Practice topics
Every topic has questions at five levels, a worked answer to each one, and a note on why each wrong option is wrong. Choose one to see a sample.
Maths, English and science Years 7 to 11
Maths 14 topics
English 8 topics
Languages pick the ones you study
French 13 topics
German 13 topics
Spanish 13 topics
GCSE options Years 9 to 11, pick the ones you take
Computer Science 9 topics
Business 9 topics
Browse every topic as a list
Maths
- Fractions: Add, subtract, multiply and divide fractions, and give answers in their simplest form.
- Percentages: Find a percentage of an amount, increase and decrease by a percentage, and work backwards to an original price.
- Standard form: Write very large and very small numbers in standard form, convert back, and multiply numbers written that way.
- Expanding brackets: Multiply out brackets in algebra, from a single bracket to the product of two brackets.
- Solving equations: Solve linear equations by undoing each step, including equations with the unknown on both sides and with brackets.
- Factorising quadratics: Factorise expressions, from taking out a common factor to quadratics and the difference of two squares.
- Sequences: Continue sequences, find the nth term of a linear sequence, and spot geometric and quadratic patterns.
- Sharing in a ratio: Simplify ratios, share amounts in a ratio, and combine ratios that share a part.
- Speed, distance, time: Use speed, distance and time, including minutes, average speed over two stages, and changing units.
- Angles in polygons: Work out missing angles in triangles, round a point and in polygons, using angle sums and exterior angles.
- Pythagoras: Use Pythagoras’ theorem to find a missing side, in triangles, ladders and between points on a grid.
- Area of a circle: Find the area and circumference of circles, leaving answers in terms of π or using 3.14, and work back to the radius.
- Averages: Find the mean, median and a missing value, including from a frequency table.
- Probability: Work out simple probabilities, probabilities of not happening, combined events and expected outcomes.
English
- Homophones: Choose the right word from words that sound alike, such as their, there and they’re, or affect and effect.
- Spelling: Pick the correct spelling from common misspellings, with a tip for remembering each word.
- Punctuation: Choose the correctly punctuated sentence, covering commas, apostrophes, speech marks, colons and semicolons.
- Word classes: Say whether a word is a noun, verb, adjective, adverb, pronoun, preposition, conjunction or determiner in its sentence.
- Sentence types: Name a sentence as a statement, question, command or exclamation, and as simple, compound or complex.
- Language techniques: Name the language technique in an example: simile, metaphor, personification, alliteration and more.
- Synonyms and opposites: Choose a word with the same meaning, or the opposite, to build a bigger vocabulary.
- Reading comprehension: Read a short passage, then answer questions on finding information, inference, word meaning and the writer’s methods.
Science
- Cells: Know the parts of animal and plant cells, what each does, and how specialised cells are adapted.
- Body systems: Know the organs of the human body and what they do, including digestion, breathing and the circulation.
- Plants: Know the parts of a plant and what they do, and the equations for photosynthesis and respiration.
- States of matter: Describe solids, liquids and gases using particles, and name the changes of state.
- Atoms: Work out protons, neutrons and electrons from atomic and mass numbers, shell patterns and ions.
- Formula mass: Work out relative formula mass from a formula and the percentage by mass of an element in a compound.
- Moles: Use moles, mass and relative formula mass, and work out the mass of a product from a reacting mass.
- Density: Use density = mass ÷ volume to find density, mass or volume, in several units.
- Forces: Use weight, force and acceleration, and find the resultant of forces acting in opposite directions.
- Electricity: Use potential difference, current, resistance, power and energy transferred.
- Energy: Calculate gravitational potential energy, kinetic energy and efficiency, and link them in a falling object.
- Waves: Use wave speed, frequency, wavelength and time period, and work out distance from an echo.
MFL
Modern foreign languages: French, German, Spanish and Mandarin. Each has vocabulary by theme, grammar and short reading texts. There is no listening, speaking or writing practice yet.
French
- People and family: Learn French words for family, friends and describing people, from the English meaning to the French word and back.
