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 400 g : 1.5 kg as a ratio in its simplest form.
- 2.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.
- 3.A number is multiplied by 4, then 8 is added, giving the result 40. Work out the number.
- 4.Write the ratio 18:22 in its simplest form.
- 5.Work out (−36) ÷ (−6) × 2
- 6.Work out the highest common factor of 20 and 32.
- 7.Which of these numbers is a common factor of 18 and 24?
- 8.A jumper is reduced by 15% in a sale to a price of £42.50. Work out the original price.
- 9.A charity fun run raises money through entry fees and donations. Entry fees raise £1,260, which is 60% of the total amount raised. Work out how much money was raised through donations.
- 10.Write the ratio 3/4 : 1/2 as a ratio of whole numbers in its simplest form.
- 11.Work out an estimate for 8,900 ÷ 29, by rounding each number to 1 significant figure.
- 12.Amelia estimates 48 × 21 by working out 50 × 20 = 1,000. Work out whether her estimate is an under-estimate or an over-estimate, and by how much.
- 13.A roll of ribbon is 8.4 m long. Ribbon is cut into pieces that are each 0.6 m long. Work out how many complete pieces can be cut from the roll.
- 14.A jumper costs £45 at Shop A, where it is reduced by 20%. The same jumper costs £34 at Shop B, where a further 10% reduction is then applied. Work out the difference between the two reduced prices.
- 15.Work out an estimate for 312 × 19, by rounding each number to 1 significant figure.
- 16.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.
- 17.Which of these ratios is equivalent to 2:3?
- 18.Work out 15% of £40, using 10% and 5%.
- 19.The price of a games console is reduced by 10%. In a later sale the reduced price is reduced by 10% again. Work out the overall percentage decrease.
- 20.In a class, 1/3 of the pupils are girls. There are 12 girls in the class. Work out how many pupils are in the class.
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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