What is N13: Standard units?

Work in one unit at a time and convert before calculating: 1 kg =1000 g, 1 km =1000 m, 1 litre =1000 cm^3, and money in either pounds or pence throughout, converting at the end.

How many marks are N13 questions worth?

In verified past-paper appearances, N13 questions on Edexcel GCSE Maths 1MA1 have been worth 1–6 marks.

Which past exam papers has N13 appeared in?

N13 has appeared in 40 verified past-paper questions indexed on this page, with direct links to the official question paper and mark scheme for each.

N13

Use standard units of mass, length, time, money and other measures (including standard compound measures) using decimal quantities where appropriate

Standard units

Worked answers, methods and verified real exam appearances for N13 on Edexcel GCSE Maths 1MA1.

Definition

Specification N13: use standard units of mass, length, time, money and other measures, including with decimal quantities.

Explanation

Work in one unit at a time and convert before calculating: $1$ kg $=1000$ g, $1$ km $=1000$ m, $1$ litre $=1000$ cm $^3$ , and money in either pounds or pence throughout, converting at the end.
Time is the trap: $1.25$ hours is $1$ hour $15$ minutes, not $1$ hour $25$ minutes, and $2.75$ hours is $2$ hours $45$ minutes, so a time from $\text{distance}\div\text{speed}$ must be converted to hours and minutes when the question asks for it.
A rate written per $100$ km or per kilogram is scaled to the actual distance or mass first.
Round money to the nearest penny only at the end.
Check the size of the answer against common sense; a journey time of hundreds of minutes for a few miles signals a wrong operation.

Worked example

A car uses

7.5

litres of fuel for every

100

km it travels. Fuel costs

\pounds1.68

per litre. Work out the cost of the fuel for a journey of

54

km.

(3)

(Total for Question 1 is 3 marks)

Working

1.Scale the fuel rate to the journey: $54\div100\times7.5=4.05$ litres.
2.Multiply by the price per litre: $4.05\times1.68=6.804$ .
3.Round money to the nearest penny: $\pounds6.80$ .

Answer: $\pounds6.80$

Mark scheme

Mark scheme for question 1
Question	Answer	Mark	Additional guidance
1	for a process to find the fuel used, eg $54\div100\times7.5$ (= 4.05)	P1	oe
	for a complete process, eg “4.05” $\times1.68$	P1
	for $6.80$	A1	accept 6.8

Common mistakes

Don't treat $1.5$ hours as $1$ hour $50$ minutes.
Don't use the factor $100$ rather than $100^2$ when converting square metres to square centimetres.
Don't omit the compound unit from the final answer.

Mark-scheme wording to use

“for 30 / 24 (= 1.25) or 12 / 8 (= 1.5) … May be written in hours and/or minutes” — Pearson 1MA1, June 2020 Paper 3H, Q2
“for finding the sum of their two times … or 3 h 15 min or 2 h 75 min” — Pearson 1MA1, June 2020 Paper 3H, Q2
“for full process to find the number of bags sold eg 5 × 1000 ÷ 250 (= 20)” — Pearson 1MA1, June 2018 Paper 1H, Q3

What the examiner wants

A sensible size. The November 2024 Paper 1H report says answers for the time to travel about $5$ miles at $30$ miles per hour ranged from fractions of a minute up to $900$ minutes, and urges checking the reasonableness of an answer; those who wrote “ $30$ miles in $60$ minutes” and divided both by $6$ found the $10$ minutes cleanly.

Exam tip

Write the target unit before starting; every conversion should move the data towards that unit.

Worked practice

Tier 1 · Easy

Change

2.75

kg to grams.

(1)

(Total for Question 1 is 1 mark)

Mark scheme

Mark scheme for question 1
Question	Answer	Mark	Mark scheme
1	$2750$ g	1	There are $1000$ grams in a kilogram, so $2.75\times1000=2750$ g.

Tier 2 · Standard

A workshop starts at

09{:}38

and lasts for

1

hour

47

minutes. Work out the finishing time.

(2)

(Total for Question 2 is 2 marks)

Mark scheme

Mark scheme for question 2
Question	Answer	Mark	Mark scheme
2	$11{:}25$	2	Adding $1$ hour gives $10{:}38$ . Adding $47$ minutes gives $11{:}25$ because $22$ minutes reach $11{:}00$ and $25$ minutes remain.

Tier 3 · Hard

A car travels

54

km and uses fuel at a rate of

7.5

litres per

100

km. Fuel costs

\pounds1.68

per litre. Work out the fuel cost for the journey, giving your answer to the nearest penny.

(4)

(Total for Question 3 is 4 marks)

Mark scheme

Mark scheme for question 3
Question	Answer	Mark	Mark scheme
3	$\pounds6.80$	4	The fuel used is $54\times\dfrac{7.5}{100}=4.05$ litres. The cost is $4.05\times1.68=6.804$ , which rounds to $\pounds6.80$ to the nearest penny.

Tier 1 · Easy

Change

4500

millilitres to litres.

(1)

(Total for Question 4 is 1 mark)

Mark scheme

Mark scheme for question 4
Question	Answer	Mark	Mark scheme
4	$4.5$ litres	1	There are $1000$ millilitres in a litre, so $4500\div1000=4.5$ litres.

Tier 2 · Standard

A rectangular sheet is

0.27

m long and

46

cm wide. Work out its area in square centimetres.

(2)

(Total for Question 5 is 2 marks)

Mark scheme

Mark scheme for question 5
Question	Answer	Mark	Mark scheme
5	$1242$ cm $^2$	2	$0.27$ m is $27$ cm. The area is therefore $27\times46=1242$ cm $^2$ .

