KS2 Mathematics: Measurement, Geometry and Statistics

This is the part of Year 6 maths where the answer depends on picking the right formula and then not stopping one step early. Area, perimeter and volume all use the same measurements and give completely different answers, so the wrong options here are not invented numbers: in the cuboid question, one of them is the real surface area of that exact cuboid and another is the surface area with the doubling forgotten. The ten questions cover converting litres to millilitres, adding a duration to a clock time where the minutes have to carry into the next hour, the area of a rectangle and of a triangle — where the halving is there because a triangle is exactly half of its rectangle — the volume of a cuboid, the missing angle in a triangle and the one that completes a straight line, which shape has both four equal sides and four right angles, moving a point on a grid, and finding a mean. Nothing is drawn, so every shape is described in full with all its measurements given, which is closer to how these questions have to be read in a test anyway. Every explanation shows the working and says which mistake produces each wrong answer. Zestly is an independent study tool. It is not affiliated with any exam board and it is not an exam centre.

• Convert between litres and millilitres, and check that the number moves the right way
• Add a duration to a clock time, carrying the minutes into the next hour
• Find the area of a rectangle and of a triangle, and tell area apart from perimeter
• Find the volume of a cuboid, and tell it apart from the surface area of the same cuboid
• Use the fact that angles in a triangle add to 180 degrees and angles on a straight line do too
• Say which properties belong to a square, a rhombus, a rectangle and a parallelogram
• Move a point on a grid and work out the mean of a small set of numbers

A cuboid measures 5 centimetres by 3 centimetres by 4 centimetres. What is its volume? — 60 cubic centimetres. The option 94 is the surface area of this same cuboid: the three different faces are 15, 20 and 12, which sum to 47 and double to 94 because every face has a matching one opposite it.