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Probability
Question 1
Skill involved: K259a: Draw a tree diagram to represent successive independent events.

Simon plays one game of tennis and one game of snooker.

3
The probability that Simon will win at tennis is
4

1
The probability that Simon will win at snooker is
3

Complete the probability tree diagram below.

(2 marks)

Question 2
Skill involved: E56: Probability of mutually exclusive events.

1
The probability that Elliot's football team wins their next match is .
5

2
The probability that they lose is .
5

Work out the probability that they draw.

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Question 3
Skill involved: K260c: Deal with multiple different chains of outcomes involving successive
dependent events.

In a bag there is a total of 20 coins.

10 coins are 20 cent coins

6 coins are 10 cent coins
4 coins are 5 cent coins

Emma takes at random two of the coins from the bag.

Work out the probability that the total value of the two coins is 20 cents or less.

(3 marks)
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Question 4
Skill involved: E261: Determine probabilities from Venn Diagrams.

The Venn diagram below shows whether some students own a cat or a dog.

The event C is "owns a cat".

The event D is "owns a dog".

Find the probability that a student chosen at random owns a dog and a cat.

Question 5
Skill involved: E297: Solve problems involving independent/dependent events where a frequency
is algebraic.

The Venn diagram shows the probability of a randomly selected student from a school being
in the sets L, B and C , where

L represents the event that the student has instrumental music lessons
B represents the event that the student plays in the school band
C represents the event that the student sings in the school choir

p, q , r and s are probabilities.

Given that P ( L )=0.4 , P ( B )=0.13 , P ( C ) =0.3 and the events L and C are independent, find
the value of p.

(2 marks)
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Question 6
Skill involved: E418: Conditional probability formulae

The Venn diagram shows the probability for two events E and F .

Find (Could not display math).

Question 7
Skill involved: E419: Addition Law for Probability

Two events R and Q are such that

P ( R ∩Q ' )=0.15 , P ( Q )=0.35 and P ( R∨Q )=0.1

Find the value of P ( R )

(2 marks)
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Question 8
Skill involved: E259: Independent and successive independent events (including tree diagrams).

Rashid drives his car along a road passing through two sets of traffic lights.
The tree diagram shows the probabilities of the lights being red when he reaches them.

Given that the first set is red, write down the probability that the second set is not red.

(1 mark)

Question 9
Skill involved: E354: Knowledge of the Edexcel large data set.

Helen believes that the random variable C , representing cloud cover from the large data
set, can be modelled by a discrete uniform distribution.

Using this model, find the probability that cloud cover is less than 50%

(1 mark)
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Question 10
Skill involved: K260a: Draw a tree diagram to represent successive dependent events.

Chaiwat either cycles to work or goes by bus.

On any day that he goes to work, the probability that he cycles is 0.6.
When he cycles, the probability that he is late is 0.1.
When he goes by bus, the probability that he is late is 0.3.

Complete the probability tree diagram.

(2 marks)
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Question 11
Skill involved: E261: Determine probabilities from Venn Diagrams.

A group of pupils is asked whether they can speak Welsh, French, both languages, or neither
language.
Their answers are shown in the Venn diagram below.
The universal set, ∈, contains all the pupils in the group.

One pupil from the group is chosen at random.

What is the probability that this pupil can speak both Welsh and French?

(2 marks)

Question 12
Skill involved: E297: Solve problems involving independent/dependent events where a frequency
is algebraic.

Jamal has a drawer containing 6 green socks, 18 purple socks, and 12 orange socks. After
adding more purple socks, Jamal noticed that there is now a 60% chance that a sock
randomly selected from the drawer is purple. How many purple socks did Jamal add?
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Question 13
Skill involved: E417: Set Notation for Probability

Two events R and Q are such that

P ( R ∩Q ' )=0.15 , P ( Q )=0.35 and P ( R∨Q )=0.1

Find the value of P ( R ∪ Q )

(1 mark)

Question 14
Skill involved: E419: Addition Law for Probability

A bag contains 64 coloured beads. There are r red beads, y yellow beads and 1 green bead
and r + y +1=64

Two beads are selected at random, one at a time without replacement.

5
The probability that both of the beads are red is
84

By setting up an equation, find the value of r .

(5 marks)
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Question 15
Skill involved: E259: Independent and successive independent events (including tree diagrams).

Azmol rolls a biased dice and spins a biased coin.

The probability that the coin will land on Heads is 0.55

The probability that the dice will land on 6 and the coin will land on Heads is 0.11

Work out the probability that the dice will land on 6 and the coin will land on Tails.

(3 marks)

Question 16
Skill involved: E56: Probability of mutually exclusive events.

Ryan has a bag with green, blue and yellow sweets.

There are three times as many green sweets than yellow sweets.

The probability to pick a blue sweet is 0.2.

Find the probability to pick a yellow sweet.

Question 17
Skill involved: K260a: Draw a tree diagram to represent successive dependent events.

John, his best friend James and three other friends share two season tickets for the rugby
season matches. Before each match, the five select at random two of their names, to decide
who gets the tickets for the match. John and James hope to go to the next match together.

Calculate the probability that John and James both get tickets for the next match.

(5 marks)
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Question 18
Skill involved: E259: Independent and successive independent events (including tree diagrams).

A college has 80 students in Year 12.

20 students study Biology

28 students study Chemistry
30 students study Physics
7 students study both Biology and Chemistry
11 students study both Chemistry and Physics
5 students study both Physics and Biology
3 students study all 3 of these subjects

Determine whether studying Biology and studying Chemistry are statistically

independent.

(3 marks)

Question 19
Skill involved: K297a: Form an equation using sampling without replacement.

I have 10 goats, n of which are male. I need to choose 2 of them to make a casserole.

2
The probability both of my choices are male is
15

Use the information to form an appropriate quadratic equation n2 + an+ b=0, specifying the
constants a and b .
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Question 20
Skill involved: E418: Conditional probability formulae

The Venn diagram shows the probability for two events E and F .

Find (Could not display math).

Question 21
Skill involved: E419: Addition Law for Probability

A bag contains 64 coloured beads. There are r red beads, y yellow beads and 1 green bead
and r + y +1=64

Two beads are selected at random, one at a time without replacement.

Find the probability that the green bead is one of the beads selected.

(4 marks)
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Mark scheme
Question 1
1 2 1 2
a= , b= , c= , d=
4 3 3 3

Question 2
2
5

Question 3
90
380

Question 4
2
26

Question 5
p=0.12

Question 6
4
9
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Question 7
0.185

Question 8
0.7

Question 9
4
9

Question 10
a=¿0.4
b=¿0.9
c=¿0.3
d=¿0.7

Question 11
3
14

Question 12
9
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After Jamal adds x purple socks he has (18+ x ) purple socks and 6+18+ 12+ x =36+ x total
18+ x
socks. This means the probability of drawing a purple sock is , so we obtain
36+ x

18+ x 3
=
36+ x 5

Cross multiplying and solving gives x=9

Question 13
0.5

Question 14
r =16

Question 15
0.09

Question 16
0.2

Question 17
1
10
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Question 18
They are independent

Question 19
a=−1 , b=−12

Question 20
5
8

Question 21
1
32