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 the ratio 20 : 30 in its simplest form.
- 2.2.4 kg of cheese costs £36. Work out the cost of 1.5 kg of the same cheese.
- 3.A café buys 18 boxes of teabags at £3.45 each, and sells all the teabags for £108 in total. Work out the café's profit.
- 4.A jacket normally costs £65. In a sale it is reduced by 20%, and the shop then takes a further £5 off at the till. Work out the final price.
- 5.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.
- 6.A spreadsheet shows that 812 − 397 = 315. Work out an estimate for 812 − 397, by rounding each number to the nearest 100, to check whether the spreadsheet's answer is reasonable.
- 7.Write 400 g : 1.5 kg as a ratio in its simplest form.
- 8.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.
- 9.A laptop costs £720. A carrying case for it costs 1/9 of the price of the laptop. Work out the cost of the carrying case.
- 10.Work out (−2/5) × (−10/3). Give your answer as a fraction in its simplest form.
- 11.Which of these numbers is a common factor of 18 and 24?
- 12.A cinema has 250 seats. 12% of the seats are reserved. Work out how many of the seats are reserved.
- 13.Write the ratio 3/4 : 1/2 as a ratio of whole numbers in its simplest form.
- 14.Write 0.325 as a fraction in its simplest form.
- 15.Which of these ratios is equivalent to 2:3?
- 16.Write 75p : £1.50 as a ratio of whole numbers in its simplest form.
- 17.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.
- 18.A fruit bowl contains 9 apples and 21 oranges. Write down the ratio of apples to oranges in its simplest form.
- 19.Tickets to a theme park cost £38.50 for an adult and £19.75 for a child. A family estimates the total cost for 4 adults and 3 children, by rounding each ticket price to the nearest £5. Work out their estimate for the total cost.
- 20.A sum of £150 is divided between Ben and Chloe in the ratio 2:3. Work out Chloe's share.
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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