slipped once in the middle of the chain.
• DI generated one term too many and gave the ninth.
• EI doubled each term instead of adding the two before it.

9.D — 1200KA-0128Check units and re-read before bubbling

• AI worked entirely in metres and gave the answer in square metres.
• BI multiplied 30 by 0.4 without converting the metres to centimetres at all.
• CI converted 0.4 m to 4 cm rather than 40 cm.
• EI converted 0.4 m to 400 cm, moving the decimal point one place too far.

10.E — 408KA-0129Sanity-check with a second method

• AI worked out 17 times 20 and forgot to add the 17 times 4 part.
• BI worked out 17 times 4 as 28 instead of 68 when adding the parts together.
• CI worked out 17 times 4 as 48 instead of 68 when adding the parts together.
• DI made a carrying slip of ten in the final addition of the two parts.

11.D — 120KA-0148Clock geometry: hands, angles, times

• AI gave the angle for a single hour mark rather than the four marks between the hands.
• BI counted two hour marks instead of four.
• CI assumed any gap of a few hours is a right angle, as it is at three o'clock.
• EI measured the angle the long way round the clock face instead of the smaller one.

12.C — 6KA-0025Counting up to symmetry

• AI also treated bracelets that are mirror images as the same, but only rotations were allowed.
• BI divided the number of beads by itself rather than dividing the number of arrangements by the number of rotations.
• DI divided the 24 arrangements by 2 instead of by the 4 rotations of a circle of four beads.
• EI counted every arrangement in a line and forgot that rotating a bracelet gives the same bracelet.

13.E — No, it is impossibleKA-0028Parity arguments

• AI found a sequence that turned over most of the cups and assumed the last one could be fixed somehow.
• BI matched the number of moves to the number of cups without checking whether the target is reachable at all.
• CI assumed that with enough moves any arrangement can be reached.
• DI thought the choice of which cups to flip could change whether the target is reachable.

14.A — 8KA-0031Counting paths on a grid

• BI assumed closing one junction removes about half the routes and halved the total of 20.
• CI counted the routes that pass through the closed junction and gave that instead of the ones that avoid it.
• DI subtracted only the 2 routes that reach the closed junction, not all the routes that continue through it.
• EI counted every route on the open grid and forgot to remove the ones through the closed junction.

15.B — 6KA-0045Back-solve from the answer choices

• AI tested the smallest choice first and stopped at the first one that felt about right.
• CI read a third of itself as three times itself and solved the wrong equation.
• DI reversed the comparison, finding a number whose third is 4 less than itself in the wrong direction.
• EI picked the largest choice because dividing by three made me expect a big starting number.

16.B — 0.2KA-0052Area by subtraction (shaded regions)

• AI estimated by eye from the four corner pieces without comparing them to the whole square.
• CI used a diameter of 5 instead of a radius of 5 when working out the circle's area.
• DI assumed the circle covers half the square because it touches all four sides.
• EI found the fraction covered by the circle and gave that instead of the fraction outside it.

17.C — 7KA-0077The pigeonhole principle

• AI answered with the luckiest case, where the first three balls happen to match.
• BI found the worst case of two of each colour and forgot to take one more.
• DI multiplied the three colours by the three balls I need, rather than thinking about the worst case.
• EI worked from the number of balls of each colour rather than from the number of colours.

18.C — 12KA-0090Counting cubes in a stack, including hidden ones

• AI counted the middle cube of each face, which has exactly one painted face rather than two.
• BI counted the corner cubes, which have three painted faces.
• DI counted every cube that is painted at all except the corners, without separating one face from two.
• EI gave the total number of small cubes rather than the ones with exactly two painted faces.

19.D — No, because the number of moves is oddKA-0097Parity arguments

• AI assumed enough moves can undo anything, without asking what each move preserves.
• BI tried a few sequences that nearly worked and assumed a better choice would finish the job.
• CI reached for the number of items rather than for what a single swap actually changes.
• EI thought the choice of swaps could change the outcome, when every swap has the same effect.

20.B — Answer it with your best guess, mark it, and move onKA-0126Time triage: now, later, or guess

• AI let the time already spent decide, but that time is gone whatever I do next.
• CI moved on but left a blank, which scores nothing if I never get back to it.
• DI spent time re-reading work I had no reason to doubt, while 21 unseen questions waited.
• EI assumed the hardest questions are the best use of time, when the unseen easy ones are worth the same each.