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 café offers sandwiches with one filling from 5 choices and one type of bread from 4 choices. Cheese and mustard, which is one of the 5 fillings, is not available on gluten-free bread, which is one of the 4 breads. Work out how many different sandwiches are possible.
- 2.On Monday, a runner covers 15 km in 2.5 hours. On Tuesday, she covers 12 km in 1.5 hours. Using the formula speed = distance ÷ time, work out on which day she ran faster, and by how much.
- 3.A map has a scale of 1 : 100 000. Two railway stations are 8 km apart in real life. Work out the distance between the stations on the map, in centimetres.
- 4.Two similar signs have lengths in the ratio 9 : 4. The larger sign has a side of length 14.4 cm. Work out the length of the corresponding side of the smaller sign.
- 5.A fair spinner has 8 equal sections. 3 of the sections are red. The spinner is spun 240 times. Work out how many times you would expect it to land on red.
- 6.In a scatter graph of the age, in years, and the wingspan, in cm, of 20 birds of the same species, all the points lie close to a rising line of best fit except one, which lies a long way below the line. That bird was later found to have a damaged wing. Give a reason why this point should not be used when drawing the line of best fit.
- 7.Work out 6² − 4².
- 8.A taxi company charges a £2.50 booking fee plus £1.80 per mile. A journey costs £15.10 in total. Work out the number of miles travelled.
- 9.A worker is paid £13.20 per hour. Work out this rate of pay in pence per minute.
- 10.How many faces does a cuboid have?
- 11.A cinema sold 150 tickets for a Saturday screening. A frequency tree records the sales: 90 of the tickets were bought by adults and the rest by children. Of the adult tickets, 54 were for the 3D showing and the rest were for the standard showing. Work out how many adult tickets were for the standard showing.
- 12.Write the fraction 47/50 as a decimal.
- 13.The first four terms of a sequence are 18, 15, 12, 9. Work out an expression, in terms of n, for the nth term.
- 14.A parcel has a mass of 2400 g. Given that 1 kg = 1000 g, work out the mass of the parcel in kilograms.
- 15.Lines JK and LM are parallel. A straight line crosses JK at point P and crosses LM at point Q. Angle KPQ = 118°. Angle KPQ and angle MQP are co-interior (allied) angles. Work out angle MQP.
- 16.Find the missing number: 17 × ▢ = 391
- 17.The diagram shows a distance–time graph for a cyclist travelling at a constant speed, for the first 6 minutes of a journey. Distance is in kilometres and time is in minutes. Work out how far the cyclist would travel in 20 minutes at the same speed.
- 18.A recipe for 8 people needs 320 g of rice. Sanjay scales the recipe down to serve 5 people, then wants to scale his new amount back up to serve 8 people again. Work out the multiplier he should use to scale his amount for 5 people back up to the amount for 8 people.
- 19.Work out (4 × 10⁻³) × (2 × 10⁵). Give your answer in standard form.
- 20.y is directly proportional to x, and y = 7x. Work out the value of x when y = 35.y = 7x
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.