A maths paper is the hardest school paper to lay out, and it is the one most often laid out badly. The reason is simple: everything else on a question paper is text, and text flows. A vertical sum does not flow. It occupies a fixed block of space with digits that must line up by place value, and if that block gets squeezed to fit a page, the question becomes unanswerable.
This guide covers the maths-specific layout rules first, then gives a template and marks split you can copy per class.
What makes a maths paper readable
- Digit columns that align by place value — units under units, tens under tens, all the way up
- Working space attached to each question, not a single rough-work page at the end
- One sum per block, with clear white space between blocks
- Instructions short enough to read in five seconds
- Objective and written work in clearly separate sections
- Consistent notation — pick ÷ or /, pick × or *, and never mix them in one paper
The alignment point matters more than teachers expect. When a printed vertical sum has its digits even slightly out of column, a Class 3 student copying it into their answer will inherit the misalignment and get the carry wrong. That is a layout error scoring as a maths error.
The template
Four sections, running from recall to application. It scales from a 20-mark Class 2 test to an 80-mark Class 8 annual by changing the marks, not the structure.
| Section | Contents | Question types | Space needed |
|---|---|---|---|
| A | Basic facts — tables, number names, place value, mental maths | Fill in the blanks, MCQ, true/false | One line per question |
| B | Direct computation | Vertical addition, subtraction, multiplication, division | Full-width block per sum |
| C | Word problems and application | Word problems, two-step problems | Six to eight ruled lines each |
| D | Reasoning, shapes, data | Data interpretation, geometry, pattern questions | Boxed area with a diagram |
Marks split by class
The shift as classes go up is away from computation and towards application. A Class 2 paper is mostly Section B; a Class 8 paper is mostly Sections C and D.
| Class | Total | A — facts | B — computation | C — word problems | D — reasoning |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1–2 | 20 | 6 | 10 | 4 | — |
| 3 | 40 | 8 | 14 | 12 | 6 |
| 4–5 | 50 | 10 | 14 | 16 | 10 |
| 6–8 | 80 | 12 | 18 | 30 | 20 |
A worked example — Class 4, 50 marks
- Q1 Fill in the blanks — place value and number names — 5 marks
- Q2 Multiple choice — units, time, and money — 5 marks
- Q3 Vertical addition and subtraction, four sums — 8 marks
- Q4 Multiplication and long division, three sums — 6 marks
- Q5 Word problems, four questions — 12 marks
- Q6 A two-step word problem — 4 marks
- Q7 Read a bar graph and answer three questions — 6 marks
- Q8 Draw and label a shape, or measure and record — 4 marks
Note what this does with time. Sections A and B take a strong student ten minutes and a weak student twenty-five. That gap is deliberate: it means nobody sits staring at Question 1, and the harder marks in Q5 to Q8 are what separate the paper.
Laying out vertical sums
This is where most maths papers are lost. A few concrete rules:
- Give each sum the full column width. Two sums side by side saves paper and costs alignment.
- Leave at least three blank lines beneath each sum — that is where the carrying and the working goes.
- Use a monospaced or tabular-figure font so every digit occupies the same width. A proportional font puts a 1 in less space than an 8 and the column stops being a column.
- Print the operator once, on the left of the second row, in the position students are taught to write it.
- For long division, box the whole question. An unboxed long division sprawls into the next question's space.
- Never let a sum break across a page. If it does not fit, move the whole block.
Word problems that test maths, not reading
A word problem should be hard because the mathematics is hard, not because the sentence is. For primary classes especially, keep the language plain and the context familiar.
- One or two sentences. If it needs three, it is testing comprehension.
- Use names and objects children in your class actually know
- Put the numbers in the order the operation needs them, unless reordering is the point of the question
- State the units in the question and expect them in the answer
- Avoid unfamiliar contexts — a question about a metro card fails in a village school for reasons that have nothing to do with division
Printing a maths paper
- Full-width blocks for every vertical sum, no exceptions
- Do not push four word problems into the bottom of a page — they need the ruled space more than the earlier questions do
- Bottom margin of at least 20 mm; photocopiers clip the bottom edge first
- Larger line height for Classes 1 to 3 — young children write big, and a cramped answer looks like a wrong one
- If a graph or diagram is printed, check it survives one photocopy generation before running 40 copies
Why Word is slow for this
Word is fine for text and poor for maths layout. Aligning a vertical sum means fighting tab stops or building a borderless table per question; keeping the marks column straight means another table; adding a question in the middle re-flows everything below it. Teachers end up drawing answer lines with underscores, which shift the moment anything above changes.
A purpose-built paper maker treats a vertical sum as a question type rather than as formatting. PaperGen has vertical maths, word problems and data questions as first-class types — the digit alignment, the working space and the marks column are handled, and the live A4 preview is exactly what prints. Add a question in the middle and nothing below it breaks. If you already have last year's maths paper on paper, photograph it and get it back editable rather than retyping every sum.