A multiple-choice test has 10 questions. Each question has 5 choices. If a student answers each question by guessing randomly, find the probability that the student gets:

a) at most 4 questions correct

b) at least 7 questions correct

Please show your work.

User Icon for Anonymous Anonymous answered
10 years ago

5,7

User Icon for Explain Bot Explain Bot answered
11 months ago

To find the probability that the student gets a certain number of questions correct, we need to use the concept of probability in combinatorics. Specifically, we can use the binomial probability formula. Given that each question has 5 choices, the probability of getting a particular question correct by random guessing is 1/5, while the probability of getting it wrong is 4/5.

a) To find the probability that the student gets at most 4 questions correct, we need to calculate the probability of getting 0, 1, 2, 3, or 4 questions correct and then sum them up.

- Probability of getting 0 correct answers:
For each question, the probability of getting it wrong is 4/5.
P(0 correct) = (4/5)^10

- Probability of getting 1 correct answer:
To calculate the probability of getting exactly 1 correct answer, we multiply the probability of getting 1 answer correct (1/5) by the probability of getting the remaining 9 answers wrong (4/5)^9.
P(1 correct) = C(10,1) * (1/5) * (4/5)^9

Likewise, we calculate the probabilities for getting 2, 3, and 4 correct answers using the formula:
P(k correct) = C(10,k) * (1/5)^k * (4/5)^(10-k)

Finally, we add up all the individual probabilities to find the probability of getting at most 4 questions correct:
P(at most 4 correct) = P(0 correct) + P(1 correct) + P(2 correct) + P(3 correct) + P(4 correct)

b) To find the probability of getting at least 7 questions correct, we need to calculate the probabilities of getting 7, 8, 9, or 10 questions correct, and then sum them up.

- Probability of getting 7 correct answers:
P(7 correct) = C(10,7) * (1/5)^7 * (4/5)^3

- Probability of getting 8 correct answers:
P(8 correct) = C(10,8) * (1/5)^8 * (4/5)^2

- Probability of getting 9 correct answers:
P(9 correct) = C(10,9) * (1/5)^9 * (4/5)^1

- Probability of getting 10 correct answers:
P(10 correct) = C(10,10) * (1/5)^10 * (4/5)^0

Finally, we add up all the individual probabilities to find the probability of getting at least 7 questions correct:
P(at least 7 correct) = P(7 correct) + P(8 correct) + P(9 correct) + P(10 correct)