Probability worksheet — GCSE Higher

1.A fair six-sided dice is rolled 90 times. Work out how many more times you would expect it to land on a number less than 4 than on a 6.

2.The probability that Kofi passes his driving test on any attempt is 0.6, and each attempt is independent of the others. Work out the probability that he fails both his first two attempts.

3.150 pupils are asked about swimming and cycling, and the results are recorded on a frequency tree. The first pair of branches splits the 150 pupils into 90 who swim and 60 who do not swim. Of the 90 who swim, 54 also cycle. Of the 60 who do not swim, 18 cycle. Work out P(S ∩ C), the probability that a pupil, chosen at random, swims and cycles. Give your answer as a fraction in its simplest form.

4.Five raffle tickets numbered 1 to 5 are in a bag. Two tickets are drawn one after the other and the first is not put back. Work out the probability that ticket 1 is drawn first and ticket 2 is drawn second.

5.Five balls numbered 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 are in a bag. Two of them are taken out together at random. Work out the probability that the two numbers on them add up to more than 7.

6.A basketball player has a free-throw success probability of 0.75. She wants to expect to score 60 successful free throws. Work out how many free throws she needs to attempt.

7.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.

8.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.

9.Two events are independent. The first has probability 2/5 and the second has probability 1/3. Work out the probability that both events happen.

10.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.

11.In a board game Mia moves forward by the total of two ordinary fair dice. Work out the probability that her total is 7. Give your answer as a fraction in its simplest form.

12.Four bags each contain counters, some of which are winning counters. The probability of taking a winning counter is 5/12 from the red bag, 3/8 from the blue bag, 7/24 from the green bag and 1/3 from the yellow bag. Work out which bag has the smallest probability of giving a winning counter.

13.A weather station records whether it rains each day for 40 days: it rains on 9 of the days and does not rain on the rest. A local forecaster claims that the probability of rain on any day is 0.3. Work out the relative frequency of rain from the recorded data.

14.A spinner is divided into sectors of 144°, 90° and 126°, coloured purple, orange and grey in that order. The spinner is spun 300 times. Work out how many times you would expect it to land on purple.

15.A test for a medical condition is given to 1000 people. 50 of the people have the condition and 950 do not. The test is positive for 45 of the 50 people who have the condition, and it is also positive for 95 of the 950 people who do not have the condition. One of the people whose test is positive is picked at random. Work out the probability that this person has the condition.