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.Which of these describes an obtuse angle?
- 2.Triangles LMN and XYZ have LM = XY, MN = YZ and LN = XZ. Give a reason why triangle LMN is congruent to triangle XYZ.
- 3.x is 2/3 of y. Write the ratio x : y in its simplest form.
- 4.Work out (2/3)² + (1/2)². Give your answer as a fraction.
- 5.A car is hired from 10:00 on Monday until 16:00 on Thursday. Work out the total length of the hire, in hours.
- 6.Which of these equations gives a graph with two separate curved branches — one where x and y are both positive, and one where x and y are both negative?
- 7.Two mathematically similar cylinders have heights in the ratio 3 : 4. Write the ratio of their volumes in its simplest form.
- 8.The probability that it rains in Manchester tomorrow is 1/12. Work out the probability that it does not rain in Manchester tomorrow.
- 9.The nth term of a sequence is n² + 3. Work out the first term of the sequence that is greater than 50.
- 10.A submarine travels due south. What is the three-figure bearing for this direction?
- 11.Isla and her brother share £60 in the ratio 1:2. Work out Isla's share.
- 12.A recipe gives the cooking time, in minutes, for a chicken as T = 40m + 20, where m is the mass in kg. A chicken has a mass of 1.8 kg. Work out the cooking time in hours and minutes.
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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