GCSE Foundation · grades 1–5 · 25% of marks
GCSE Foundation — Ratio, proportion and rates of change
25% of a GCSE Foundation entry is ratio, proportion and rates of change, spread across all three papers rather than gathered into one. There are 15 ratio, proportion and rates of change statements to cover. Working through them one at a time beats mixed practice while a topic is still shaky — mixed practice tells you that something is wrong, not what. The ground it covers runs through converting between standard and compound units, scale factors, scale diagrams and maps, one quantity as a fraction of another, ratio notation and simplest form, dividing in a ratio and multiplicative relationships as ratios or fractions. Everything on this page is Foundation content, which means a Higher student needs it too — Higher is Foundation plus more, not instead of. With 50% AO1 and 50% across AO2 and AO3, fluency alone is not enough — the paper repeatedly asks what your answer means. Much of this is examined on Paper 1, where there is nothing to fall back on but written method.
- R1 — Converting between standard and compound units
- R2 — Scale factors, scale diagrams and maps
- R3 — One quantity as a fraction of another
- R4 — Ratio notation and simplest form
- R5 — Dividing in a ratio
- R6 — Multiplicative relationships as ratios or fractions
- R7 — Proportion as equality of ratios
- R8 — Ratios, fractions and linear functions
- R9 — Percentages and percentage change
- R10 — Direct and inverse proportion
- …and 5 more ratio, proportion and rates of change statements at this tier
Practise
The 15 DfE statements in ratio, proportion and rates of change at Foundation
Higher-only statements are not listed here; statements with a Higher-only part are marked and the part is quoted.
Related
Questions people ask
How much of the GCSE Foundation paper is ratio, proportion and rates of change?
25% of the total marks, and the three papers each carry an equal share of the qualification, so it is spread across all of them rather than concentrated in one.
How many topics are there in ratio, proportion and rates of change at GCSE Foundation?
15 DfE content statements, coded R1 to R16 within this area. Every question in the bank is tagged to one of them.
Is any ratio, proportion and rates of change content on this page Higher only?
No. Foundation pages only show statements a Foundation entry may be asked. The Higher-only ratio, proportion and rates of change material is on the GCSE Higher page for this area.
Can I use a calculator for ratio, proportion and rates of change questions?
Paper 1 is non-calculator; Papers 2 and 3 allow one. Of the 15 statements in this area, 6 are naturally non-calculator and 1 naturally calculator, with the rest workable either way — so practise both.
What kind of marks does ratio, proportion and rates of change carry?
The GCSE Foundation split is 50% AO1 (use and apply standard techniques), 25% AO2 (reason, interpret and communicate) and 25% AO3 (solve problems in and out of context). Questions in this area are set across all three.
Are these past paper questions?
No. Every question at /gcse-foundation is original, written to the DfE content statements and checked before it is published. We do not host past papers or mark schemes.