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.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.
- 2.A point lies on the y-axis. What can be said about the x-coordinate of that point?
- 3.A force of 20 N acts on an area of 4 m². Using pressure = force ÷ area, work out the pressure, in pascals.
- 4.Write down the name given to a quadrilateral that has exactly one pair of parallel sides.
- 5.The probability that a pupil chosen at random has a nut allergy is 1/10. There are 30 pupils in a class. Work out how many of the 30 pupils would be expected to have a nut allergy.
- 6.Five friends have heights, in cm, of 150, 152, 155, 158 and 160. A sixth friend, with a height of 170 cm, joins the group. Write down what happens to the mean and the range of the heights once this sixth friend is included.
- 7.In a class, 1/3 of the pupils are girls. There are 12 girls in the class. Work out how many pupils are in the class.
- 8.A quadratic graph y = ax² + bx + c has its turning point on the y-axis. Which statement about its roots must be true?
- 9.A car travels for 3 hours at an average speed of 80 km/h and then for 1 hour at an average speed of 40 km/h. Work out the average speed for the whole journey.
- 10.How many vertices does a cuboid have?
- 11.A bag contains 45 sweets. 18 of the sweets are lemon flavour and the rest are orange. A sweet is taken at random, its flavour is recorded, and it is put back in the bag. This is repeated 200 times. Work out how many times you would expect an orange sweet to be taken.
- 12.Work out an estimate for 6.8 × 41, by rounding each number to 1 significant figure.
- 13.A distance-time graph shows a car travelling at a constant speed, covering 90 km in 2 hours. Work out the car's speed in km/h.
- 14.Zara is paid £9 per hour. Her wage is directly proportional to the number of hours she works. Work out her wage for working 6 hours.
- 15.A line segment joins two points on the circumference of a circle, without necessarily passing through the centre. Write down the general term for this line segment.
- 16.A number is divided by 5, then 6 is subtracted, giving the result −1. Work out the number.
- 17.A company charges for hiring chairs for a day. Hiring 1 chair costs £12, hiring 2 chairs costs £19, hiring 3 chairs costs £26, and hiring 4 chairs costs £33. Work out an expression, in terms of n, for the cost in pounds of hiring n chairs for a day.
- 18.Two scale plans of the same football pitch are drawn: Plan A has a scale of 1 : 1000 and Plan B has a scale of 1 : 200. A pitch length is 8 cm on Plan A. Work out the length of the same pitch on Plan B, in centimetres.
- 19.Work out the value of 2⁻²
- 20.A car travels 150 km in 3 hours at a constant speed. Work out the average speed of the car, in km/h.
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.