Name: _______________________________________________

GCSE Statistics

Probability Distributions

Total marks available: 67

Total marks achieved: ______

Instructions
• Use black ink or ball-point pen.
• Fill in the boxes at the top of this page with your name,
centre number and candidate number.
• Answer all questions.
• Answer the questions in the spaces provided
– there may be more space than you need.
• Scientific calculators may be used.
• You must show all your working out with your answer clearly identified
at the end of your solution.

Information
• The marks for each question are shown in brackets
– use this as a guide as to how much time to spend on each question.

Advice
• Read each question carefully before you start to answer it.
• Try to answer every question.
• Check your answers if you have time at the end.
Q1.

A biased coin is twice as likely to land Heads as Tails.

An experiment involves flipping 9 identical biased coins.

X represents the number of Heads obtained in the experiment.

Michael says that the values of X can be modelled by the distribution

(a) Write down the name of this distribution model.

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(1)
(b) Using Michael's model, show why the mean of X is 6

(1)
The experiment is carried out 15 times and the number of Heads obtained in each experiment is
recorded.

Michael uses his model to find an estimate for the number of experiments in which the number of Heads
recorded is exactly 6

(c) Find Michael's estimate.

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(4)
(d) Write down two assumptions which Michael needs to make about the experiment so that the

distribution is an appropriate model to use.

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(2)

(Total for question = 8 marks)

Q2.
The table gives information about blood donations in the UK.
It shows the blood groups O, A, B and AB and the number of donations for each blood group expressed
as a percentage of the total number of all donations.

6 people attend a clinic on Monday to donate blood.

(a) (i) Name the probability distribution that can be used to model the number of people from these 6
people who will have blood group AB.

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(ii) Write down one condition needed so that this distribution is a suitable model.
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(2)
(b) Work out the probability that exactly one of these 6 people will have blood group AB.
Give your answer correct to 3 decimal places.

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(3)
On Tuesday n people attend the clinic to donate blood.

The probability that at least one of these n people will have blood group AB is greater than 0.5

(c) What can you conclude, if anything, about the value of n?

You must show your working.

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(3)

(Total for question = 8 marks)

Q3.

Jasper has 3 coins.

In an experiment, Jasper flips each of the 3 coins and records the total number of heads that he gets.

Jasper believes that each coin is biased so that the number of heads he gets can be modelled by the
binomial distribution, B(3, 0.4).

(a) Show that P(0 heads) = 0.216

(1)
(b) Work out the probability that the outcome of the experiment is exactly 1 head.

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(2)
Jasper carries out the experiment 100 times.

The table shows information about the number of heads he gets for each experiment.

(c) Determine whether or not the model B(3, 0.4) is suitable for Jasper's experiment.

(5)

(Total for question = 8 marks)

Q4.

Nina suggests that each of the following problems can be answered by using a binomial distribution B(n,
p).

(a) Assess the suitability of using a binomial distribution model to answer each of the problems.
If a binomial model is suitable, you should consider any assumptions that must be made and give
possible values of n and p for the model.
If a binomial model is not suitable, you should explain why.
Problem 1

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Problem 2

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(6)
The probability that a particular machine has a fault is 7%.

A random sample of 6 of these machines are taken and each machine is checked.

(b) Work out the probability that at least 2 of these machines have the fault.
Give your answer correct to 3 decimal places.

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(3)

(Total for question = 9 marks)

Q5.

A company makes bars of chocolate on a production line in a factory.

If a chocolate bar is found to weigh less than 60 g, the company will not be allowed to sell it.

The company uses quality assurance control charts to monitor the weight of the chocolate bars.

Samples of chocolate bars are taken at regular intervals.

The mean weights of the samples are normally distributed.

(a) Explain why it would not be appropriate for the production line to be set so that 60 g is the target
weight.

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(1)
In fact the production line is set so that the sample means should be normally distributed with a mean of
62 g and a standard deviation of 0.4 g.

(b) What can be deduced from this information about the mean and standard deviation of all of the
chocolate bars made on the production line?

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(2)

(Total for question = 3 marks)

Q6.

Some students at a school walk home and some students go home by bus.

The times taken by the students at the school to walk home have a mean of 25 minutes and a standard
deviation of 6 minutes.

The times taken to walk home can be modelled by a normal distribution.

(a) Shanaya says,

"More than 80% of the students who walk home take between 19 and 37 minutes"
Use statistical calculations to assess Shanaya's conclusion.

(5)
The diagram below shows a sketch of the distribution of the times taken by students to go home by bus.

(b) Explain why it is not appropriate to use a normal distribution to model the times taken by students to
go home by bus.

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(1)
(c) On the same grid, sketch a diagram showing the distribution of the times taken by students to walk
home.
(2)

(Total for question = 8 marks)

Q7.

The table gives information about the scores achieved by students in a French test and in a German test.

The scores in each test are modelled by a normal distribution.

(a) On the grid, sketch a diagram of each distribution of scores.

Label each diagram.

(4)
(b) Use the information in the table to make two comparisons between the scores in the French test and
the scores in the German test.
Interpret your comparisons in context.
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(3)

(Total for question = 7 marks)

Q8.

The table gives the time that Lena took to complete successfully each of two skills tests, test A and test B.

The mean and the standard deviation for each of these tests for all the students who completed the tests
are also given.

(a) Using standardised scores, compare Lena's performance in Test A relative to the other students with
her performance in Test B relative to the other students.
Explain how you reach your conclusion.

(5)
The times taken to complete successfully each test are normally distributed.

(b) Work out an estimate for the percentage of the times taken by the students to complete test B which
are between 19.8 minutes and 22.2 minutes.

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(2)

(Total for question = 7 marks)

Q9.

Peter thinks that the ages at inauguration of the presidents of the USA are normally distributed.

He collects information about the ages at inauguration, in years, of 43 presidents of the USA from the
internet.

The grouped frequency table gives information about his results.

(a) Write down one disadvantage of collecting information from the internet.

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(1)
Peter uses a spreadsheet to calculate the following summary statistics for the information in the table.

where the values of x are the class midpoints.

(b) Show that an estimate of the standard deviation of the ages at inauguration is 6.29
You may use Peter's summary statistics.

(2)
Peter now draws this histogram to show the information in the grouped frequency table.

(c) Calculate an estimate for the proportion of these 43 presidents whose age at inauguration was within
1 standard deviation of the mean.
Give your answer correct to 2 significant figures.

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(5)
Peter states that the age at inauguration of these presidents is normally distributed.

(d) Do you agree?

Use your answer to part (c) to justify your answer.
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(1)

(Total for question = 9 marks)