GCSE Mathematics

1MA1

Problem-solving
questions 1
Foundation Tier
Time: 1 hour 30 minutes
You should have: Ruler graduated in centimetres and millimetres,
protractor, pair of compasses, pen, HB pencil, eraser.

Calculator permitted

Questions with * could be seen on Higher Tier

1. Here is part of a special menu.

A meal is 1 drink
1 sandwich
1 cake

You can buy a meal from this menu.

Drinks Sandwiches Cakes

Tea 58p Cheese 78p Scone 45p
Coffee 55p Ham 82p Cream 50p
Hot milk 60p Tuna 80p Iced bun 42p

Tom has £20 to spend.

What is the greatest number of meals he can buy from this special menu?
You must show how you get your answer.

(Total for question 1 is 3 marks)

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2. Jim has three rectangular pieces of wood.
Each piece of wood has length of 40 cm and a width of 20 cm.

The diagram shows one piece of wood.

20 cm

40 cm

The three pieces of wood can be placed next to each other in different ways to make a larger
rectangle.

Work out the smallest possible perimeter of this larger rectangle.

(Total for question 2 is 3 marks)

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3. Kamran wants to rent his flat.

He finds information about three estate agents.

Each estate agent will charge a fee.

The fee, in £, is given below from these three estate agents.

Saturn Crown

C = 12.5 + 0.1R C = 0.12R

C = cost of fee in pounds (£) C = cost of fee in pounds (£)

R = monthly rent in pounds (£) R = monthly rent in pounds (£)

Romleys

The line graph gives the cost.

120

100

80
Cost (£)
60

40

20

0
0 200 400 600 800 1000
Rent (£)

Kamran wants to rent his flat for £820 per month.

Kamran wants to pay the least amount of fee.

Which estate agent should Kamran choose? You must show all your working.

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 Total for question 3 is (3 marks)
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4. ABCDE is a pentagon.

A
3x° (5x – 82)° C

E D

AB = BC
AE = CD
Angle AED = angle CDE = 90°

Work out the size of angle ABC in the pentagon ABCDE.

(Total for question 4 is 4 marks)

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5. The diagram shows a plan of a patio.
All the angles are right angles.
12 m

5m

1.5 m 1.5 m

2.4 m 2.4 m

Sandeep is going to use some weed killer on the patio.

He needs 1 litre of weed killer every 6 m2 of patio.

There are 1.75 litres of weed killer in each bottle of weed killer.

How many bottles of weed killer does Sandeep need to buy?

(Total for question 5 is 5 marks)

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6. Anna is going to deliver some goods.

She charges £8.50 per hour and 12p per mile for delivery.

She writes down her mileage before and after she has made the journey.

Before After
26985 27125

This journey takes 3 hours and 30 minutes.

How much does she charge to deliver these goods?

(Total for question 6 is 3 marks)

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7. A cake shop orders six bags of sugar.
Each bag of sugar weighs 1.25 kg.

The sugar is used in the ingredients to make a sponge cake.

Each sponge cake contains 90g of sugar.

How many cakes can be made by using the six bags of sugar?

(Total for question 7 is 3 marks)

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8. 9 dancers entered a dancing competition.

Here are their marks.

6.9 5.8 8.9 9.1 6.2 5.7 8.4 5.9 6.1

The dancers who scored more than the mean of these marks were entered into the next round.

Work out the percentage of these dancers who were entered into the next round.
Give your answer correct to 3 significant figures.

(Total for question 8 is 3 marks)

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9. Jean owns an Art Gallery.

For the last six months she worked out the following:

7254 people visited the gallery

It was open for 1240 hours in total

For 30% of the time the gallery was open she had 4 visitors per hour
1
For 4 of the time the gallery was open she had 6 visitors per hour

Work out the mean number of visitors per hour visiting the gallery for the remaining time.

(Total for question 9 is 6 marks)

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10. The diagram shows a template of eight identical circles placed on a rectangular sheet of card.

A 96 cm B

D C

AB = 96 cm

Each corner of the smaller rectangle is at the centre of a circle.

Work out the shaded area.

