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 3/4 as a percentage.
- 2.Write 0.36 as a fraction in its simplest form.
- 3.Write 0.06 as a fraction in its simplest form.
- 4.A gym increases its membership price by 1/5. The original price is £60. Work out the new price.
- 5.After a 20% discount, a jacket costs £48. Work out the original price of the jacket.
- 6.Work out √25 + 4² − 12 ÷ 3
- 7.A café orders 340 bread rolls at 24p each and 85 cakes at £1.35 each. Work out the total cost of the order.
- 8.Work out 1/2 of 1/4 of 80.
- 9.A rectangular plywood panel measures 2.4 m by 0.75 m. Work out the area of the panel in square metres, giving your answer as a fraction in its simplest form.
- 10.The price of a jacket increases by 50% and then decreases by 50%. Describe the overall change from the original price.
- 11.Work out the highest common factor of 12 and 18.
- 12.Work out 25% of 200.
- 13.Work out (2/3)² + (1/2)². Give your answer as a fraction.
- 14.A charity shop and a school share collection-box money in the ratio 5 : 8. The charity shop receives £47.50. Work out how much the school receives.
- 15.Write down the decimal that is equal to 3/5.
- 16.A cinema has 21 rows of seats with 29 seats in each row. Work out an estimate for the number of people the cinema can hold, by rounding each number to 1 significant figure.
- 17.Work out 3/8 of 96.
- 18.Work out the value of √(16 + 9)
- 19.Write the fraction 3/4 as a decimal.
- 20.Oliver uses his calculator to work out 25% of 80 and writes down 320. Without using a calculator, work out the correct value of 25% of 80.
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
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