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.Write down the coefficient of xy in the expression 4x²y − 7xy + 2.
- 2.A quarter-circle has a radius of 6 cm. Work out the exact perimeter of the quarter-circle, giving your answer in terms of π.
- 3.A hexagon has interior angles of 130°, 142°, 125°, 150°, 135° and x°. Work out the value of x.
- 4.A parallelogram has an area of 54 cm² and a base of 9 cm. Work out its perpendicular height.
- 5.Which of these numbers rounds to 0.048 when rounded to 2 significant figures?
- 6.A right-angled triangle has a hypotenuse of 29 cm and one shorter side of 20 cm. Work out the length of the other shorter side.
- 7.A sports centre in Ipswich has 2,000 members. It wants to know what its members think of its opening hours, so it asks a random sample of 100 of them. Write down what the population is in this survey.
- 8.A sequence has the position-to-term rule: the term is the square of the position number. Its first four terms are 1, 4, 9, 16. Work out the 10th term.
- 9.A roof truss has two horizontal parallel rafters, one above the other. A straight strut crosses both rafters. Where the strut crosses the lower rafter, the angle above the rafter and to the left of the strut is 65°. Work out the size of the angle above the upper rafter and to the right of the strut, where the strut crosses it.
- 10.A circle has a radius of 3 cm. Work out the diameter of the circle.
- 11.A car is hired from 10:00 on Monday until 16:00 on Thursday. Work out the total length of the hire, in hours.
- 12.A footpath is drawn 3 cm long on a map with a scale of 1 : 50 000. Work out the real length of the footpath, in metres.
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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