20 questions with no calculator: the four operations, fractions, percentages, order of operations, factors and estimation.
✏️ Paper 1 non-calculator warm-up — Foundation
Paper 1 is worth exactly as much as each calculator paper, and it is the one most Foundation students practise least. This sheet is a warm-up for it: twenty questions drawn from the number and ratio statements that turn up on the non-calculator paper year after year — column arithmetic with decimals and negatives, adding and subtracting fractions, percentages of amounts, priority of operations, factors and multiples, and estimating by rounding to one significant figure. Do it with a pen and nothing else. Twenty-five minutes is about right, but do not stop early if you need longer; the point is to find out which of these have quietly gone rusty, not to score well. Mark it, then go back to the topic page for whichever one cost you the most.
- 1.A company's profit this year is 130% of last year's profit. Last year's profit was £40,000. Work out this year's profit.
- 2.Work out an estimate for 6.8 × 41, by rounding each number to 1 significant figure.
- 3.A box holds 140 pens. 25% of the pens are red. Work out how many of the pens are red.
- 4.Write 350 ml : 1.4 l as a ratio in its simplest form.
- 5.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.
- 6.The price of a jacket increases by 50% and then decreases by 50%. Describe the overall change from the original price.
- 7.A class has 28 pupils. 16 of the pupils are girls and the rest are boys. Write the ratio of girls to boys in its simplest form.
- 8.A charity raffle sells 240 tickets at £1.85 each. 40% of the money raised is given to a local hospital. Work out how much money the hospital receives.
- 9.A rectangular patio measures 90 cm by 120 cm. Ben wants to cover it exactly with identical square tiles, as large as possible, with no tiles cut. Work out the side length of the largest square tile he can use.
- 10.Grace's mean mark in her maths tests rises from 70 to 84. Work out the percentage increase in her mean mark.
- 11.Is 120 divisible by 5? Give a reason for your answer.
- 12.Work out an estimate for 37 × 84, by rounding each number to 1 significant figure.
- 13.Light travels at 2.998 × 10⁸ metres per second. A distant object in space is 3.1 × 10¹⁵ metres from Earth. Work out an estimate for the number of seconds light takes to travel from the object to Earth, by rounding each number to 1 significant figure.
- 14.Write 0.325 as a fraction in its simplest form.
- 15.Write 0.25 as a percentage.
- 16.Work out an estimate for 312 × 19, by rounding each number to 1 significant figure.
- 17.Write 200 as a product of its prime factors, using index notation.
- 18.Write £3.60 : £2.40 as a ratio in its simplest form.
- 19.Work out the highest common factor of 12 and 18.
- 20.A water tank holds 80 litres when full. It currently contains 60 litres. Work out what fraction of the tank is empty.
What is on this worksheet?
The sheet holds 20 questions drawn from the MathsUK bank — the content areas covered: Number, Ratio, proportion and rates of change (statements N2, N3, N4, N10, N12, N14, R4, R5, R9). It is pitched at GCSE Foundation and takes about 25 minutes to work through in full. It is built for independent practice, with full answers at the end for self-marking.
How to use the sheet well
- Print it or open it on screen — both work. Printing is A4; the screen view fits phones and tablets.
- Do all 20 questions before checking — about 25 minutes is the guide, but there is no time pressure.
- Check the answers — press “Show answers” or print the answer page separately.
- Redo the questions you got wrong — twice as effective as doing 20 fresh ones.
- “New questions” — builds a fresh sheet on the same statements, so you can practise again without repeats.
Why this sheet helps
MathsUK worksheets use questions graded by difficulty and a fair spread of correct-answer positions (the answer is not always (a)) — so the student really has to think about each question rather than guess a pattern. Every question is tagged to a DfE content statement and checked before it enters the bank. The answers come with a step-by-step explanation, not just a value — so a wrong answer becomes a lesson.
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