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.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.
- 2.A courier's van has a weight limit of 850 kg for its parcels. The driver's display shows the total mass of the parcels loaded as 850 kg, correct to the nearest 5 kg. Decide whether the parcels are definitely within the weight limit.
- 3.In parallelogram ABCD the vertices are labelled in order round the shape, so angle A and angle B are at the two ends of the same side. Angle A is 70°. Work out the size of angle B.
- 4.A number, x, is truncated (not rounded) to 1 decimal place and the result is 6.2. Write down the error interval for x.
- 5.The length of ribbon A is 5/12 of the length of ribbon B. Write the length of ribbon B as a fraction of the length of ribbon A.
- 6.A recipe needs 1.2 kg of flour. Dan has 750 g of flour in his cupboard. Write the mass of flour the recipe needs as a fraction of the mass of flour Dan has. Give your answer in its simplest form.
- 7.Work out the difference between 45% of 70 and 35% of 80.
- 8.A sector of a circle has radius 15 cm and angle 216°. Using π = 3.14, work out the arc length of the sector.
- 9.Work out an estimate for 79.3 − 24.6, by rounding each number to the nearest whole number.
- 10.Two quantities x and y are inversely proportional. When x = 2, the value of y is 15. Work out the value of y when x = 5.
- 11.A sequence has the position-to-term rule: the nth term is 3n. Write down the first four terms of the sequence.
- 12.A sector of a circle has radius 10 cm and angle 72°. Using π = 3.14, work out the arc length of the sector.
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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