Probability worksheet — GCSE Foundation

1.A pupil must choose 2 different subjects at random from these five: maths, physics, biology, chemistry and history. Work out the probability that the two subjects chosen are maths and biology.

2.An ordinary fair dice is rolled twice. Work out the probability of getting at least one 5.

3.A garden centre recorded 240 plant sales using a frequency tree. The first stage splits the sales into three types: shrubs, bedding plants and trees. 96 sales were shrubs, 114 were bedding plants and the rest were trees. Work out the probability that a sale chosen at random from these 240 was a tree.

4.A small pack contains 5 cards, numbered 1 to 5. One card is drawn at random from the pack, and a fair coin is flipped. Every outcome is listed as a pair, such as (3, H). Work out how many equally likely outcomes there are in total.

5.A drawing pin is dropped many times and lands either point up or point down. The relative frequency of landing point up is recorded as the experiment goes on: after 50 drops it is 0.720, after 200 drops it is 0.665, and after 1000 drops it is 0.638. The pin is to be dropped a further 2000 times. Work out the best estimate of the number of times it will land point up.

6.Two sets, A and B, sit inside a universal set. A region of a Venn diagram is described by the notation A ∩ B′. Work out which of these describes that region.

7.A fair six-sided dice is rolled once. Work out the probability that the score is greater than 4.

8.The probability that a plant grown from a seed packet germinates is 7/10. Work out the probability that it does not germinate.

9.A bag contains 3 red beads and 7 blue beads. A bead is taken out at random and not put back. A second bead is then taken out at random. Work out the probability that the first bead is red and the second bead is also red.

10.On the probability scale from 0 to 1, which word best describes an event with probability 0.9?

11.A six-sided dice is rolled 12 times. It lands on a six 4 times. Erin says that the dice must be biased. Which of these is the best comment on Erin's statement?

12.A fair spinner is divided into 5 equal sections, 2 labelled win and 3 labelled lose. Zara spins it twice, and the two spins are independent. Work out the probability that she wins on the first spin and loses on the second spin.

13.A leisure centre has 150 members. 80 of the members are male and the rest are female. Every member uses either the pool or the gym, but not both. 66 members use the pool, and 35 of those pool users are male. Work out how many female members use the gym.

14.An archer hits the bullseye with probability 0.24 on any one shot. She wants to know how many shots she must take to expect to hit the bullseye 12 times. Work out how many shots this is.

15.One card is taken at random from an ordinary pack of 52 playing cards. 26 of the cards are red. Work out the probability that the card is red. Give your answer as a percentage.