Number and Place Value: Practice Set 4
Number and Place Value: Practice Set 4 extends core place-value skills, ordering and rounding whole numbers and decimals, to include negative numbers and rounding to a given number of significant figures. This is the depth of place-value question found in the harder half of GL and CEM 11+ papers, where numbers reach into the millions and questions mix positive and negative values in the same list.
Method
- Identify each digit's place-value column, extending as far as millions for large whole numbers and thousandths for decimals.
- For negative numbers, compare using a number line: the further left a number sits, the smaller its value, so -19 is smaller than -3.
- Line up decimal points before comparing or ordering decimals with different numbers of digits, padding shorter numbers with zeros.
- To round to a given number of significant figures, count significant digits from the first non-zero digit, then look at the next digit along to decide whether to round up.
- Use the inequality symbols < and > precisely, double-checking which number the smaller end of the symbol is pointing to.
- Sense-check any rounded or ordered answer against the size of the original numbers before moving on.
Worked example
Order these numbers from smallest to largest: -12, 5, -3, 0, -19.
- Separate the negative numbers (-12, -3, -19) from the non-negative numbers (5, 0).
- Order the negative numbers from most negative to least negative: -19, -12, -3.
- Order the non-negative numbers: 0, 5.
- Combine the two lists in order: -19, -12, -3, 0, 5.
Practice questions
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Q1In the number 4,706,382, what is the value of the digit 6?Show answer
Answer: 6000 (six thousand)
Q2Write -8 and 3 in order from smallest to largest.Show answer
Answer: -8, 3
Q3Round 68,492 to the nearest thousand.Show answer
Answer: 68,000
Q4Round 0.0647 to 2 significant figures.Show answer
Answer: 0.065
Q5Which is greater: -15 or -9?Show answer
Answer: -9 (it is closer to zero, so it is the greater value)
Q6Write the missing symbol, < or >, between -6 and -2.Show answer
Answer: -6 < -2
Exam-style questions
Written in the style of a 11+ exam paper, with a full mark scheme.
Order these five numbers from smallest to largest, showing how you decided the order of the negative numbers: 7, -14, -2, 19, -8.
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A city's population is 2,384,650. (a) Round this population to the nearest hundred thousand. (b) Round this population to 3 significant figures. (c) Explain, in one sentence, why a newspaper might prefer to report a rounded figure rather than the exact population.
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Free printable worksheet
Want more practice on paper? Download the number and place value: practice set 4 worksheet pack - 9 pages of exam-style questions with a full mark scheme. One email opens every download in this browser for 14 days - no account, no card. Print it for personal and classroom use.
This topic is chapter 39 of 11+ Maths Workbook 4, the whole course as one free printable PDF.
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