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.Solve x² − 6x = 0.
- 2.Solve the inequality 5 − x ≤ 2.
- 3.At a tombola stall, each ticket wins a toy, wins a sweet or wins nothing, and no ticket can win more than one of these. The probability that a ticket wins a toy is 0.15 and the probability that it wins a sweet is 0.4. Work out the probability that a ticket wins neither a toy nor a sweet.
- 4.A jug holds 3 litres of a drink that is 60% fruit juice. 1 litre of water is added to the jug. Work out the percentage of the new mixture that is fruit juice.
- 5.Two ordinary fair dice are rolled. Work out the probability that both dice show the same score.
- 6.Triangle DEF is isosceles, with DE = DF. Angle E = 58°. Work out angle F.
- 7.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.
- 8.In triangle ABC, angle ABC = 90° and angle BAC = 30°. The hypotenuse AC = 12 cm. Work out the exact length of AB.
- 9.Work out the total cost of 3 pens at 45p each and one notebook at £2.35. Give your answer in pounds.
- 10.In a mix of mortar the ratio of the mass of sand to the mass of cement is 5 : 2. Write the mass of cement as a fraction of the total mass of the mix.
- 11.A straight line has gradient −3 and passes through the point (0, 1). Work out the value of y when x = 2.
- 12.A shop's profit, P pounds, is in direct proportion to the number of items sold, n. When 15 items are sold, the profit is £45. Write down the ratio n : P in its simplest form for this shop.
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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