Estimating Calculations Worksheet GCSE Maths

Practise estimating calculations by rounding every number to 1 significant figure first, then doing the easier calculation. 16 questions, full answers included.

Worksheet (1 page): eight questions. The first four have a box under each number for its rounded value, with one already filled in on question 2 as a model, and the boxes then drop away. Later questions include a calculation with brackets, a decimal multiplied by a large number, estimating the cost of 31 tickets, and using estimation to show that an answer must be wrong.

Further practice (1 page): eight questions graded by difficulty: a fraction calculation, a squared number, the cost of one pen from the price of a box, a shopping total for apples and pears, matching calculations with decimals to estimates of 0.3, 3 and 300, the volume of a cuboid, and explaining whether an estimate is bigger or smaller than the exact answer without working it out.

Answers to all 16 questions are included as a separate file.

Suitable for GCSE Foundation (AQA N14) and for Key Stage 3 classes working on estimation.

AI was used to help create this resource, working from my own lesson design.