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.Write 0.45 as a fraction in its simplest form.
- 2.Write 0.875 as a fraction in its simplest form.
- 3.Work out −6 × (−3).
- 4.Work out 3 1/5 + 1 2/3. Give your answer as a mixed number in its simplest form.
- 5.Work out (−3) × 4 + 2 × (−5)
- 6.A recipe uses 0.625 kg of flour. Write this mass as a fraction of a kilogram, in its simplest form.
- 7.Simplify the ratio 45 : 30 : 75 to its simplest form.
- 8.Work out 3 + 4 × 2²
- 9.A shade of paint is made by mixing blue paint and white paint. To make 5 litres of the shade, 2 litres of blue paint is used and the rest is white paint. Write the ratio of blue paint to white paint in its simplest form.
- 10.Write 45 minutes : 2 hours as a ratio in its simplest form.
- 11.A shop buys boxes of pens for £4 each. It sells each box on to a school for £3 more than it paid, and charges an extra £2 delivery fee for the whole order. A school orders 5 boxes. Work out the total cost of the order.
- 12.Work out (−6) + (−4) × 3
- 13.A number is divided by 5, then 6 is subtracted, giving the result −1. Work out the number.
- 14.A water tank holds 80 litres when full. It currently contains 60 litres. Work out what fraction of the tank is empty.
- 15.Work out 18 − 4 × 2
- 16.Work out 25% of 200.
- 17.Write the fraction 3/4 as a decimal.
- 18.2/3 of an amount of money is £30. Work out the amount.
- 19.Work out how many factors 100 has.
- 20.A restaurant adds a service charge of 15% to a bill of £120. Work out the service charge.
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.
Similar worksheets worth a look
- 🧮 Paper 1 non-calculator warm-up — Higher · 20 questions · ~25 min
- 🎯 Grade 4 pass booster · 25 questions · ~40 min
- ⚖️ Foundation to Higher crossover check · 20 questions · ~35 min
- 💷 Percentages and compound interest · 22 questions · ~40 min