A LEVEL STATISTICS WORKSHEET COMPILED BY MANYUVIRE D.

CELL 0783235483

PROBABILITY WORK SHEET

1. a) If E1 and E2 are any two events, explain what is meant by

i) E1 and E2 are independent, [1]
ii) E1 and E2 are mutually exclusive. [1]
b) in the who, what or where game, three contestants each chooses one of the three
categories of a question. Assuming that the contestants chooses independently and that
they are equally likely to select any of the categories, find the probability that
i) all will choose different categories, [3]
ii) two will be alike and the third different. [4] NOV 2003 NO 11
2. Three flower vendors X, Y and Z have equal chances of selling their flowers. X has 80 red and
20 white flowers, Y has 30 red and 40 white flowers and Z has 10 red and 60 white flowers.
On Valentine’s day, Kudzai wants to buy a flower.
(a) Find the probability that she picks a red flower. [3]
(b) Given that she bought a red flower, find the probability that it came from Y. [3] NOV
2004 NO 5
3. A box contains three fuses, one good and two defective. Two fuses are drawn in sequence
without replacement. Calculate the probability that
(a) the second fuse drawn is defective, [3]
(b) the second fuse drawn is defective if the first is defective. [3] JUNE 2004 NO 4
4. A building society gives both adjustable-rate mortgage and fixed-rate mortgages on
residential property. It breaks residential property into three categories: low density houses,
high density houses and blocks of flats. The following table give probabilities appropriate to
this situation.

Low density High density Blocks of flats

Adjustable-rate 0.285 0.240 0.100

Fixed –rate 0.115 0.200 0.060

Find the probability that

i) the building society gives a mortgage for a low density property, [1]
ii) the building society gives a mortgage for a low density property to each of the four people who
are first to apply, [2]
iii) a mortgage is adjustable-rate given that it is for low density property. [2] NOV 2007 NO 1

5. A school selects 55% of its lower sixth pupils from its own O level pupils and the remainder
comes from other schools. It is established that 90% of accepted A-level students who did
their O-level outside the school pass their A-level studies, and that 70% of those who did
their O-level studies at the school pass their A-level studies. A pupil is selected at random
from the recent A-level graduate of the school. Find the probability that the pupil
i) passes A-level studies. [4]
ii) did O-level outside the school, given that the pupil passes A-level studies. [2] NOV
2008NO 2

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A LEVEL STATISTICS WORKSHEET COMPILED BY MANYUVIRE D. CELL 0783235483

6. A fair die is tossed three times. Find the probability that

i) exactly one six is obtained. [2]
ii) the first score is even, the second is odd and the third is either a one or a two.
[3]
JUNE 2008 NO 3
7. Three tickets for a musical show are sent to a high school musical club. Fifteen girls and ten
boys would like a ticket. If the three people to receive a ticket are chosen at random, find
the probability that they will be
i) exactly 2 boys, [3]
ii) at least 2 girls. [3] NOV 2009 NO 3
8. The meteorological department of a certain country adopts a simple model the weather in
which each day is classified as either fine or rainy. The probability that a fine day is followed
by another fine day is 0,8. The probability that a rainy day is followed by a fine day is 0,4.
The probability that 1 february is fine is 0,75. Using a tree diagram or otherwise , find the
probability that
a) the 3rd February is fine, [3]
b) the 1st February was rainy given that 3rd February is fine. [3] NOV 2011 NO 5
9. During the 2010 World Cup in a certain city, the probability that there was electricity on any
particular day was . In the case that there was no electricity, a generator would be
switched on. Independently, the probability that john watched a soccer match being
screened live was .
a) Represent the information by means of a tree diagram. [1]
b) Given that John watched a soccer match, find the probability that there was no electricity.
[3] JUNE 2013 NO 2
10. A bag contains 24 counters of which 6 are red, 8 are green and 10 are yellow. Three counters
are taken from the bag at random without replacement.
i) Show that the probability that 2 of the counters taken are green is [2]
ii) Given that 2 of the counters are green, find the probability that the first counter taken is
red. [3] JUNE 2014 NO 1
11. Two tetrahedral dice with faces marked 0, 1, 2, 3, are thrown and the number on which each
lands on is noted. The score is the sum of the 2 numbers. By means of an outcome table or
otherwise, find the probability that
i) the score is a prime number, [3]
ii) one die lands on a 3 given that the score is a prime number. [3] JUNE 2015 NO 5
12. Bag A contains 3 red balls and 2 white balls. Bag B contains 2 red balls and 3 white balls. A
bag is selected at random and the two balls are drawn from it, one after the other without
replacement.
a) Find the probability that the two balls drawn are red. [2]
b) Given that the two balls are red, find the probability that they are from bag A. [3] JUNE
2016 NO 3
13. A and B play against each other in a game. Each result is either a win for A or a win for B. the
probability of A winning the first game is 0.6. If A wins a particular game, the probability of
winning the next game is 0.7. If A loses a particular game, the probability of winning the next
game is 0.4. Find the probability that

