Probability worksheet — GCSE Higher

1.A factory tests components from a large batch in which 6% are defective. Two components are selected at random, and the batch is large enough that the selections can be treated as independent. Given that at least one of the two components is defective, work out the probability that both are defective.

2.A bag contains 4 red sweets and 6 yellow sweets. Two sweets are taken at random, one after the other, and are not put back. The first sweet taken is red. Work out the probability that the second sweet taken is also red.

3.In a certain town, P(rain on Monday) = 0.3. If it rains on Monday, the probability that it also rains on Tuesday is 0.6. If it does not rain on Monday, the probability that it rains on Tuesday is 0.25. Work out the probability that it rains on Tuesday.

4.Two ordinary fair dice are rolled, one after the other. Work out the probability that the first dice shows a 6 and the second dice shows an even number.

5.Dice A is a fair six-sided dice. Dice B is biased so that P(6) = 0.3. Dice A is rolled 150 times and Dice B is rolled 150 times. Work out how many more sixes you would expect from Dice B than from Dice A.

6.A basketball player takes two free throws, and the throws are independent. The probability of scoring on each throw is 0.6, and the probability of missing is 0.4. Work out the probability that she scores exactly one of the two throws.

7.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.

8.An archer hits the bullseye with probability 0.24 on any one shot. She wants to know how many shots she must take to expect to hit the bullseye 12 times. Work out how many shots this is.

9.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.

10.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.

11.Grace rolls two ordinary fair dice at the same time and works out the total of the two scores. Work out the probability that the total is greater than 10.

12.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.

13.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.

14.On the probability scale from 0 (impossible) to 1 (certain), evens is exactly halfway. An event is 3/10 more likely than evens. Work out the probability of that event, giving your answer as a decimal.

15.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.