This paper shows that the transient response of a plate undergoing flexural vibration can be calculated accurately and efficiently using the natural frequencies and modes obtained from the superposition method. The response of a completely free plate is used to demonstrate this. The case considered is one where all supports of a simply supported thin rectangular plate under self weight are suddenly removed. The resulting motion consists of a combination of the natural modes of a completely free plate. The modal superposition method is used for determining the transient response, and the natural frequencies and mode shapes of the plates used are obtained by Gorman's superposition method. These are compared with corresponding results based on the modes using the Rayleigh–Ritz method using the ordinary and degenerated free–free beam functions. There is an excellent agreement between the results from both approaches but the superposition method has shown faster convergence and the results may serve as benchmarks for the transient response of completely free plates.