PSLE rate questions with worked answers
A rate is an amount per unit: dollars per kilogram, litres per minute, pages per hour. Your child has to find the rate, the total or the number of units from the other two, and keep hours and minutes straight while doing it.
What the PSLE tests in rate
- Rate as the amount of a quantity per unit of another quantity
- Finding the rate, the total amount or the number of units, given the other two
- Rates over time, such as litres per minute or items per hour
- Converting between hours and minutes inside a rate question
- Rate combined with other topics, such as fractions of a tank or money
Where children lose the most marks
- Times given in hours and minutes, where 45 min must become 0.75 h, not 0.45 h
- Two rates in one question, such as two taps filling a tank together
- Changing the unit of the rate, from per minute to per hour
A PSLE-style question, worked
A machine prints 270 brochures in 45 minutes. At the same rate, how many brochures does it print in 2 hours?
- Rate = 270 ÷ 45 = 6 brochures per minute
- 2 hours = 2 × 60 = 120 minutes
- Brochures in 2 hours = 6 × 120 = 720
Why 1200 brochures is wrong: 45 minutes was written as 0.45 h, so the rate became 270 ÷ 0.45 = 600 an hour and 2 hours gave 1200. 45 minutes is 0.75 h.
Free PSLE rate questions with answers
Careless mistakes to watch in rate
Minutes and hours in rate
Your child writes 2 h 30 min as 2.3 h and the rate per hour comes out wrong. Why it happens in PSLE rate questions and how to stop it.
See the fix →Left out the units
Your child writes 81 instead of 81 cm². Where the answer line does not print the unit, leaving it out can cost marks. How to make units a habit.
See the fix →Converting units (kg, ℓ, m, cm³)
Your child divides by 100 instead of 1000 when changing cm³ to litres, and the answer is ten times too big. Why it happens and how to fix it.
See the fix →Questions parents ask
Is speed still tested in PSLE Maths?
Not in the current MOE primary syllabus, which applies to the PSLE from 2026: it lists rate (an amount per unit), and speed is not among the P1 to P6 topics. Older practice papers may still include speed questions.
Why does my child keep getting rate questions wrong?
Often it is the time. Changing 45 minutes to 0.45 h instead of 45/60 h is one of the most common slips in rate questions.
Can my child use a calculator for rate questions?
In Paper 2, yes. Rate questions in Paper 1 are set with numbers that work out cleanly by hand.
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