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 cinema has 250 seats. 12% of the seats are reserved. Work out how many of the seats are reserved.
- 2.40% of a number is 12 more than 25% of the same number. Work out the number.
- 3.A student always writes the digits after the decimal point over a denominator of 100, whatever the number of decimal places. Using this wrong rule, they convert 0.9 to a fraction. Work out the correct fraction that 0.9 is equal to, giving your answer in its simplest form.
- 4.Work out the reciprocal of (2 + 3)
- 5.The price of a jacket increases by 50% and then decreases by 50%. Describe the overall change from the original price.
- 6.A box holds 140 pens. 25% of the pens are red. Work out how many of the pens are red.
- 7.Insert one pair of brackets into 2 + 3 × 5 − 1 so that the calculation is equal to 24. Which calculation is correct?
- 8.Write the ratio 8 : 15 in the form 1 : n.
- 9.Is 120 divisible by 5? Give a reason for your answer.
- 10.Write down a prime number between 30 and 40.
- 11.The number 72 can be written as 2³ × 3², and the number 108 can be written as 2² × 3³. Work out the highest common factor of 72 and 108.
- 12.A pair of trainers is priced at £80 online. The shop takes 25% off the price and then adds £10 for next-day delivery. Work out the total cost.
- 13.A recipe for pastry uses flour and butter in the ratio 3:2. A baker has 180 g of butter and wants to make pastry using all of it. Work out the total mass of pastry the baker can make.
- 14.Jack buys 3 books, each costing £4.25, and pays with a £20 note. Work out how much change he receives.
- 15.Write the ratio 18:22 in its simplest form.
- 16.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.
- 17.A jumper is reduced by 15% in a sale to a price of £42.50. Work out the original price.
- 18.Work out 1 − 1/2 − 1/4 − 1/8 − 1/16. Give your answer as a fraction.
- 19.A cycle route is 350 m long. A footpath runs alongside it for 3/7 of that length. Work out the length of the footpath.
- 20.Write 0.36 as a fraction in its simplest form.
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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