Using the scale to convert a real-life measurement to what it should be on the drawing (e.g., 6 m at 1:100 = 6 cm).
Where your child meets this in real life: Drawing a plan of your bedroom to scale or creating a map of the school grounds
Each SEAG paper has 28 maths questions. Questions 29 to 50 are multiple choice with five possible answers, and questions 51 to 56 need a short written answer. With 56 questions in 60 minutes across English and maths, that is about a minute per question.
SEAGReady breaks calculate scale measurements into 2 steps, taught in order so each skill builds on the last.
Calculate the drawing measurement when the real-life measurement uses the same unit as the scale (e.g., 500 cm at 1:100 = 5 cm)
Calculate the drawing measurement when the real-life measurement is in different units (e.g., 6 m at 1:100 = 6 cm)
Try three free questions from our calculate scale measurements course. They start easy and get harder, so you can see where your child's confidence runs out. If they manage the last one without a hint, this topic is probably secure. If not, the steps above show where to start.
Josh uses the bedroom-plan information shown. How long should the wall be on his drawing?
Luke uses the floor-plan information shown. How long should he draw the living room?
Sam uses the model information shown. What should the perimeter of the building be on his model?
This is the exact interactive worked example your child sees in SEAGReady. Step through it and watch the method build up.
Lily is drawing a scale plan of her classroom for a school project. The classroom wall is 400 cm long. She uses a scale of 1:100.
How long should the wall be on her drawing?
400 cm ÷ 100
Scale 1:100 means 1 cm on drawing = 100 cm in real life
Step 1 of 4
Lily is drawing a scale plan of her classroom for a school project. The classroom wall is 400 cm long. She uses a scale of 1:100.
How long should the wall be on her drawing?
The wall should be 4 cm long on Lily's drawing.
The key insight: Real to drawing is the opposite of drawing to real - so we divide instead of multiply!
Common mix-up: 400 × 100 = 40,000 cm. Multiplying makes the drawing bigger than real life - we need to divide to shrink it.
These are the misconceptions we see most often in calculate scale measurements, including the ones our practice questions are specifically designed to catch.
Struggling with calculate scale measurements? The real gap is often in one of these earlier topics.
Sitting the SEAG test this November? Read our last-month revision plan, Paper 1 vs Paper 2 and test day guide.
SEAGReady finds the exact step where your child gets stuck, teaches it with worked examples like the one above, and brings it back for review so it sticks.
Free to start · no card needed