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New
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Year 11
Higher

Checking and securing calculating probabilities from diagrams

I can calculate probabilities from probability trees and Venn diagrams.

icon-background-square
New
New
Year 11
Higher

Checking and securing calculating probabilities from diagrams

I can calculate probabilities from probability trees and Venn diagrams.

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Lesson details

Key learning points

  1. The probability of an outcome can be found by considering a tree diagram
  2. The probability of an event can be found by considering a tree diagram
  3. The probability of an outcome can be found by considering a Venn diagram
  4. The probability of an event can be found by considering a Venn diagram

Keywords

  • Probability - The probability that an event will occur is the proportion of times the event is expected to happen in a suitably large experiment.

  • Frequency - The frequency is the number of times an event occurs; or the number of individuals (people, animals etc.) with some specific property.

  • Exhaustive events - A set of events are exhaustive if at least one of them has to occur whenever the experiment is carried out.

  • Mutually exclusive - Two or more events are are mutually exclusive if they share no common outcome.

Common misconception

Pupils may add the probabilities along branches of a probability tree, rather than multiplying them.

Remind pupils that probabilities cannot be greater than 1 and demonstrate that adding across the branches sometimes results in a probability that is greater than 1. Therefore, it must be wrong.


To help you plan your year 11 maths lesson on: Checking and securing calculating probabilities from diagrams, download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs...

Pupils could be asked to think of different ways to group together outcomes of a dice roll to create events and check that their probabilities sum to 1 (e.g. multiple of 3 and not multiple of 3). They could then draw probability trees that involve these events and calculate more probabilities.
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This content is © Oak National Academy Limited (2025), licensed on Open Government Licence version 3.0 except where otherwise stated. See Oak's terms & conditions (Collection 2).

Lesson video

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6 Questions

Q1.
Students were asked whether they walked to school or used other transport methods, and how long their journey took them. Find the probability a student had a journey of 15 minutes or under.
An image in a quiz
Correct answer: $$\frac {3}{10}$$
$$\frac {1}{3}$$
$$\frac {2}{3}$$
$$\frac {7}{10}$$
Q2.
A spinner with outcomes {1, 2, 3, 5, 9, 15} is spun twice. The outcome of each spin is added together. Find P(multiple of 5).
An image in a quiz
$$\frac{6}{36}$$
Correct answer: $$\frac{8}{36}$$
$$\frac{10}{36}$$
$$\frac{1}{9}$$
Correct answer: $$\frac{2}{9}$$
Q3.
A spinner with outcomes {1, 2, 3, 5, 9, 15} is spun twice. The outcome of each spin is added together. Find P(prime number).
An image in a quiz
$$\frac{10}{36}$$
Correct answer: $$\frac{11}{36}$$
$$\frac{12}{36}$$
$$\frac{13}{36}$$
Q4.
People at a bus station were surveyed their age and where their destination was. Match each frequency from the table to its value.
An image in a quiz
Correct Answer:$$a$$,141
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141

Correct Answer:$$b$$,84
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84

Correct Answer:$$c$$,80
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80

Correct Answer:$$d$$,40
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40

Correct Answer:$$e$$,190
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190

Correct Answer:$$f$$,210
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210

Q5.
People at a bus station were surveyed their age and where their destination was. A person is chosen at random. Find P(under 60 and going to Oakfield).
An image in a quiz
$$\frac{141}{500}$$
$$\frac{141}{207}$$
$$\frac{66}{207}$$
Correct answer: $$\frac{66}{400}$$
$$\frac{66}{141}$$
Q6.
People at a bus station were surveyed their age and where their destination was. A person going to Rowanwood is chosen at random. Find P(60 or over).
An image in a quiz
$$\frac{84}{400}$$
$$\frac{84}{113}$$
$$\frac{29}{84}$$
Correct answer: $$\frac{29}{113}$$
$$\frac{29}{400}$$

6 Questions

Q1.
A set of events are if at least one of them has to occur whenever the experiment is carried out.
Correct Answer: exhaustive
Q2.
A survey asked people whether they lived in Oakfield or not, and if they last shopped by online delivery or by going in-store. A random person is selected. Match each event to its probability.
An image in a quiz
Correct Answer:P(lives in Oakfield),$$250\over400$$
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$$250\over400$$

Correct Answer:P(doesn't live in Oakfield),$$150\over400$$
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$$150\over400$$

Correct Answer:P(shops in-store),$$260\over400$$
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$$260\over400$$

Correct Answer:P(shops online),$$140\over400$$
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$$140\over400$$

Correct Answer:P(lives in Oakfield and shops online),$$100\over400$$
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$$100\over400$$

Q3.
A swimming club has 80 members. There are 13 members who swim both front crawl (FC) and butterfly (BF). The value of $$x$$ is .
An image in a quiz
Correct Answer: 20
Q4.
This probability tree shows the probability of one of two events occurring. The value of $$x$$ is .
An image in a quiz
Correct Answer: 0.65
Q5.
Lucas and Izzy each play one game of squash that they can either win or lose. P(Lucas wins) = 0.6, P(Izzy wins) = 0.7. Use the probability tree to find the probability that they both lose their game.
An image in a quiz
0.012
Correct answer: 0.12
0.13
0.42
0.7
Q6.
Lucas and Izzy each play one game of squash that they can either win or lose. P(Lucas wins) = 0.6, P(Izzy wins) = 0.7. The probability that at least one of them loses their match is .
An image in a quiz
Correct Answer: 0.58