Probability: past paper questions
Real questions on probability
The newest 20 of 559 written questions. Open one to see it on the real paper.
- 9709/51 · October/November 2025 · Q5b[5]
5-mark “Use” question — its maths and diagrams are best seen on the paper.
See it on the paper → - 9709/51 · October/November 2025 · Q6a[4]
4-mark question — its maths and diagrams are best seen on the paper.
See it on the paper → - 9709/51 · October/November 2025 · Q6b[5]
5-mark “Find” question — its maths and diagrams are best seen on the paper.
See it on the paper → - 9709/52 · October/November 2025 · Q1a[1]
1-mark “Find” question — its maths and diagrams are best seen on the paper.
See it on the paper → - 9709/52 · October/November 2025 · Q1b[2]
2-mark “Find” question — its maths and diagrams are best seen on the paper.
See it on the paper → - 9709/52 · October/November 2025 · Q2a[4]
4-mark “Draw” question — its maths and diagrams are best seen on the paper.
See it on the paper → - 9709/52 · October/November 2025 · Q2b[3]
3-mark “Find” question — its maths and diagrams are best seen on the paper.
See it on the paper → - 9709/52 · October/November 2025 · Q3a[4]
4-mark question — its maths and diagrams are best seen on the paper.
See it on the paper → - 9709/52 · October/November 2025 · Q3b[3]
3-mark “Find” question — its maths and diagrams are best seen on the paper.
See it on the paper → - 9709/52 · October/November 2025 · Q4b[3]
3-mark “Find” question — its maths and diagrams are best seen on the paper.
See it on the paper → - 9709/52 · October/November 2025 · Q6a[1]
1-mark “Find” question — its maths and diagrams are best seen on the paper.
See it on the paper → - 9709/52 · October/November 2025 · Q6b[3]
3-mark “Find” question — its maths and diagrams are best seen on the paper.
See it on the paper → - 9709/52 · October/November 2025 · Q6c[5]
5-mark “Use” question — its maths and diagrams are best seen on the paper.
See it on the paper → - 9709/52 · October/November 2025 · Q7c[3]
3-mark “Find” question — its maths and diagrams are best seen on the paper.
See it on the paper → - 9709/53 · October/November 2025 · Q1a[1]
1-mark “Find” question — its maths and diagrams are best seen on the paper.
See it on the paper → - 9709/53 · October/November 2025 · Q1b[3]
3-mark “Find” question — its maths and diagrams are best seen on the paper.
See it on the paper → - 9709/53 · October/November 2025 · Q3b[3]
3-mark “Find” question — its maths and diagrams are best seen on the paper.
See it on the paper → - 9709/53 · October/November 2025 · Q4b[3]
3-mark “Find” question — its maths and diagrams are best seen on the paper.
See it on the paper → - 9709/53 · October/November 2025 · Q4c[2]
2-mark “Find” question — its maths and diagrams are best seen on the paper.
See it on the paper → - 9709/53 · October/November 2025 · Q5b[3]
3-mark “Find” question — its maths and diagrams are best seen on the paper.
See it on the paper →
What examiners said
The context of the question changed in the body of the paper to being a geometric distribution. As such, this question is to simply calculate P(5), which is a textbook skill. Good solutions stated the unsimplified expression before evaluating. Some candidates misinterpreted the success criteria and calculated P(6). Approximately 10 per cent of candidates did not attempt this question, which was un...
— Examiner report, February/March 2025, 9709/52 Q5(c) (Cambridge)
Approximately 15 per cent of candidates did not attempt this basic geometric distribution question. The most successful approach was to calculate P(1,2,3,4), stating each unsimplified term and then evaluating the sum. More able students often attempted the more efficient 1 – 0.94 process, but failed to interpret the success criteria appropriately, with 1 – 0.95 the most common error.
— Examiner report, February/March 2025, 9709/52 Q5(d) (Cambridge)
This was a good, well answered, opening question for the majority of candidates. There were occasional errors seen when calculating the variance (for example subtracting 16 and 9 rather than adding) and some candidates found the wrong probability area (i.e., 1 – 0.579 rather than 0.579).
— Examiner report, February/March 2025, 9709/62 Q1 (Cambridge)
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