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 0.25 as a percentage.
- 2.After a price increase of 10%, a laptop costs £330. Work out the original price.
- 3.Work out an estimate for 79.3 − 24.6, by rounding each number to the nearest whole number.
- 4.Divide 84 in the ratio 3:4. Work out the smaller share.
- 5.40% of a number is 12 more than 25% of the same number. Work out the number.
- 6.Work out 5 + 3 × (9 − 6)
- 7.Work out the value of √(16 + 9)
- 8.Work out an estimate for 6.8 × 41, by rounding each number to 1 significant figure.
- 9.Write 2 m : 150 cm : 50 cm as a ratio of whole numbers in its simplest form.
- 10.Write 45 minutes : 2 hours as a ratio in its simplest form.
- 11.Write 200 as a product of its prime factors, using index notation.
- 12.Work out (−3) × 4 + 10
- 13.Priya invests £750 in a savings account that pays simple interest. After 3 years, the account contains £840. Work out the annual rate of simple interest.
- 14.In a test, Amelia answered 18 of the 24 questions correctly. Work out the percentage of the questions she answered correctly.
- 15.Find the missing number: 17 × ▢ = 391
- 16.Work out 15% of £40, using 10% and 5%.
- 17.Work out 4368 ÷ 12.
- 18.In a recipe the mass of chocolate to the mass of milk is in the ratio 1:4. Amelia uses 200 g of milk. Work out the mass of chocolate she needs.
- 19.Grace's mean mark in her maths tests rises from 70 to 84. Work out the percentage increase in her mean mark.
- 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