Functional Skills Maths Level 1 Past Papers

Functional Skills Maths Level 1 is equivalent to a grade 2-3 (E-D) at GCSE. It is a requirement for some higher level qualifications, such as those offered at college or university, and it is also a requirement for a number of professions. Furthermore, Functional Skills Maths Level 1 is a very good stepping stone to access level 2 qualifications. All exam boards use the same specification for Functional Skills Maths Level 1, which assesses learners on these three skills:

Use of numbers and the number system
Use of measures, shape and space
Handling information and data.

Furthermore, 25% of marks are available for underpinning skills, while 75% of marks are available for demonstrating problem solving skills.

There is a small amount of variation in the structure of Functional Skills Maths Level 1 between exam boards. All exam boards split the exam into two papers – a shorter non-calculator paper and a longer calculator paper. In general, around a quarter of marks are on the shorter paper, and three quarters of marks are on the longer paper, and the total assessment time is around two hours. Open Awards presents their two papers as two sections of one paper on their online exam system. The sample papers listed on this website use the same online exam system, so if you are planning to sit with Open Awards they are a very good way to familiarise yourself with the online exam system.