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 florist has 5 different flowers. Freya picks 3 of them to make a small bunch, and the order in which she picks them does not matter. Work out how many different bunches she could make.
(a)30
(b)15
(c)60
(d)10
2.Two angles are complementary. One of them is 35°. Work out the size of the other angle.
(a)90°
(b)55°
(c)145°
(d)325°
3.Work out how many factors 36 has.
(a)5
(b)10
(c)8
(d)9
4.A café buys 18 boxes of teabags at £3.45 each, and sells all the teabags for £108 in total. Work out the café's profit.
(a)£62.10
(b)£45.90
(c)£46.10
(d)£170.10
5.Priya adds 3.6 and 0.45 on paper and writes down 3.65 as her answer. Work out the correct value of 3.6 + 0.45.
(a)3.65
(b)4.05
(c)4.5
(d)0.81
6.Chloe wants to work out 3 1/4 − 1 2/3. She converts both mixed numbers to twelfths, then subtracts the whole numbers and the fraction parts separately, without checking whether she needs to exchange first. Work out the correct value of 3 1/4 − 1 2/3, giving your answer as a mixed number in its simplest form.
(a)1 3/4
(b)2 5/12
(c)8
(d)1 7/12
7.An ordinary six-sided dice, numbered 1 to 6, is rolled 30 times and lands on a 6 seven times. Ravi says the theoretical probability of rolling a 6 and the relative frequency of rolling a 6 in this trial are the same number. Is Ravi right?
(a)Yes — relative frequency always equals theory.
(b)Yes — the theoretical probability has now become 7/30.
(c)No — 7/30 is the relative frequency; theory stays 1/6.
(d)Neither can be found — 30 rolls is too few to tell.
8.A sector of a circle has radius 8 cm and takes up three-quarters of the full circle. Work out the perimeter of the sector, in terms of π.
(a)12π + 16 cm
(b)12π cm
(c)12π + 8 cm
(d)4π + 16 cm
9.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
10.Write 45,000 in standard form.
(a)4.5 × 10⁴
(b)45 × 10³
(c)4.5 × 10⁵
(d)4.5 × 10³
11.A sports centre in Newcastle asks 60 members which activity they prefer: swimming 15 members, football 25 members, badminton 12 members and other activities 8 members. Work out the angle at the centre of the pie chart sector that represents badminton.
(a)150°
(b)20°
(c)72°
(d)90°
12.A textbook contains the instruction 'Draw AB' and, on the next line, the statement 'AB = 5 cm'. Which statement about the notation AB is correct?
(a)The length must be written as |AB|, not AB
(b)A different symbol is needed for the length
(c)AB means the segment or its length, shown by context
(d)AB can only mean the segment, never a length

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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