- School: Learn French words for school subjects, the school day and classroom life, from the English meaning to the French word and back.
- Home and town: Learn French words for the home, rooms and the local area, from the English meaning to the French word and back.
- Free time: Learn French words for hobbies, sport, music and technology, from the English meaning to the French word and back.
- Food and drink: Learn French words for meals, food and drink, from the English meaning to the French word and back.
- Travel and holidays: Learn French words for transport, holidays and the weather, from the English meaning to the French word and back.
- Work and the future: Learn French words for jobs, study and plans for the future, from the English meaning to the French word and back.
- Present tense: Choose the right form of common French verbs in the present tense, for what happens now or usually.
- Past tense (perfect): Choose the right form of common French verbs in the perfect tense, for what happened.
- Future tense: Choose the right form of common French verbs in the future tense, for what will happen.
- Gender and agreement: Choose the right article for French nouns and make words agree with them.
- Negatives and questions: Make French sentences negative with ne … pas and other negatives, and ask questions the ways French speakers do.
- Reading: Read a short French text, such as a message or a description, and answer a question on what it says.
German
- People and family: Learn German words for family, friends and describing people, from the English meaning to the German word and back.
- School: Learn German words for school subjects, the school day and classroom life, from the English meaning to the German word and back.
- Home and town: Learn German words for the home, rooms and the local area, from the English meaning to the German word and back.
- Free time: Learn German words for hobbies, sport, music and technology, from the English meaning to the German word and back.
- Food and drink: Learn German words for meals, food and drink, from the English meaning to the German word and back.
- Travel and holidays: Learn German words for transport, holidays and the weather, from the English meaning to the German word and back.
- Work and the future: Learn German words for jobs, study and plans for the future, from the English meaning to the German word and back.
- Present tense: Choose the right form of common German verbs in the present tense, for what happens now or usually.
- Past tense (perfect): Choose the right form of common German verbs in the perfect tense, for what happened.
- Future tense: Choose the right form of common German verbs in the future tense, for what will happen.
- Articles and cases: Choose der, die or das for German nouns, and the right article when a verb or preposition changes it.
- Word order and negatives: Put German words in the right order, with the verb second, and make sentences negative with nicht and kein.
- Reading: Read a short German text, such as a message or a description, and answer a question on what it says.
Spanish
- People and family: Learn Spanish words for family, friends and describing people, from the English meaning to the Spanish word and back.
- School: Learn Spanish words for school subjects, the school day and classroom life, from the English meaning to the Spanish word and back.
- Home and town: Learn Spanish words for the home, rooms and the local area, from the English meaning to the Spanish word and back.
- Free time: Learn Spanish words for hobbies, sport, music and technology, from the English meaning to the Spanish word and back.
- Food and drink: Learn Spanish words for meals, food and drink, from the English meaning to the Spanish word and back.
- Travel and holidays: Learn Spanish words for transport, holidays and the weather, from the English meaning to the Spanish word and back.
- Work and the future: Learn Spanish words for jobs, study and plans for the future, from the English meaning to the Spanish word and back.
- Present tense: Choose the right form of common Spanish verbs in the present tense, for what happens now or usually.
- Past tense (preterite): Choose the right form of common Spanish verbs in the preterite, for what happened.
- Future tense: Choose the right form of common Spanish verbs in the future tense, for what will happen.
- Gender and agreement: Choose the right article for Spanish nouns and make words agree with them.
- Ser, estar and negatives: Choose between ser and estar, the two Spanish verbs for “to be”, and make sentences negative.
- Reading: Read a short Spanish text, such as a message or a description, and answer a question on what it says.
Mandarin
- People and family: Learn Mandarin words for family, friends and describing people, written in simplified characters with pinyin.
- School: Learn Mandarin words for school subjects, the school day and classroom life, written in simplified characters with pinyin.
- Home and town: Learn Mandarin words for the home, rooms and the local area, written in simplified characters with pinyin.
- Free time: Learn Mandarin words for hobbies, sport, music and technology, written in simplified characters with pinyin.
