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Here are some specific activities, investigations or visual aids we have picked out. Click anywhere in the grey area to access the resource.

• Probability Video A reminder of how to work out basic probability leading to simple combined events and expected values.
• Probability Basic probability questions in an online exercise.
• Venn Diagram Place each of the numbers 1 to 16 on the correct regions on the Venn diagram.
• Venn Totals Practise reading and creating Venn diagrams containing two and three sets and the number of elements in those sets.
• Set Notation Matching Match the set notation statements with the equivalent symbol. A drag and drop self-marking exercise.
• Venn Paint Video Here is a demonstration of how to illustrate union, intersection and complement of sets as they appear in Venn diagrams.
• Tree Diagrams Video Tree diagrams can be really helpful showing combinations of two or more events in order to calculate probabilities.
• Venn Paint Flood fill the regions of the Venn diagrams according to the given statements.
• Tree Diagrams Calculate the probability of independent and dependent combined events using tree diagrams.
• Venn Diagram Pairs The traditional pairs or pelmanism game adapted to test knowledge of Venn diagrams.
• Conditional Probability Find the probability of one event happening given that another event has already happened.
• Probability Formulae Show that you know which formula (as given in the IB Formula Booklet) to use for each probability question. A drag and drop challenge.

Here are some exam-style questions on this statement:

• "The midnight train to Georgia is not the most reliable. The probability that the train will be late on any day is 0.35" ... more
• "A driving test has two sections, practical(p) and theory(t). One day everyone who took the test passed at least one section. 77% passed the practical section and 81% passed the theory section." ... more
• "The Venn diagram represents a collection of 40 books on sale in an online store." ... more
• "At an international conference there were 300 delegates from both the northern and southern hemispheres. Each delegate wore a t-shirt in one of three different colours:" ... more
• "(a) Use set notation to describe the shaded region in the Venn diagram on the left." ... more
• "80 students are asked if they like History (\(H\)) and if they like Geography (\(G\))." ... more
• "Twenty nine children went to a zoo to photograph some animals. The numbers of children who photographed Lions(L), Monkeys(M) and Zebras (Z) are given as follows:" ... more
• "Neal is attending a Scout jamboree in Japan. He has both boots and trainers to wear. He also has the choice of wearing a cap or not." ... more
• "Let A and B be events such that \(P (A) = 0.45\) , \(P (B) = 0.35\) and \(P (A \cup B) = 0.5\)." ... more
• "Bag A contains 6 green tickets and 5 blue tickets." ... more
• "The Venn diagram below shows the events \(A\) and \(B\), and the probabilities p, q and r." ... more
• "Julie chooses a cake from a yellow box on a shelf. The box contains two chocolate cakes and three plain cakes. She eats the cake and chooses another one from the box. The tree diagram below represents the situation with the four possible outcomes where C stands for chocolate cake and P for plain cake." ... more
• "Jane and David play two games of golf. The probability that Jane wins the first game is \(\frac56\). If Jane wins the first game, the probability that she wins the second game is \(\frac67\)." ... more
• "A factory manufactures switches. It is known that the probability that a switch is found to be defective is 0.04. A random sample of 50 switches is tested." ... more
• "At a fitness club, \( 60\% \) of the members are full-time members, and \( 30\% \) of the members participate in group fitness classes. \( 25\% \) of the members are neither full-time members nor participate in group fitness classes." ... more
• "Mathsland's national currency comes in denominations of 1 unit, 5 units, 10 units and 50 units. Sofya places this collection of these coins in her purse then, without looking, takes out two coins at random, one after the other." ... more
• "Two events A and B are such that \(P(A) = 0.57\) and \(P (A \cap B) = 0.21\)." ... more

See all these questions

Here are some Advanced Starters on this statement:

• Airport Security
  The old lady has a misconception about conditional probability more
• Bertrand's Box Paradox
  Bertrand's box paradox is a paradox of elementary probability theory, first posed by Joseph Bertrand in 1889 more
• Best Dice
  Which of the unusual dice would you choose to give you the best chance of winning the prize? more
• Other Child's Gender
  What is the probability that the other child is also a boy? more
• Perennial Rivals
  Which football team will be first to win four games? more
• Singers and Dancers
  What fraction of the singers and dancers are both singers and dancers? more
• Sorcerer's Apprentices
  The difference between random selection and an 'at least' scenario involving sorcerer's apprentices. more
• Tri-Junction
  A real life situation that can be analysed with the use of a tree diagram. more
• Two Pots
  Use tree diagrams to find the surprising result that probabilities of different situations are the same. more
• Unfinished Game
  Share the prize in a fair ratio according to the probability of each player winning. more
• What Question?
  Write down all the possible questions that could have been asked if this was the Venn diagram provided in a mathematics exam. more

Click on a topic below for suggested lesson Starters, resources and activities from Transum.

• Probability Probability is a measure of the weight of evidence, and is arrived at through reasoning and inference. In simple terms it is a measure or estimation of likelihood of the occurrence of an event. The word probability comes from the Latin word probabilitas which is a measure of the authority of a witness in a legal case. Some of the earlier mathematical studies of probability were motivated by the desire to be more profitable when gambling. Today however the practical uses of probability theory go far beyond gambling and are used in many aspects of modern life. We believe that even adults can, in many cases, have a poor intuition regarding the effects of probability. These activities are designed to help pupils calculate but also get a 'feel' for the principles of probability.