Sample paper · GCSE Foundation · grades 1–5
GCSE Foundation sample Paper 1 (non-calculator)
The real Paper 1 is 1.5 hour 30 minutes and 80 marks, non-calculator, and all three papers carry equal weight. This sample is 20 original questions in the same content proportions as the Foundation qualification — number 25%, algebra 20%, ratio, proportion and rates of change 25%, geometry and measures 15%, probability 7.5%, statistics 7.5% — with no calculator-only items. AO1 / AO2 / AO3 at this tier: 50% / 25% / 25%.
Non-calculatorGCSE Foundation
GCSE Foundation sample Paper 1 (non-calculator)
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- 1.Leah measures the length of her classroom with a tape measure marked in centimetres. She writes the length down as 7.3157 m. Give a reason why this is not an appropriate degree of accuracy.
- 2.Which expression is equivalent to 3(2x − 5) + 4x?
- 3.The density of a liquid is 0.92 g/cm³. Work out the density of the liquid in kg/m³.
- 4.A straight line crosses a pair of parallel lines. One of the co-interior (allied) angles is 118°. Work out the size of the other co-interior angle.
- 5.Two ordinary fair dice are rolled and the two scores are added together. Work out the probability that the total is a prime number.
- 6.A dual bar chart shows how many boys and how many girls are in a class. The bar for boys stands at 14 and the bar for girls stands at 16. Work out how many pupils are in the class altogether.
- 7.To estimate the cost of buying 38.7 m of rope at £21.40 per metre, both numbers are first rounded to 1 significant figure. Work out the estimate.
- 8.Which of these numbers is a cube number?
- 9.Three friends share a raffle prize of £360 in the ratio 2:3:4. Work out the share of the friend whose part of the ratio is 3.
- 10.In triangle ABC, angle ABC = 90° and angle BAC = 30°. The hypotenuse AC = 12 cm. Work out the exact length of AB.
- 11.A market stall sells umbrellas. Over the last 250 days, it rained on 70 of them. Using this as an estimate of the probability of rain, work out how many rainy days would be expected in the next 365 days.
- 12.A space probe is 7.5 × 10⁸ km from Earth. Write this distance as an ordinary number.
- 13.Two numbers have a sum of 50. The larger number is twice the smaller number. Work out the smaller number.
- 14.On a straight-line graph the volume of water, V litres, in a tank is plotted on the vertical axis and the time, t minutes, on the horizontal axis. The line passes through (2, 50) and (6, 130). Work out the gradient of the line and give its units.
- 15.How many vertices does a cuboid have?
- 16.A jar of jam costs £2.35. Tom buys 3 jars. He says the total cost is more than £7. Work out the exact total cost, and state whether Tom's claim is correct.
- 17.Solve 6x − 5 = 3x + 13.
- 18.The ratio of two lengths is 0.6 : 1.5. Write this ratio in its simplest whole-number form.
- 19.The attendance at a football match is 23,000, correct to the nearest thousand. Which of these attendances is not possible for the match?
- 20.An acid solution has a concentration of 20%. The solution contains 40 g of acid, and the rest of the solution is water. Work out the mass of water in the solution.
How the 20 questions are shared out
- Number — 5 questions (25% of the qualification)
- Algebra — 4 questions (20% of the qualification)
- Ratio, proportion and rates of change — 5 questions (25% of the qualification)
- Geometry and measures — 3 questions (15% of the qualification)
- Probability — 2 questions (7.5% of the qualification)
- Statistics — 1 question (7.5% of the qualification)
Where an area has fewer printable questions than its share, the shortfall is filled from the other areas. These are original questions, not past papers.