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.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.
- 2.Write the ratio 2 : 1/4 as a ratio of whole numbers in its simplest form.
- 3.Write down the reciprocal of 0.2
- 4.A student always writes the digits after the decimal point over a denominator of 100, whatever the number of decimal places. Using this wrong rule, they convert 0.9 to a fraction. Work out the correct fraction that 0.9 is equal to, giving your answer in its simplest form.
- 5.A car is bought for £17,500. Its value decreases by 12% in the first year, and by a further 10% of its reduced value in the second year. Work out the value of the car at the end of the second year, giving your answer to the nearest pound.
- 6.Work out 250 ÷ 1000.
- 7.Grace's mean mark in her maths tests rises from 70 to 84. Work out the percentage increase in her mean mark.
- 8.The price of a share falls by 10% on Monday and then rises by 10% on Tuesday. Work out the overall percentage change from Monday's starting price.
- 9.Which of these ratios is equivalent to 5 : 4?
- 10.Work out 3 + 4 × (−2).
- 11.Write 0.875 as a fraction in its simplest form.
- 12.Work out an estimate for 2.9² + 3.1², by rounding each number to the nearest whole number.
- 13.In a test, Amelia answered 18 of the 24 questions correctly. Work out the percentage of the questions she answered correctly.
- 14.An amount of money is shared in the ratio 1:2:3. The largest share is £90 more than the smallest share. Work out the total amount that was shared.
- 15.Simplify the ratio 45 : 30 : 75 to its simplest form.
- 16.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.
- 17.Work out 4368 ÷ 12.
- 18.Work out an estimate for 312 × 19, by rounding each number to 1 significant figure.
- 19.Work out −6 × (−3).
- 20.A concert hall has 300 seats. 20% of the seats are in the balcony. Work out how many of the seats are in the balcony.
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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