Probability worksheet — GCSE Foundation

1.Harry plays a game in which he flips a fair coin and rolls an ordinary fair dice. He wins a prize only if the coin shows heads and the dice shows a 6. Work out the probability that Harry wins a prize.

2.In a survey of 45 students, 22 said they like reading, 18 said they like gaming, and 6 said they like both. Work out how many students like exactly one of reading or gaming.

3.A bag contains 2 white counters and 8 black counters. One counter is taken at random from the bag. Work out the probability that the counter is not black.

4.Four pupils each flip the same coin a number of times and record the results. Sam flips it 40 times and gets 24 heads. Priti flips it 25 times and gets 10 heads. Leo flips it 20 times and gets 9 heads. Fatima flips it 15 times and gets 6 heads. Combine all four pupils' results to estimate the probability that the coin lands on heads.

5.At a youth club, 65 members are asked which sports they play. 27 play football, 21 play basketball, and 9 play both. Work out the number of members who play neither sport.

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

7.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.

8.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.

9.The probability that a spinner lands on blue is 2/5. Write this probability as a percentage.

10.The probability that it rains in Manchester tomorrow is 1/12. Work out the probability that it does not rain in Manchester tomorrow.

11.A spinner can land on red, blue, green or yellow, and it cannot land on more than one colour. The probability that it lands on red is 0.05 and the probability that it lands on yellow is 0.35. The probability that it lands on blue is twice the probability that it lands on green. Work out the probability that it lands on green.

12.A fair spinner has 8 equal sections: 5 are red and 3 are blue. Freya spins it twice, and each spin is independent of the other. Work out the probability that she gets one red and one blue in the two spins, in either order.

13.The probability that Isla answers a quiz question correctly is 0.8. She answers three questions, and her answers are independent of each other. Work out the probability that she answers all three correctly.

14.A fair coin is flipped again and again. After the first 10 flips there have been 7 heads. After 1000 flips there have been 528 heads. Which statement best describes what these results show?

15.A student is estimating the probability that a spinner lands on red. In her first 85 spins it landed on red 34 times. She then spins it 165 more times, and in those it lands on red 58 times. Work out the best estimate of the probability of red from all 250 spins. Give your answer as a decimal, correct to 3 decimal places.