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A LEVEL STATISTICS WORKSHEET COMPILED BY MANYUVIRE D. CELL 0783235483

i) A loses the second game, [2]

ii) A wins the first game, given that A loses the second game. [3] NOV 2017 NO 3
14. The head of a school wishes to contact parents of learners. She could use e-mail, letter or
cell phone with probabilities 0.4, 0.1 and 0.5 respectively. She uses only one of the methods.
The probabilities of parents receiving the messages if the head uses e-mail, letter or cell
phone are 0.6, 0.8 and 1 respectively.
a) Find the probability that the parents receive the message. [2]
b) Given that the parents receives the message,
find the probability that they received it via e-mail. [3] N2018 P1 NO 2
15. a) Julias Caeser is one of the novels in a collection of 20 novels. A learner is going to choose
5 of these novels to take for the holiday. Find the
i) number of ways the learner can choose the 5 books, [2]
ii) number of choices that will include Julias Caeser. [2]
a) Find the number of ways 3 boys and 4 girls can stand in a line if:
i) there are no restrictions [1]
ii) the boys stand next to each other. [2] N2018 P1 NO 4
16. a) Events A and B are such that P(A B)=0.9, P(A B)=0.2 and P(A/B)=0.8. Find
i) P(B) [3] ii) P(A’) where A’ is the compliment of A. [4]
b) An unbiased die is thrown until a six appears. Find the expected number of tosses. [3]
N2018P1 NO 11
17. a) State the difference between a permutation and a combination. [2]
b) Two fuses are selected simultaneously and at random from a packet containing 5 good
and 3 faulty fuses. Find the number of ways of selecting
i) the 2 fuses from the packet. [2]
ii) one good one and one faulty one from the packet. [2]
iii) Hence or otherwise find the probability that exactly one faulty fuse is selected. [2}
N2018P2 NO 2
18. Wherever there is a power cut, a school is equally likely to switch on one of its 3 generators
A, B or C. On any given day, the independent probabilities of a breakdown are, 0.2 for A 0.3
for B and 0.25 For C
a) Show the above information by a means of a tree diagram. [3]
b) For a randomly chosen day, when there was a power cut, find the probability that
i) There was a generator breakdown, [2]
ii) given that there was a generator break down, then it was generator C. [3] N2018P2 NO
3
19. A student prepares for an examination by studying a list of 10 questions. The student can
solve 6 of them. For the examination, the teacher selects 5 questions at random from the list
of 10 questions. Find the probability that the student can solve all the 5 questions in the
examination. [2] N2019 P1 NO 1
20. Two fifths ( ) of the teaching staff of a college are female. The probability that a female staff
is absent on any Tuesday is 0.32 and that of a male staff is 0.08. Find the probability that on
a particular Tuesday, a
a) member of the teaching staff is absent, [2]

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A LEVEL STATISTICS WORKSHEET COMPILED BY MANYUVIRE D. CELL 0783235483

b) female is absent , given that one member of the teaching staff is absent. [3] N2019P1
NO 4
21. a) Find how many code numbers of three digits that can be made from using the digits 1; 2;
3; 4 and 5, if the order of the digits is important and repetition is
i) permitted, [2]
ii) not permitted. [2]
b) At a certain school the probability that a learner passes Advanced Level is 0.8 and the
probability that the learner proceeds to Tertiary Education is 0.9. The corresponding
probability that a learner who fails Advanced Level does not proceed to Tertiary Education is
0.4.
i) Find the probability that a learner proceeds to Tertiary Education. [2]
ii) Given that the learner proceeds to Tertiary Education calculate the probability that the
leaner fails Advanced Level. [3] N2019P2 NO 5
22. In a group of 40 students all of whom are studying Statistics or Pure Mathematics or both,
20 are studying Statistics and 30 are studying Pure Mathematics.
(a) Illustrate the information on a Venn diagram. [1]
(b) Find the probability that a student chosen at random is
(i) studying Statistics and Pure Mathematics,
(ii) studying Pure Mathematics but not Statistics. [4] SPMN P1 NO 1
23. Four letters are chosen at random the word DARLING. Find the probability that
(a) exactly 2 consonants are chosen. [2]
(b) at least 3 consonants are chosen. [3] SPMN P1 NO 2