(Total for question 10 is 4 marks)

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11. The table shows information about the number of hours that 150 children used a computer
last week.

Number of hours (h) Frequency

0<h≤2 15
2<h≤4
4<h≤6 35
6<h≤8 45
8 < h ≤ 10
10 < h ≤ 12 10

There were twice as many children who used a computer between 8 to 10 hours as compared
to the numbers of children who use a computer between 2 to 4 hours.

Stephen says:

“I think 36% of the children used their computer for more than 8 hours.”

Is Stephen correct? You must give reasons for your answer.

(Total for question 11 is 4 marks)

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*12. Angela, Barry and Charlie walk 48 miles in total for charity.

The ratio of the number of miles walked by Angela to the number of miles walked by Barry
is 3:5

Barry walks 8 miles more than Angela.

They want to draw a pie chart to show this information.

Work out the angle of the sector for this pie chart for Charlie.

(Total for question 12 is 4 marks)

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*13. ABCDE is a regular pentagon.
DEFGHI is a regular hexagon.
B

C A

D E

I F

H G

Work out the size of angle EAF.

(Total for question 13 is 4 marks)

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*14.
E 14 cm D
25 cm

A B C

ABC is a straight line.

BCDE is a rectangle.
The area of the rectangle is 98 cm2.

ABE is a right angle.

Work out the area of triangle ABE.

(Total for question 14 is 4 marks)

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*15. Anjali has £8000 to invest in an investment plan.

Here is information about two investment plans.

Sterling Services Jupiter Investments

Compound interest Compound interest

3% for the first year. 2.5% each year.

Then 2.2% each year

Anjali wants to have as much money as possible in her investment plan at the end of two
years.

Which is the better investment, Sterling Services or Jupiter Investments?

You must show all your working.

(Total for question 15 is 3 marks)

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BLANK PAGE

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Foundation Problem Solving Questions – Mark schemes

Qn Answer Mark Notes

1 11 3 P1 for a process to find the cost of a meal
e.g. 55 + 78 + 42 or 55 + 82 + 50
P1 for a complete process to find the number of meals, allow
ft for any combination of a meal
e.g. 2000 ÷ (cost of 1 meal)
A1 for 11 from 2000 and 175
2 200 3 P1 for a process to find the perimeter of larger rectangle
e.g. [(20 + 20 + 20 + 40) × 2] (= 200)
or [(40 + 40 + 40 + 20) × 2] (= 280)
or (20 + 40 + 20 + 20 + 40 + 20 + 40) (= 200)
P1 for a complete process to find the perimeter of at least
three different rectangles
e.g. “200” , “200” and “280”
A1 cao (dependent on 2nd P1)
3 Saturn with 3 P1 for a process to calculate the cost with 1 agent.
correct e.g. 12.5 + 0.1(820) or 0.12(820)
working or a vertical line drawn at 820 and meeting the graph
P1 for a process to calculate the cost with all 3 agents
e.g. “94.5” and “98.4” and “98 – 102”
C1 for 94.5, 98.4, 98 – 102 with supporting statement
4 114 4 P1 for process to start solving the problem,
e.g. 5x – 82 = 3x
P1 for a complete process to solve the equation or x = 41
82
e.g. 5x – 3x = 82 or 2x = 82 or x = 2
P1 complete process to find the size of the missing angle ,
ft for their x (dependent on first or second P1)
e.g. 540 – 90 – 90 – (3 × “41”) – (5 ד41” – 82)
or (360 – 90 – 90 – 3 × “41”) × 2)
A1 cao
5 5 5 P1 for process to find one area
e.g. [2.4 × 5 ( = 12)] or [2.4 × 1.5 ( = 3.6)]
or [12 × ‘3.5’ ( = 42)] or [“3.5” × “7.2” = “25.2”]
P1 for a complete process to find the total area
e.g. [“3.6” + “3.6”+ “42” (= “49.2”)]
or [“12” + “12” + “25.2” (= “49.2”)]
P1 for a process to find number of litres needed
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Qn Answer Mark Notes
(dependent on 2nd P mark) “49.2” ÷ 6 (= “8.2”)
P1 for a process to find the number of bottles
(dependent on 2nd P mark) “8.2” ÷ 1.75 (= “4.6875....”)
A1 cao
6 £46.55 3 P1 for a process to find the number of miles
e.g. 27125 – 26985 ( = 140)
P1 for a complete process to find the total cost
e.g. (“140” × 0.12) + (3.5 × 8.50)
A1 correct answer of £46.55
7 83 3 P1 for a process to calculate the total weight of the bags or
number of cakes from one bag
e.g. 1.25 × 6 (= 7.5) or 1250 ÷ 90 (13.8888)
P1 for a complete process to find the total number of cakes
e.g. “7.5”× 1000 ÷ 90 or (“13.8888” × 6)
A1 cao
8 33.3% 3 P1 for a process to add up all the numbers and divide by 9;
condone 1 missing mark
e.g. (5.7 + ..... + 9.1) ÷ 9 or “63” ÷ 9 or 7
P1 for a process to find the percentage
(dependent on first P mark)
e.g. “3” ÷ 9 × 100 = 33.3%
A1 for 33.3% accept 33%
9 7 6 P1 for a process to find the number of hours
e.g. 0.3 × 1240 (= 372) or (0.25 × 1240 = 310)
P1 for a process to find the number of visitors
e.g. “372” × 4 ( = 1488) or “310” × 6 ( = 1860)
P1 for a complete process to find the remaining visitors
e.g. 7254 – “1488” – “1860” ( = 3906)
P1 for a process to find the number of remaining hours
e.g. 0.45 × 1240 (= 558)
P1 for a process to find the average number visitors for the
remaining time
e.g. “3906” ÷ “558”
A1 cao
10 2880 4 P1 for a process to find the radius or diameter of the circle
e.g. 96 ÷ 8 (= 12) or 96 ÷ 4 (= 24)
P1 for a process to find the area of the large rectangle or the
small rectangle

