Probability worksheet — GCSE Foundation

1.A box contains cards labelled 1, 2 and 3. A card is drawn at random and its number noted, then it is put back. A second card is then drawn at random. Every outcome is listed as an ordered pair, such as (1, 2). Work out how many of the outcomes in the full list have both numbers the same.

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

3.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.

4.A biased spinner is spun 40 times and lands on red 16 times. It is then spun a further 60 times and lands on red 21 times. Work out the best estimate of the probability that the spinner lands on red, using the results of all 100 spins together.

5.A fair six-sided dice is rolled once. Write down the probability of rolling a 6.

6.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.

7.A survey asks 40 people whether they own a cat, a dog, both, or neither. 12 people own only a cat, 15 own only a dog, 5 own both, and 8 own neither. Work out the probability that a randomly chosen person owns a cat or a dog (or both). Give your answer as a fraction in its simplest form.

8.A fair spinner has 6 equal sections, and 2 of the sections are coloured purple. The spinner is spun 180 times. Work out how many times you would expect it to land on purple.

9.Ellie drops a bottle top and records whether it lands open end up. In her first 20 drops it lands open end up 13 times. She carries on, and after 200 drops in total it has landed open end up 84 times. Work out the best estimate of the probability that the bottle top lands open end up.

10.Two ordinary fair dice are rolled. Work out the probability that the difference between the two scores is 1.

11.At a tombola stall, each ticket wins a toy, wins a sweet or wins nothing, and no ticket can win more than one of these. The probability that a ticket wins a toy is 0.15 and the probability that it wins a sweet is 0.4. Work out the probability that a ticket wins neither a toy nor a sweet.

12.In a class experiment a fair six-sided dice is rolled 60 times and lands on a six 14 times. The whole school then rolls the same fair dice 3000 times. Work out the best estimate of the number of sixes the school should expect.

13.A bag contains 3 red counters, 2 blue counters and 2 green counters. One counter is taken at random from the bag. Work out the probability that the counter is red.

14.A pack contains 6 cards, numbered 1 to 6. A card is drawn at random from the pack, and a fair coin is flipped. Work out the probability of drawing an even-numbered card and the coin landing on tails.

15.The probability that the Hughes family go away during the summer holidays is 3/7. Work out the probability that they do not go away during the summer holidays.