Probability worksheet — GCSE Higher

1.A bag contains 5 red counters and 3 blue counters. A counter is taken at random, its colour is noted, and it is put back in the bag before a second counter is taken at random. Work out the probability that both counters are the same colour.

2.Two games are offered at a school fair, and every one of the 40 pupils in a class plays each game once. In Game A, the probability of winning a prize is 0.2 and the prize is worth £5. In Game B, the probability of winning a prize is 0.1 and the prize is worth £12. Work out which game gives a higher expected total value of prizes for the class, and by how much.

3.A game has two independent stages. P(win stage 1) = 0.4, and P(win stage 2) = 0.25. Work out the probability that Ffion wins at least one of the two stages.

4.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.

5.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.

6.The probability that Leo wakes up before his alarm is 0.35. The probability that his younger sister wakes up before her alarm, independently of Leo, is 0.28. Work out the probability that neither of them wakes up before their alarm.

7.A = {factors of 12} and B = {factors of 18}. Work out n(A ∩ B), the number of elements in both sets.

8.A quality inspector examines a sample of 60 items from a production line and finds that 8 are faulty. Using this sample's proportion, work out how many faulty items would be expected in a new batch of 750 items.

9.In a survey of 200 households, 120 have a garden and 80 own a dog. 54 of the households have a garden and own a dog. Work out the probability that a household owns a dog given that it has a garden, and compare it with the probability that a household picked from the whole survey owns a dog.

10.In a class of 32 pupils, 19 study geography and 15 study history. 8 study both subjects. Work out n(G ∪ H), the number of pupils who study geography or history or both.

11.180 people entered a fun run. A frequency tree splits them into 108 adults and the rest children. It then splits each of those groups into those who finished and those who did not. 99 of the adults finished, and 153 of the 180 people finished altogether. Work out how many children did not finish.

12.A bag contains 5 red counters and 5 green counters. Three counters are taken out one at a time and are not put back. Work out the probability that all three counters are red.

13.A library recorded loans for 250 books over a week, using a frequency tree. The first branch splits the books into 160 fiction and 90 non-fiction. Of the fiction books, 112 were returned on time and the rest were returned late. All the non-fiction books were returned on time. Work out the probability that a book, chosen at random from the 250, was returned late. Give your answer as a fraction in its simplest form.

14.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.

15.Two pupils each flip the same coin to estimate the probability of heads. Leah flips it 40 times and gets 24 heads. Ben flips it 60 times and gets 33 heads. By combining both pupils' results, work out the relative frequency of heads, giving your answer as a fraction in its simplest form.