Functional Skills Level 1 Maths revision guides
Four free PDF handbooks for Functional Skills Maths Level 1, 99 pages in all. Together they cover the whole course in 31 units, compare how 8 awarding organisations run the exam, collect the methods and formulae to know, and repair the 31 most common mistakes.
These are not past papers or a practice book. They sit beside the Level 1 learning guide and practice notebook: use them to plan revision, check a method and fix the errors that keep coming back.
Free to download. No sign up, no email required. Independent resources for the shared England content, not produced, approved or endorsed by any awarding organisation, Ofqual or the DfE.
Which Level 1 revision guides can I download?
Four handbooks, one PDF each. For teaching and practice, use the Level 1 learning guide and the Level 1 practice questions, which share the same topic numbers.
Course guide
The complete Level 1 course in 31 short units, each with an explanation, a worked example, a question to try and a worked self-check, plus 4 visual atlas pages.
Download the course guideExam board comparison
How the Level 1 assessment is run by Pearson Edexcel, City & Guilds, NCFE and 5 other awarding organisations, with the shared national rules, booking, equipment and resits, and the official sources.
Download the exam board comparisonMethods handbook
How to choose a method from the wording of a question, 8 method clinics with worked examples and practice, and a formula and conversion reference.
Download the methods handbookCommon mistakes handbook
31 specific misconceptions, one per topic, each with the error to spot, a targeted repair and a fresh retest with a worked answer, plus a repair record.
Download the common mistakes handbookHow do the four guides work together?
Each guide answers one revision question: what is on the course, how my exam board runs it, which method to use, and why marks are being lost. Used in that order, they turn a vague plan into a short list of topics to fix.
A revision loop using all four guides
- Plan: work through the course guide and mark each unit as secure or not yet
- Check the exam: read your awarding organisation’s profile and confirm the details with your centre
- Prepare: before practising a weak topic, read its method clinic and worked example
- Practise and mark: answer questions on the topic, then mark them honestly
- Repair: match each lost mark to a diagnostic and do its fresh retest
What else is inside
- 31 course units numbered like the learning guide and the practice notebook
- awarding organisation details recorded with the date they were checked and the official source
- original worked examples and retests, with no exam board questions reproduced
- foundation skills such as money, time and measuring revisited inside the units
- 99 printable A4 pages across the four guides
What is inside each guide?
The sections below follow each handbook’s own contents. The course guide is the longest at 44 pages and the methods handbook the shortest at 13.
Course guide
- Scope, result and study route
- Content map for all 31 units
- 31 units, M01 to M31, from place value to equally likely outcomes
- Visual atlas: composite area, angles, nets and solid views, bar and pie charts
- Straightforward problems and revision
Exam board comparison
- Shared national rules and an evidence key
- Timing, marks and assessment mode matrices
- 8 awarding organisation profiles: Pearson Edexcel, City & Guilds, NCFE, NOCN, Open Awards, Highfield, VQA (formerly TQUK), VTCT Skills / Skillsfirst
- Archived, historical and unconfirmed routes
- Equipment, booking and resits, then the official sources
Methods handbook
- Choosing a method from the question
- Written number methods, fractions and percentages, decimals
- Proportion and ratio, money, discounts and simple interest
- Measures and time, geometry and scale, charts, averages and probability
- Formula and conversion reference
Common mistakes handbook
- A diagnose, repair and retest cycle
- 31 diagnostics, one for each topic
- The error, the repair and a fresh retest on every entry
- Worked answers to every retest
- A repair record to track progress
How should a learner use these?
Start with the course guide to see what is left to learn, and read your exam board’s profile early so there are no surprises about timing or equipment. Keep the methods and mistakes handbooks open during practice.
At the start of a course
Read the course guide’s content map and study route, then your awarding organisation’s profile. Write down your board, timings and equipment, and confirm them with your centre.
During practice
Before a weak topic, read its method clinic. After marking practice, match each lost mark to a diagnostic and do its fresh retest without looking at the answer.
Before the assessment
Use the course guide’s revision pages to check every unit, then sit an official sample paper from your own awarding organisation in the mode you will use on the day.
Functional Skills Level 2 Maths tutoring
What Level 2 Maths covers, why learners lose marks on it, and how one to one lessons work, starting with a free 30-minute skills check.
See Level 2 Maths tutoringFunctional Skills Level 2
An overview of our Functional Skills Level 2 tutoring in maths and English, for adults, apprentices and college learners.
Read about Level 2GCSE Maths resit
When a GCSE Maths resit is the better route than Functional Skills, and how resit tutoring is planned.
See GCSE resit tutoringRevision guide questions
The guides are free, cover the whole Level 1 course and compare 8 awarding organisations. These answers cover boards, sources, practice and licensing.
Are these official awarding organisation documents?
No. They are independently written guides for the shared Level 1 content. Exam board details in the comparison guide are taken from each organisation’s published documents, with the source and the date checked, but no exam questions, mark schemes or logos are reproduced.
Which awarding organisations does the comparison cover?
Pearson Edexcel, City & Guilds, NCFE, NOCN, Open Awards, Highfield, VQA (formerly TQUK), VTCT Skills / Skillsfirst. Each profile describes how that organisation runs the Level 1 assessment. Rules change, so confirm the current details with your centre before the exam.
Is there a non-calculator section?
Yes. Ofqual requires 25% of the marks to be gained without a calculator and 75% with one, so every board has a non-calculator section. The books mark which work is non-calculator, and the practice mocks put that section first, as the real assessments do.
Do these include practice papers?
No. The guides teach and repair, and each unit has a question to try, but full practice is in the Level 1 Exam Practice Notebook, which has 124 topic questions and two 60-mark mocks.
Where do the common mistakes come from?
Each diagnostic is written from what the topic demands and the errors learners typically make with it. The handbook does not present them as awarding organisation statistics. Every entry has a repair and a fresh retest, so a mistake is fixed rather than just noticed.
Are they free? What is the licence?
The books are free to download for personal and household educational use, with no sign up and no email. Tutors and schools need permission before copying them for learners, and resale, paid redistribution and third-party uploading are not permitted.
Is there a Level 2 set?
Yes. Level 2 has the same four handbooks, with a 28-unit course guide, 10 method clinics and 28 diagnostics, alongside its own lesson notebook and practice notebook.
Practice finds the gaps. A tutor closes them
Our Functional Skills tutoring is at Level 2, the usual next step once Level 1 is secure. Lessons are one to one on Zoom at £30 each, and the first 30 minutes are a free skills check with no card details, which also shows whether a learner is ready to move up.