- Food and drink: Learn Mandarin words for meals, food and drink, written in simplified characters with pinyin.
- Travel and holidays: Learn Mandarin words for transport, holidays and the weather, written in simplified characters with pinyin.
- Work and the future: Learn Mandarin words for jobs, study and plans for the future, written in simplified characters with pinyin.
- Pinyin and tones: Choose the right pinyin, tone marks included, for Mandarin words written in characters.
- Measure words: Choose the measure word that goes between a number and a noun in Mandarin, such as 个, 本 or 只.
- Particles and negatives: Use the small Mandarin words that change a sentence: 吗 and 呢 for questions, 不 and 没 for negatives, 了 and 过 for what has happened.
- Word order: Put Mandarin words in the right order, with time and place before the verb.
- Numbers and days: Read and write numbers from 0 to 99 and the days of the week in Mandarin characters.
- Reading: Read a short Mandarin text, such as a message or a description, and answer a question on what it says.
Options
GCSE option subjects for Years 9 to 11: Computer Science, Business, and Design and Technology. Questions cover knowledge and calculations; there is no practice for coursework, projects or extended writing.
Computer Science
- Binary: Convert between binary and denary, add binary numbers and work out the effect of a binary shift.
- Hexadecimal: Convert between hexadecimal, denary and binary, and see why hex is a short way to write binary.
- Units and file sizes: Work with bits, bytes, kilobytes and megabytes, and calculate the size of image and sound files.
- Logic gates: Use AND, OR, NOT and XOR gates, read truth tables and work out the output of a logic expression.
- CPU, memory and storage: Learn the parts of the CPU, how the fetch-execute cycle works, and the difference between kinds of memory and storage.
- Tracing code: Read short programs in pseudocode and work out what they output, with variables, loops, selection and arrays.
- Searching and sorting: Learn computational thinking and the standard searching and sorting algorithms, and trace them on real lists.
- Networks: Learn how networks are built and connected, from LANs and WANs to the protocols the internet uses.
- Cyber security: Learn the threats to computer systems, such as malware and social engineering, and the ways to protect against them.
Business
- Enterprise and ownership: Learn what entrepreneurs do, the types of business ownership, and how aims and objectives guide a business.
- Marketing: Learn how businesses research their markets and use the marketing mix, from pricing strategies to the product life cycle.
- Operations: Learn how businesses make products and manage stock, quality and suppliers.
- People and organisation: Learn how businesses are organised and how they recruit, train, pay and keep their staff.
- Revenue, costs and profit: Calculate revenue, total costs and profit or loss, and the cost of borrowing with interest.
- Break-even: Calculate contribution, the break-even point and the margin of safety, and see what happens when the price changes.
- Cash flow: Work through cash-flow forecasts: net cash flow, opening and closing balances, and the inflows needed to reach a target.
- Margins and returns: Calculate gross and net profit margins, the average rate of return and percentage changes.
- Sources of finance: Learn where businesses get money from, and the key finance words such as cash flow, fixed costs and break-even.
Design and Technology
- Materials: Name the main groups of materials, from hardwoods and ferrous metals to polymers, fibres, paper and board, with examples of each.
- Material properties: Learn the words for how materials behave, such as hardness, toughness, ductility and malleability.
- Smart and modern materials: Learn about smart and modern materials, composites and technical textiles, and what each is used for.
- Energy and systems: Learn how energy is generated and stored, and how electronic systems use inputs, processes and outputs.
- Mechanisms: Calculate mechanical advantage, gear ratios and output speeds for levers, gears and pulleys.
- Making and production: Learn the ways products are made, from one-off to mass production, and the processes used for each material.
- Maths in D&T: Use the maths that designers need: areas, scale drawings, percentage waste and how many parts fit on a sheet.
- Sustainability: Learn how designers reduce the effect of products on the environment, from the six Rs to life cycle assessment.
- Designing: Learn how designers work: briefs and specifications, iterative and user-centred design, ergonomics and drawing methods.