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 numbers lies between −4 and −1 on a number line?
- 2.The numbers 2, 4, 6, 8, 10 and 12 have a mean of 7 and a median of 7. The value 100 is now added to the list. Which measure is changed more by adding 100, and why?
- 3.In which quadrant does the point (−3, 0.5) lie?
- 4.A hiker walks on a bearing of 065°. She then turns clockwise through 90° and continues walking in a straight line. What bearing is she now walking on?
- 5.Jack is x years old. His brother Kwame is 3 years older than Jack. Write down an expression for Kwame's age.
- 6.The probability that Priya's dentist appointment overruns is 0.35. Work out the probability that it does not overrun.
- 7.Freya buys three items whose prices are in the ratio 2:3:5. Altogether she pays £400. Work out the price of the most expensive item.
- 8.A company charges for hiring chairs for a day. Hiring 1 chair costs £12, hiring 2 chairs costs £19, hiring 3 chairs costs £26, and hiring 4 chairs costs £33. Work out an expression, in terms of n, for the cost in pounds of hiring n chairs for a day.
- 9.A photograph is 10 cm wide and 15 cm tall. It is enlarged to make a similar poster that is 40 cm wide. The poster costs £0.80 per centimetre of its height to print, based on its full height. Work out the cost of printing the poster.
- 10.Jack rolls two ordinary fair dice and adds the two scores together. Work out the probability that the total is 6.
- 11.A number, n, is tripled and then 4.5 is added. The result is 22.5. Form an equation and solve it to find n.
- 12.Two similar triangular tiles have lengths in the ratio 3 : 5. The longest side of the smaller tile is 9 cm. Work out the length of the longest side of the larger tile.
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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