20 questions with no calculator: the four operations, fractions, percentages, order of operations, factors and estimation.

✏️ Paper 1 non-calculator warm-up — Foundation

Maths · GCSE Foundation · 20 questions · ~25 min

MathsUKwww.geekhero.co.uk

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 0.25 as a percentage.
(a)2.5%
(b)0.25%
(c)250%
(d)25%
2.Estimate the value of √45, giving your answer to the nearest whole number.
(a)2,025
(b)7
(c)6
(d)22.5
3.Work out 3 × (−2)² − 5
(a)7
(b)−3
(c)31
(d)−17
4.A bag contains red counters and blue counters in the ratio 5:3. There are 56 counters in the bag altogether. Work out how many counters are blue.
(a)35
(b)7
(c)28
(d)21
5.A charity bake sale sells 187 cakes at £2.95 each. By rounding each number to 1 significant figure, work out an estimate for the total amount raised.
(a)£600
(b)£400
(c)£561
(d)£570
6.Write the fraction 9/25 as a decimal.
(a)0.9
(b)2.8
(c)0.36
(d)0.925
7.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.
(a)36
(b)6
(c)108
(d)216
8.The rent on a flat increases by 10% one year and by a further 10% the following year. Work out the overall percentage increase over the two years.
(a)121%
(b)11%
(c)21%
(d)20%
9.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.
(a)£45
(b)£37
(c)£25
(d)£22
10.A recipe uses 0.625 kg of flour. Write this mass as a fraction of a kilogram, in its simplest form.
(a)31/50
(b)25/4
(c)5/8
(d)8/5
11.Work out how many factors 36 has.
(a)5
(b)10
(c)8
(d)9
12.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.
(a)9 × 10²³ seconds
(b)3 × 10⁷ seconds
(c)1 × 10⁻⁷ seconds
(d)1 × 10⁷ seconds
13.Write down the fraction, in its simplest form, that is equal to 0.6
(a)1/6
(b)2/3
(c)3/50
(d)3/5
14.Work out √25 + 4² − 12 ÷ 3
(a)9
(b)17
(c)3
(d)37
15.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.
(a)4:7
(b)3:4
(c)8:6
(d)4:3
16.Priya has 24 red beads and 36 blue beads. She makes identical bracelets, using every bead and with none left over. Work out the greatest number of bracelets she can make.
(a)6
(b)72
(c)60
(d)12
17.Tickets for a fairground ride are sold in packs of 6. Tokens for the dodgems are sold in packs of 10. Yusuf wants to buy the smallest number of packs of each so that he ends up with the same number of ride tickets as dodgem tokens. Work out how many ride tickets that is.
(a)16
(b)30
(c)60
(d)2
18.The width, the length and the height of a box are in the ratio 3:4:5. The length of the box is 16 cm. Work out the height of the box.
(a)20 cm
(b)80 cm
(c)4 cm
(d)12 cm
19.Grace's mean mark in her maths tests rises from 70 to 84. Work out the percentage increase in her mean mark.
(a)20%
(b)120%
(c)17%
(d)14%
20.A water tank holds 80 litres when full. It currently contains 60 litres. Work out what fraction of the tank is empty.
(a)1/4
(b)1/3
(c)3/4
(d)1/5

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