Compound shapes — area & perimeter
AQA GCSE Maths revision on Compound shapes — area & perimeter. Aligned to the AQA GCSE Mathematics 8300 specification. This bank has 16 practice questions on this topic.
Sample questions (3 of 16)
-
Question 1
What is the perimeter of an L-shaped polygon with side lengths of 5 cm, 2 cm, 3 cm, 2 cm, 8 cm, and 4 cm?
Show answer
Answer: 24
To find the perimeter, you add all the outer boundary lengths together: 5 + 2 + 3 + 2 + 8 + 4 = 24. A common error is to miss one of the internal corners when tracing the outline.
-
Question 2
Which expression represents the total area of a rectangle with width 4 cm and height 6 cm joined to a square with side length 3 cm?
- A) Total area is 33 cm squared because (4 times 6) plus (3 times 3)
- B) Total area is 30 cm squared because (4 times 6) plus (3 times 2)
- C) Total area is 39 cm squared because (4 times 6) plus (3 times 5)
- D) Total area is 27 cm squared because (4 times 3) plus (3 times 5)
Show answer
Answer: Total area is 33 cm squared because (4 times 6) plus (3 times 3)
The area of the rectangle is 4 multiplied by 6, which is 24. The area of the square is 3 multiplied by 3, which is 9. Adding these together gives 33, which is the correct answer.
-
Question 3
What is the area of a shape formed by a rectangle measuring 10 cm by 4 cm with a 2 cm by 2 cm square cut out from one corner?
Show answer
Answer: 36
The total area of the large rectangle is 40 square centimetres. Subtracting the 4 square centimetres removed by the cutout leaves a total area of 36 square centimetres.
Want to test yourself on the remaining cards for this topic?
13 more questions on Compound shapes — area & perimeter — plus mistakes tracking and spaced repetition across the whole Maths spec.