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Qn Answer Mark Notes
e.g. 96 × “48” (= 4608) or “72” × “24” (= 1728)
P1 for a process to find the shaded area
e.g. “4608” – “1728”
A1 cao
11 No with 4 P1 for a process to calculate the number of children
correct e.g. 150 – (15 + 35 + 45 + 10)
working A1 for 15 and 30 in the correct places
P1 for a process to find 36% of 150 or find the percentage of
children who use a computer for more than 8 hours
e.g. (0.36 × 150 and “30”) or ((“30” + 10) ÷ 150 × 100)
C1 conclusion with correct figures , 26.7% or 54
12 120° 4 P1 a strategy to start to solve the problem
e.g. 8 ÷ (5 – 3) (= 4) or 3x + 8 = 5x oe
P1 process to find Charlie’s share
e.g. 48 – 3 × “4” – 5 × “4” (= 16)
or 48 ÷ “4” – 3 – 5 (= 4)
P1 process to find the angle for Charlie
e.g. “16”÷ 48 × 360 oe or “4” ÷ 12 × 360 oe
A1 cao
*1 24 4 P1 for a process to find the interior angle or exterior angle of
3 the pentagon or the hexagon
e.g. 360 ÷ 5 (= 72) or 360 ÷ 6 (= 60)
P1 for a complete process to find angle AEF
e.g.”72” + “60” (=132)
P1 for process to find angle EAF
e.g. (180 – “132”) ÷ 2
A1 for cao
*1 84 4 P1 for a process to find the length of CD e.g. 98 ÷ 14
4 P1 for a process to apply Pythagoras theorem to triangle
ABE

e.g.√ ( 25 )2−( 7 )2
( = 24)
P1 for a process to find the area of the triangle
e.g. (“24” × “7”) ÷ 2
A1 cao
*1 Sterling 3 P1 for a process to find amount for Sterling
5 (with correct e.g. (8000 × 1.03) × 1.022
working) P1 for a process to find amount for Jupiter

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Qn Answer Mark Notes
e.g. 8000 × 1.0252
A1 for 8421.28 and 8405 with correct answer with reason
or
A1 for 1.05266 and 1.050625 with correct answer with
reason

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