N5 Applications of Maths · SQA past paper

2025 Paper 1

Non-Calculator · 11 questions
1

Question 1

Numeracy
3 Marks
2025 P1 Q1

At a school, pupils voted to elect a head prefect.
Fraser received 38\displaystyle \frac{3}{8} of the votes.

Gracie received 15\displaystyle \frac{1}{5} of the votes.
Alison received the rest of the votes.
Calculate the fraction of the votes that Alison received.

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1740\displaystyle \frac{17}{40}

2

Question 2

Finance
3 Marks
2025 P1 Q2

Laura is buying a picture.
She looks on 3 websites to find the best deal.

Website A Website B Website C
Picture £21.50
Postage £3.49
Picture £35
Offer: 30% off all pictures
Postage Free
Picture £30
Offer: 14\displaystyle \frac{1}{4} off all pictures
Postage £2.80

Determine the website which offers the best deal to buy the picture and get it posted to Laura.
Use your working to justify your answer.

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Website B

3

Question 3

Measurement
(2, 1)3 Marks
2025 P1 Q3

A company produced the following table to show all the tasks involved in manufacturing and packaging chocolate eggs.

Activity Description Preceding activity Time (seconds)
AMelt chocolate and stir ingredientsH600
BWrap the eggC, I30
CCool the chocolateD1800
DPour chocolate into egg mouldA105
EConstruct the cardboard boxG60
FPlace wrapped egg into boxB, E45
GPrint cardboardH240
HCollect materials and ingredientsnone120
IPrint foilH180

(a) Complete the diagram below to show the tasks and times.

Incomplete activity network diagram with node H starting

(b) Calculate the minimum time taken to manufacture and package a chocolate egg.

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(a) Correctly completed diagram.

(b) 2700 seconds

4 (a) - (d)

Question 4 (a) - (d)

Statistics
(2, 2, 1, 1)6 Marks
2025 P1 Q4 (a) - (d)

Harris recorded the time, in minutes, that it took him to drive to work over eight days.
22, 21, 37, 25, 32, 28, 36, 24
(a) For this data, calculate: the median, the lower quartile, the upper quartile.
(b) Construct a box plot for this set of data.

Grid with axis for driving time in minutes from 15 to 45

(c) Calculate the interquartile range for the number of minutes it took Harris to drive to work.
His colleague Lewis also recorded the number of minutes it took him to drive to work over eight days.
The interquartile range for the number of minutes that Lewis took is 9 minutes.
(d) Make one valid comment comparing the number of minutes Harris and Lewis took to drive to work.

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(a) Median = 26.5, Lower Quartile = 23, Upper Quartile = 34

(b) Box plot correctly drawn displaying the 5-figure summary.

(c) 11

(d) The number of minutes Lewis took to drive to work was more consistent.

4 (e) - (g)

Question 4 (e) - (g)

Probability and Graphical Data
(2, 1, 1)4 Marks
2025 P1 Q4 (e) - (g)

Harris noticed that his journey times were affected by the time he departed.
The table shows his journey time in minutes.

Departure time (am)7:327:368:107:408:027:508:047:45
Journey time (minutes)2221372532283624

(e) On the grid below draw a scattergraph to show this data.

Grid for drawing scattergraph showing departure time against journey time

(f) Draw a line of best fit on your scattergraph.
(g) Tomorrow, Harris plans to depart at 7:55 am. Use your line of best fit to estimate his journey time.

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(e) Scattergraph correctly plotted.

(f) Line of best fit drawn correctly.

(g) Answer should be consistent with the line of best fit drawn.

5

Question 5

Numeracy
2 Marks
2025 P1 Q5

Julie scored 78% in her science test.
She also scored 32 out of 40 in her maths test.
Determine which subject she performed better in. Justify your answer.

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Maths

6

Question 6

Finance
2 Marks
2025 P1 Q6

Ramani works as a sales person for a car company.
She is paid a basic monthly salary of £1870 plus commission of 3% on her monthly sales over £58,000.
In April, her sales totalled £96,000.
Calculate Ramani's gross pay in April.

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£3010

7

Question 7

Geometry
(2, 2)4 Marks
2025 P1 Q7

A school is designing a playpark.
It is in the shape of a rectangle and a semi-circle.

Playpark shape showing rectangle width 20m, height 12m and a semi-circle attached to the bottom

(a) Calculate the area of the playpark. Take π=3.14.\displaystyle \pi=3.14.

The school plans to cover some of the playpark with bark.

  • They plan to cover 81 m2\displaystyle m^2 with bark.
  • 1 bag of bark covers 5 m2.\displaystyle m^2.
  • 1 bag of bark costs £8.

(b) Calculate the cost of the bark.

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(a) 397 m2\displaystyle m^2

(b) £136

8 (a)

Question 8 (a)

Probability and Graphical Data
3 Marks
2025 P1 Q8 (a)

Lesley ran a game stall at her local gala.
The game requires two spinners to be spun and allowed to come to rest.
The spinners are fair and are shown below.
To win a prize, spinner B must land on a larger number than spinner A.

Spinner A with 5 numbers and Spinner B with 8 numbers

(a) Calculate the probability of winning a prize.

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1040\displaystyle \frac{10}{40} (or 14\displaystyle \frac{1}{4}, 25%, 0.25)

8 (b)

Question 8 (b)

Probability and Graphical Data
3 Marks
2025 P1 Q8 (b)

Catriona runs a different game at the gala.
Players who win receive a £5 prize.
When playing this game, the probability of a player winning a prize is 0.15.
The game was played 80 times.
Catriona gave out a total of £70 in prizes.
(b) Determine if this is more or less than expected.

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9

Question 9

Numeracy
2 Marks
2025 P1 Q9

A farm has 3 different types of animal.
It has sheep, pigs and cows in the ratio 9:7:4 respectively. There are 180 more sheep than there are cows.
Calculate the total number of animals on the farm.

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720