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 population of penguins on an island is 2400. The population is predicted to grow by 7% each year. Work out the predicted population after 2 years, to the nearest whole number.
- 2.At a school fête, a stall invites visitors to spin a fair spinner with 8 equal sections numbered 1 to 8, and separately toss a fair coin. A visitor wins a small prize only if the spinner lands on a multiple of 3 and the coin lands on heads. Work out the probability that a visitor wins a prize, giving your answer as a fraction in its simplest form.
- 3.Sophie's mother is 34 years old. In x years' time she will be 50 years old. Work out the value of x.
- 4.Which of these is written correctly in standard form?
- 5.A sector of a circle has radius 15 cm and angle 216°. Using π = 3.14, work out the arc length of the sector.
- 6.A parallelogram has an area of 84 cm² and a base of 12 cm. Work out the perpendicular height of the parallelogram.
- 7.A rhombus has all four sides equal in length. Write down how many pairs of parallel sides a rhombus has.
- 8.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.
- 9.A fruit bowl contains apples, pears and plums in the ratio 3 : 4 : 5. What fraction of the fruit are not plums?
- 10.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?
- 11.An archer hits the bullseye with probability 0.24 on any one shot. She wants to know how many shots she must take to expect to hit the bullseye 12 times. Work out how many shots this is.
- 12.A regular polygon has an exterior angle of 45°. Work out the number of sides of the polygon.
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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