12 short questions across all six content areas, designed as a lesson starter or a daily warm-up.
⏱️ Ten-minute starters — Foundation
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.Two straight lines AB and CD cross at point O. Angle AOC = 74°. Work out angle AOD.
- 2.A kite string makes an angle of 30° with the ground. The kite is flying at a height of 6 m directly above a point on the ground. Using the exact value of sin 30°, work out the exact length of the kite string.
- 3.A sequence has the position-to-term rule n² + 1, where n is the position number. Work out how much bigger the 5th term is than the 4th term.
- 4.The rainfall, in millimetres, was recorded in Cambridge on six days: 12, 5, 9, 15, 3 and 11. Work out the range of the rainfall.
- 5.The point (4, −3) is reflected in the y-axis. Work out the coordinates of the image point.
- 6.In a kite, one pair of opposite angles are equal in size. In kite WXYZ, angle X = 40° and angle Z = 100° are the two angles that are NOT equal to each other. The other two angles, W and Y, are equal to each other. Work out the size of angle W.
- 7.Which expression means the same as a × a × a?
- 8.Priya says: 'To find the arc length of a sector, you divide the circumference by the angle in degrees.' Which statement about Priya's method is correct?
- 9.The first five terms of a sequence are 2, 5, 8, 11, 14. Work out an expression, in terms of n, for the nth term.
- 10.A garden centre recorded 240 plant sales using a frequency tree. The first stage splits the sales into three types: shrubs, bedding plants and trees. 96 sales were shrubs, 114 were bedding plants and the rest were trees. Work out the probability that a sale chosen at random from these 240 was a tree.
- 11.A fair six-sided dice is rolled 300 times. Work out how many more times you would expect it to land on an even number than on a six.
- 12.Which expression means 'y squared, multiplied by 3'?
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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