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.Work out 2 × 3 × 5 + 1 and decide whether the result is a prime number.
- 2.A sequence has the position-to-term rule n² − 3, where n is the position number. Work out the difference between the 6th term and the 5th term.
- 3.A baker uses 450 g of flour and 300 g of butter in a batch of pastry. Write the mass of butter as a fraction of the total mass of flour and butter, in its simplest form.
- 4.Put sin 30°, tan 30° and cos 30° in order of size, starting with the smallest.
- 5.Two cards are dealt one after the other from an ordinary pack of 52 playing cards. The first card is not put back before the second is dealt. The pack contains 4 aces. Work out the probability that neither card is an ace. Give your answer as a product of two fractions.
- 6.A company found that the higher the price it charged for a product, the lower the satisfaction score its customers gave. The price and the satisfaction score are plotted on a scatter graph. Describe the line of best fit that would be drawn on that graph.
- 7.A window display has red baubles, gold baubles and green baubles in the ratio 4 : 5 : 6. What fraction of the baubles are not green?
- 8.Solve 4x² − 9 = 0.
- 9.A recipe needs 1.2 kg of flour. Dan has 750 g of flour in his cupboard. Write the mass of flour the recipe needs as a fraction of the mass of flour Dan has. Give your answer in its simplest form.
- 10.Write down which quadrant contains the point (−3, 5) when plotted on a coordinate grid.
- 11.A factory finds that the probability a randomly chosen light bulb is defective is 0.035. In a batch of 4,000 bulbs, work out how many bulbs you would expect to work correctly.
- 12.At a bus station one bus leaves every 6 minutes and another leaves every 9 minutes. The two buses leave together at the start of the day. Work out how long it is until they next leave together.
- 13.The first four terms of a sequence are 4, 6, 8, 10. Work out an expression, in terms of n, for the nth term.
- 14.A river 120 km long is drawn as a line 6 cm long on a map. Work out the scale of the map.
- 15.In triangle ABC, angle A is 2x°, angle B is 3x° and angle C is 4x°. Work out the size of angle B.
- 16.A florist has 60 red roses and 84 white roses. She wants to make identical bunches using all the flowers, with the greatest possible number of bunches. Work out how many red roses will be in each bunch.
- 17.A caterer uses the formula C = 6p + 20 to work out the total cost, £C, of a buffet for p people, where £20 covers fixed costs. A customer is charged £92. Work out how many people, p, the buffet was for.
- 18.At an animal shelter, the ratio of cats to dogs is 2:5. There are 18 more dogs than cats. Work out the number of cats.
- 19.Write 0.35 as a fraction in its lowest terms.
- 20.Which of these ratios is equivalent to 5 : 4?
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.