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 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.
- 2.Work out −4.5 + 2.8.
- 3.Write 0.35 as a fraction in its lowest terms.
- 4.The highest common factor of two numbers is 4 and their lowest common multiple is 60. One of the numbers is 20. Work out the other number.
- 5.Write 0.45 as a fraction in its simplest form.
- 6.Work out 3/8 of 96.
- 7.A cinema has 250 seats. 12% of the seats are reserved. Work out how many of the seats are reserved.
- 8.Write down the reciprocal of 5/8
- 9.Work out the highest common factor of 15 and 25.
- 10.Grace works out 7 × 99 by writing 99 as 100 − 1. Use her method to work out 7 × 99.
- 11.Simplify the ratio 45 : 30 : 75 to its simplest form.
- 12.Work out the lowest common multiple of 4 and 6.
- 13.Jack buys 3 books, each costing £4.25, and pays with a £20 note. Work out how much change he receives.
- 14.A rectangular field measures 19.6 m by 48.3 m. Work out an estimate for the area of the field, by rounding each length to 1 significant figure.
- 15.3/5 of the students in a year group walk to school. 90 students walk to school. Work out the total number of students in the year group.
- 16.Write 250 g : 2 kg as a ratio in its simplest form.
- 17.Work out 20 − 8 ÷ 2 + 1
- 18.Simplify the ratio 12 : 18 : 30 to its simplest form.
- 19.Work out (−3) × 4 + 10
- 20.Priya adds 3.6 and 0.45 on paper and writes down 3.65 as her answer. Work out the correct value of 3.6 + 0.45.
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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- ⚖️ Foundation to Higher crossover check · 20 questions · ~35 min
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