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 café orders 340 bread rolls at 24p each and 85 cakes at £1.35 each. Work out the total cost of the order.
- 2.Write the ratio 18:22 in its simplest form.
- 3.Write down the reciprocal of 5/8
- 4.In the number 3.472, work out the value of the digit 7.
- 5.A recipe uses 160 g of flour. Sam wants to increase the amount by 1/4. Work out the new amount of flour.
- 6.Write the ratio 4x : 6x in its simplest form, where x is a positive number.
- 7.Work out √25 + 4² − 12 ÷ 3
- 8.A bag contains 7 red counters and 15 blue counters. Write down the ratio of red counters to blue counters in its simplest form.
- 9.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.
- 10.Write 90 as a product of its prime factors.
- 11.A cycle route is 350 m long. A footpath runs alongside it for 3/7 of that length. Work out the length of the footpath.
- 12.Work out 100 − 4 × 5²
- 13.A jug holds 3 1/3 litres of juice. Each glass holds 2/3 of a litre. Work out how many glasses can be filled from the jug.
- 14.Work out an estimate for 6.4 × 3.9, by rounding each number to the nearest whole number.
- 15.Work out (−2)³ + (−3)² − (−4)
- 16.A metal alloy is made from copper and tin in the ratio 7:3. Work out the mass of tin in 250 g of the alloy.
- 17.Work out (5 + 2) × 3²
- 18.Write 250 g : 2 kg as a ratio in its simplest form.
- 19.Work out (2/3)² + (1/2)². Give your answer as a fraction.
- 20.The price of a cycling helmet rises from £80 to £116. Work out the percentage increase.
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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