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.Make c the subject of the formula k = 6c.
- 2.A vertical line chart shows the number of pets owned by each pupil in a class: 0 pets — 5 pupils, 1 pet — 4 pupils, 2 pets — 3 pupils, 3 pets — 3 pupils. Work out the total number of pupils in the class.
- 3.A circular plate has a diameter of 20 cm. Work out the area of the plate. Use π = 3.14.
- 4.Grace works out 7 × 99 by writing 99 as 100 − 1. Use her method to work out 7 × 99.
- 5.Work out the y-intercept of the graph of y = x² + 3x − 10.y = x² + 3x − 10
- 6.In a right-angled triangle, θ is one of the acute angles. Write down the trigonometric ratio, in terms of the opposite and adjacent sides, that is used to find θ.
- 7.Sam rounds 0.070268 to 3 significant figures and writes 0.0703. Which of these statements is correct?
- 8.Rice costs £3.20 per kg. Work out the cost of the rice in pence per 100 g.
- 9.A sequence has the position-to-term rule: the nth term is 3n. Write down the first four terms of the sequence.
- 10.A bag contains one red counter and one blue counter. Josh takes a counter, notes its colour, puts it back, then takes a counter again. He draws a tree diagram to show every possible pair of colours. Work out how many outcomes are on his tree diagram.
- 11.At a school car park, each car is a saloon, an estate or a hatchback, and no car is more than one of these. Among 200 cars, the probability that a car chosen at random is a saloon is 0.28 and the probability that it is an estate is 0.37. Work out how many of the 200 cars are hatchbacks.
- 12.A quality inspector tests 145 light bulbs and finds that 33 are faulty. Work out the relative frequency of a bulb being faulty, as a percentage correct to 1 decimal place.
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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