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.A scout leader is 44 years old and one of the scouts is 16 years old. Work out how many years it will be until the leader is exactly twice as old as the scout.
(a)6 years
(b)12 years
(c)14 years
(d)28 years
2.A cuboid has a length, width and height that are all different from each other. How many planes of symmetry does it have?
(a)9
(b)3
(c)1
(d)6
3.In a fruit bowl, the number of bananas is 3/4 of the number of apples. There are 16 apples in the bowl. Write the number of apples as a fraction of the number of bananas. Give your answer in its simplest form.
(a)3/4
(b)4/3
(c)4/7
(d)4/1
4.The midpoint of the line segment AB is (3, 5). A is the point (1, 3). Work out the coordinates of B.
(a)(5, 7)
(b)(2, 2)
(c)(4, 8)
(d)(6, 10)
5.In triangle ABC and triangle DEF, the angle at A and the angle at D are both 40°, and the angle at B and the angle at E are both 70°. No side lengths are given. Write down whether the two triangles must be similar, with the reason.
(a)No, because the triangles may be different sizes
(b)Yes, by the SSS condition
(c)No, because no side lengths are given
(d)Yes, by the AA condition
6.A cuboid-shaped shipping crate has a length of 12 m, a width of 5 m, and a volume of 360 m³. Work out the height of the crate, in metres.
(a)30 m
(b)6 m
(c)300 m
(d)72 m
7.The height, h metres, of a ball t seconds after a stopwatch is started follows h = (t − 1)(5 − t) for 1 ≤ t ≤ 5, where h = 0 means the ball is at ground level. Work out the two times at which the ball is at ground level.
(a)t = 1 second and t = 4 seconds
(b)t = 1 second and t = −5 seconds
(c)t = 1 second and t = 5 seconds
(d)t = −1 second and t = 5 seconds
8.A sector of a circle has radius 10 cm and angle 72°. Using π = 3.14, work out the arc length of the sector.
(a)25.12 cm
(b)6.28 cm
(c)62.8 cm
(d)12.56 cm
9.A rectangular gate is braced with a diagonal strut. The gate is 1.2 m wide and 0.9 m tall. Work out the exact length of the diagonal strut.
(a)2.1 m
(b)0.3 m
(c)2.25 m
(d)1.5 m
10.A fair coin is flipped and an ordinary fair dice is rolled. Every possible result is listed in a table. Work out how many different results the table contains altogether.
(a)8
(b)36
(c)6
(d)12
11.Point A has coordinates (4, −5). Point B has coordinates (4, 3). Work out the distance between A and B.
(a)8
(b)3
(c)−2
(d)0
12.Which of these decimals lies between 1/4 and 2/5?
(a)0.45
(b)0.2
(c)0.5
(d)0.3

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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