12 short questions across all six content areas, designed as a lesson starter or a daily warm-up.

⏱️ Ten-minute starters — Foundation

Maths · GCSE Foundation · 12 questions · ~10 min

MathsUKwww.geekhero.co.uk

Twelve short questions, two from each of the six content areas: number, algebra, ratio, geometry, probability and statistics. Nothing here needs more than a minute, and nothing needs a calculator. It is built as a lesson starter — print it, hand it out, take ten minutes, mark it together — and it works just as well as a daily warm-up at home in the fortnight before a mock. The value is in the spread rather than the depth: a student who has spent a week on algebra can find out in ten minutes what a week away from statistics has cost. Generate a new sheet whenever you want a fresh twelve on the same pattern.

1.Write down the first four terms of the sequence with nth term 6n − 5.
(a)0, 6, 12, 18
(b)6, 12, 18, 24
(c)1, 7, 13, 19
(d)5, 11, 17, 23
2.A room plan is drawn to a scale of 1 : 50. A wall in the room is 4 m long in real life. Work out the length of the wall on the plan, in centimetres.
(a)80 cm
(b)20000 cm
(c)0.08 cm
(d)8 cm
3.Harry counted the coins he found on each of six days: 5, 7, 8, 9, 11, 30. Write down the outlier.
(a)30
(b)8.5
(c)11
(d)5
4.Tickets for a fairground ride are sold in packs of 6. Tokens for the dodgems are sold in packs of 10. Yusuf wants to buy the smallest number of packs of each so that he ends up with the same number of ride tickets as dodgem tokens. Work out how many ride tickets that is.
(a)16
(b)30
(c)60
(d)2
5.A metal block has a mass of 270 g and a volume of 30 cm³. Work out the density of the block, in g/cm³.
(a)8100 g/cm³
(b)240 g/cm³
(c)9 g/cm³
(d)270 g/cm³
6.A coach journey has a 55 minute first leg, a 20 minute break and a 40 minute second leg. The coach leaves at 13:25. Work out the arrival time, using the 24-hour clock.
(a)15:00
(b)14:40
(c)14:25
(d)15:20
7.Triangle ABC has AB = 10 cm, BC = 7 cm and angle A = 40°. Triangle DEF has DE = 10 cm, EF = 7 cm and angle D = 40°. Sam says the two triangles are congruent by SAS. Which statement about Sam's claim is correct?
(a)Wrong - none of the sides or angles match
(b)Correct, but by ASA rather than SAS
(c)Correct - two sides and an angle match
(d)Wrong - the given angle is not the included angle
8.Two mathematically similar cylinders have heights in the ratio 3 : 4. Write the ratio of their volumes in its simplest form.
(a)9 : 16
(b)27 : 4
(c)27 : 64
(d)3 : 4
9.A straight-line graph shows the distance travelled, d kilometres, against the time taken, t hours, for a cyclist. The line passes through the origin and has a gradient of 18. Write down what the gradient of this line represents.
(a)The distance the cyclist travels in 18 hours
(b)The total distance the cyclist travels, in kilometres
(c)The time the cyclist takes, in hours
(d)The cyclist's speed, in kilometres per hour
10.The exchange rate is £1 = 1.28 US dollars. Convert £350 into US dollars.
(a)273.44 US dollars
(b)4,480.00 US dollars
(c)448.00 US dollars
(d)351.28 US dollars
11.A straight line has gradient −3 and passes through the point (0, 1). Work out the value of y when x = 2.
(a)7
(b)−5
(c)5
(d)−7
12.The diagram shows the plan view and the front elevation of a cuboid-shaped box, each drawn as a rectangle. Work out the area of the box's side elevation, in square centimetres.
(a)40 cm²
(b)120 cm²
(c)24 cm²
(d)15 cm²

What is on this worksheet?

The sheet holds 12 questions drawn from the MathsUK bank — the content areas covered: Number, Algebra, Ratio, proportion and rates of change, Geometry and measures, Probability, Statistics. It is pitched at GCSE Foundation and takes about 10 minutes to work through in full. It works as a class handout, a homework, or a warm-up before a test.

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 12 questions before checking — about 10 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 12 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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