Probability worksheet — GCSE Foundation

1.A factory checked 400 items. A frequency tree splits them into 250 items made by machine A and 150 items made by machine B. On machine A's branch, 15 of the items were faulty. On machine B's branch, 5 of the items were faulty. One of the 400 items is picked at random. Work out the probability that it is faulty. Give your answer as a fraction in its simplest form.

2.In a trial, a drawing pin was dropped 80 times and landed point-up 52 times. Assuming this relative frequency continues, work out how many times you would expect it to land point-up in 300 drops.

3.Two fair spinners are each numbered 1, 2 and 3. Priya spins both spinners together and records the two numbers as a pair, listing every possible outcome systematically in a grid. Work out the probability that the two numbers are the same.

4.Two games at a school fete are played independently. The probability of winning game X is 3/8. The probability of winning game Y is 0.4. Which statement correctly compares the two games?

5.A biased six-sided dice is rolled once. The probability that it lands on 6 is 0.25. The other five scores are all equally likely. Work out the probability that it lands on 3.

6.On a probability scale from 0 to 1, five descriptions are used: impossible (0), unlikely (between 0 and 0.5), evens (exactly 0.5), likely (between 0.5 and 1) and certain (1). The probability that a particular bus is late is 3/8. Which description best fits this probability?

7.A fair spinner has 10 equal sections, numbered 1 to 10. The spinner is spun 150 times. Work out how many times you would expect it to land on a number greater than 7.

8.The universal set is {1, 2, 3, ..., 15}. A = {multiples of 3}. Work out n(A′), the number of elements not in A.

9.Spinner P and Spinner Q are each fair and have 5 equal sections, numbered 1 to 5. Both spinners are spun once, and every outcome is listed as an ordered pair, Spinner P then Spinner Q, such as (2, 4). Work out how many of the outcomes have the score on Spinner P less than the score on Spinner Q.

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

11.A biased spinner is spun 200 times. It lands on red 70 times, on blue 50 times, and on green 80 times. Using these results, work out the expected number of times the spinner does NOT land on red, in 500 spins of the same spinner.

12.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.

13.A bag contains one red counter and one blue counter. Josh takes a counter, notes its colour, puts it back, then takes a counter again. He draws a tree diagram to show every possible pair of colours. Work out how many outcomes are on his tree diagram.

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

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