Sample paper · GCSE Foundation · grades 1–5
GCSE Foundation sample Paper 2 (calculator)
The real Paper 2 is 1.5 hour 30 minutes and 80 marks, 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 a calculator allowed. AO1 / AO2 / AO3 at this tier: 50% / 25% / 25%.
CalculatorGCSE Foundation
GCSE Foundation sample Paper 2 (calculator)
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- 1.A recipe uses 0.625 kg of flour. Write this mass as a fraction of a kilogram, in its simplest form.
- 2.Factorise fully 5x + 5y − 5
- 3.A map has a scale of 1 : 25 000. Two towns are 5 km apart in real life. Work out the distance between the towns on the map, in centimetres.
- 4.Point C is at (2, 3). It is rotated 90° clockwise about the origin. Work out the coordinates of the image of point C.
- 5.An archer hits the bullseye with probability 0.24 on any one shot. She wants to know how many shots she must take to expect to hit the bullseye 12 times. Work out how many shots this is.
- 6.A pie chart shows the favourite sport of the 40 pupils in a class: football 50%, netball 25%, tennis 15% and swimming 10%. Work out how many pupils chose football.
- 7.Nadia has £84. She spends 3/7 of it on a jacket and the rest on a bag. Work out the ratio of the amount spent on the jacket to the amount spent on the bag, in its simplest form.
- 8.A photo printing service has two adverts for its price. Advert A: cost in pounds = 3(2n + 4) for n photos. Advert B: cost in pounds = 6n + 12. A customer says the two adverts always charge the same amount. Is the customer correct?
- 9.A concrete block exerts a force of 45 N on the ground through a base with an area of 0.05 m². Work out the pressure on the ground, in N/m².
- 10.A polygon has 12 straight sides. What is the mathematical name for this polygon?
- 11.At a fair, a game costs £2 to play. The probability of winning the game is 0.15, and each win pays out £10. Amir plays the game 200 times. Work out how much money Amir should expect to lose in total.
- 12.n is a whole number and 2 ≤ n < 6. Write down all the possible values of n.
- 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.It takes 8 painters 6 days to paint a fence. Working at the same rate, work out how many days 4 painters would take to paint the same fence.
- 15.Lines GH and JK are parallel. A straight line crosses GH at point M and crosses JK at point N. Angle HMN = 71°. Angle HMN and angle MNK are alternate angles. Work out angle MNK.
- 16.Work out 3 + 4 × (−2).
- 17.A rectangular field has length (3a + 2) metres and width (a − 1) metres. Write a simplified expression for the perimeter of the field.
- 18.A furniture maker builds two mathematically similar bookcases. The smaller bookcase is 40 cm tall and uses 2 m² of wood. The larger bookcase is 60 cm tall. Work out the area of wood needed for the larger bookcase, giving your answer in m².
- 19.Write these fractions in order, starting with the smallest: 2/3, 3/5, 5/6, 1/2
- 20.A garden centre sells two mathematically similar sacks of grass seed. The amount of lawn a sack can treat is proportional to the volume of seed inside it. The smaller sack is 20 cm tall and treats a lawn of area 30 m². The larger sack is 40 cm tall. A gardener needs to treat a lawn with an area of 500 m² using only the larger sacks. Work out the minimum number of larger sacks needed.
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.