Tier 3 · Hard

A tap delivers

18

litres of water in

2

minutes

24

seconds. Work out the average rate in millilitres per second.

(3)

(Total for Question 6 is 3 marks)

Mark scheme

Mark scheme for question 6
Question	Answer	Mark	Mark scheme
6	$125$ ml/s	3	$18$ litres is $18\,000$ ml and $2$ minutes $24$ seconds is $2\times60+24=144$ seconds. The average rate is $18\,000\div144=125$ ml/s.

Tier 2 · Standard

A delivery contains

8

cartons with mass

750

g each and

3

cartons with mass

1.2

kg each. Work out the total mass of the cartons in kilograms.

(3)

(Total for Question 7 is 3 marks)

Mark scheme

Mark scheme for question 7
Question	Answer	Mark	Mark scheme
7	$9.6$ kg	3	The eight smaller cartons have mass $8\times750=6000$ g, which is $6$ kg. The other cartons have mass $3\times1.2=3.6$ kg. The total is $6+3.6=9.6$ kg.

Tier 3 · Hard

A printer produces

825

labels in

2

minutes

30

seconds. It continues at the same average rate for

7

minutes. Work out the number of labels produced in the

7

minutes.

(4)

(Total for Question 8 is 4 marks)

Mark scheme

Mark scheme for question 8
Question	Answer	Mark	Mark scheme
8	$2310$ labels	4	$2$ minutes $30$ seconds is $150$ seconds, so the rate is $825\div150=5.5$ labels per second. Seven minutes is $420$ seconds. The number produced is $5.5\times420=2310$ labels.

Tier 3 · Hard

A roll holds

2.35

km of cable. A technician cuts

48

pieces, each

37.5

m long, from the roll. Work out the length of cable left. Give your answer in metres.

(3)

(Total for Question 9 is 3 marks)

Mark scheme

Mark scheme for question 9
Question	Answer	Mark	Mark scheme
9	$550$ m	3	Convert the original length: $2.35$ km $=2350$ m. The pieces use $48\times37.5=1800$ m, so the length left is $2350-1800=550$ m.

Q10

Tier 3 · Hard

A runner covers

7.5

km at an average speed of

12

km/h and then rests for

8

minutes. Work out the total time for the run and the rest. Give your answer in minutes.

(4)

(Total for Question 10 is 4 marks)

Mark scheme

Mark scheme for question 10
Question	Answer	Mark	Mark scheme
10	$45.5$ minutes (or $45$ minutes $30$ seconds)	4	The running time is $7.5\div12=0.625$ hours. This is $0.625\times60=37.5$ minutes. Including the rest gives $37.5+8=45.5$ minutes.

Verified exam appearances

Series	Paper	Question	Marks	Calculator	Tier	Links
2019-06	1F	Q6	4	Non-calculator	Foundation	QP MS
2019-06	1F	Q1	1	Non-calculator	Foundation	QP MS
2019-11	2F	Q10	3	Allowed	Foundation	QP MS
2019-06	3F	Q21	3	Allowed	Foundation	QP MS
2022-11	1F	Q6	4	Non-calculator	Foundation	QP MS
2019-06	1F	Q18	4	Non-calculator	Foundation	QP MS
2023-06	2F	Q14	4	Allowed	Foundation	QP MS
2019-11	1F	Q7	2	Non-calculator	Foundation	QP MS
2023-06	3F	Q4	1	Allowed	Foundation	QP MS
2019-11	2F	Q6	3	Allowed	Foundation	QP MS
2019-11	2F	Q15	3	Allowed	Foundation	QP MS
2019-06	1F	Q9	4	Non-calculator	Foundation	QP MS
2021-11	1F	Q9	3	Non-calculator	Foundation	QP MS
2022-06	1F	Q7	3	Non-calculator	Foundation	QP MS
2019-06	2F	Q12	3	Allowed	Foundation	QP MS
2024-06	3F	Q2	1	Allowed	Foundation	QP MS
2023-06	2F	Q3	1	Allowed	Foundation	QP MS
2019-06	1F	Q13	1	Non-calculator	Foundation	QP MS
2021-11	3F	Q3	1	Allowed	Foundation	QP MS
2022-06	1F	Q11	4	Non-calculator	Foundation	QP MS
2024-11	3F	Q8	6	Allowed	Foundation	QP MS
2023-11	3F	Q9	5	Allowed	Foundation	QP MS
2023-06	3F	Q10	4	Allowed	Foundation	QP MS
2024-06	3F	Q11	2	Allowed	Foundation	QP MS
2022-11	2F	Q7	4	Allowed	Foundation	QP MS
2022-11	1F	Q12	5	Non-calculator	Foundation	QP MS
2019-06	2F	Q6	3	Allowed	Foundation	QP MS
2019-11	1F	Q8	3	Non-calculator	Foundation	QP MS
2024-11	3F	Q10	5	Allowed	Foundation	QP MS
2023-11	3H	Q7	3	Allowed	Higher	QP MS
2021-11	3F	Q11	3	Allowed	Foundation	QP MS
2023-11	3F	Q12	2	Allowed	Foundation	QP MS
2019-11	3F	Q27	4	Allowed	Foundation	QP MS
2021-11	3F	Q8	3	Allowed	Foundation	QP MS
2024-11	2F	Q2	1	Allowed	Foundation	QP MS
2022-11	2F	Q10	5	Allowed	Foundation	QP MS
2022-06	1F	Q16	4	Non-calculator	Foundation	QP MS
2023-11	3F	Q26	3	Allowed	Foundation	QP MS
2021-11	3F	Q10	3	Allowed	Foundation	QP MS
2023-11	1F	Q6	3	Non-calculator	Foundation	QP MS

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