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 regular polygon has an exterior angle of 45°. Work out the number of sides of the polygon.
(a)4
(b)45
(c)8
(d)315
2.A cylinder has a radius of 3 cm and a height of 10 cm. Using π = 3.14, work out the volume of the cylinder.
(a)94.2 cm³
(b)90 cm³
(c)282.6 cm³
(d)1130.4 cm³
3.A lorry is carrying a load of mass m tonnes. Given that 1 tonne = 1000 kg, write down an expression for the mass of the load in kilograms.
(a)1000m
(b)m − 1000
(c)m/1000
(d)1000 + m
4.A rectangle has length k cm and width 5 cm less than its length. Write down an expression for the width of the rectangle, in cm.
(a)k + 5
(b)k − 5
(c)5k
(d)5 − k
5.Triangle PQR has vertices P(0, 0), Q(6, 0) and R(0, 8). Work out the perimeter of the triangle.
(a)48
(b)14
(c)24
(d)28
6.A garden centre tests 250 packets of seeds for germination, recording the results on a frequency tree. 68% of the 250 packets germinated successfully, and the rest did not. Work out how many packets germinated successfully.
(a)80
(b)17
(c)170
(d)175
7.A sector has an angle of 45°. Priti says: 'The area of the sector is one eighth of the area of the full circle, whatever the radius is.' Is Priti correct?
(a)No, because 45 ÷ 360 = 1/6, not 1/8.
(b)Yes, but only because the radius happens to make 45° exactly one eighth of a full turn in this particular circle.
(c)No, because the fraction of the area also depends on the radius, so it is not fixed.
(d)Yes, because 45 ÷ 360 = 1/8, and this fraction applies to any radius.
8.Write down which one of these statements about quadrilaterals is true.
(a)Every square is a rectangle
(b)Every rectangle is a rhombus
(c)Every rectangle is a square
(d)Every rhombus is a rectangle
9.A cyclist's journey from her house to the shop is represented by the column vector with top number 2 and bottom number 5, where each unit is 1 km east and 1 km north. She then cycles from the shop to the park, represented by the column vector with top number 4 and bottom number −3. What single column vector represents her journey from her house directly to the park?
(a)(2, −8)
(b)(6, 2)
(c)(6, 8)
(d)(−2, 8)
10.A window is made from a rectangle with a semicircle on top. The rectangle is 40 cm wide and 60 cm tall. The semicircle has the same width as the rectangle. Work out the total area of the window. Use π = 3.14. Give your answer to the nearest whole number.
(a)4912 cm²
(b)2400 cm²
(c)3028 cm²
(d)3656 cm²
11.Work out −4.5 + 2.8.
(a)1.7
(b)−7.3
(c)−2.3
(d)−1.7
12.The bearing of a harbour B from a ferry's position A is 260°. What is the bearing of A from B?
(a)080°
(b)100°
(c)180°
(d)440°

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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