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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
National
Amelia Hill

The class of 2024 aced maths. Take an A-level challenge to see how you compare

Bridget Phillipson with students receiving their A-level results
The UK education secretary, Bridget Phillipson, this Thursday at Loreto Sixth Form College, Manchester, with students receiving their A-level results. Photograph: Owen Humphreys/PA

The class of 2024 proved exceptional at maths – but are you? Here are some questions pupils faced in last year’s A-level exams. The answers are at the bottom.

Turn over your exam paper and begin!

A-level mathematics 7357/3 Paper 3 AQA

Question 1

Which of the following is not a possible value for a product moment correlation coefficient?
-6/5, -3/5, 0, 1

Question 2

It is known that, on average, 40% of the drivers who take their driving test at a local test centre pass their driving test.

Each day 32 drivers take their driving test at this centre. The number of drivers who pass their test on a particular day can be modelled by the distribution B (32, 0.4)

Find the standard deviation of the number of drivers per day who pass their test.

Question 3

There are two types of coins in a money box:

* 20% are bronze coins
* 80% are silver coins

Craig takes out a coin at random and places it back in the money box. Craig then takes out a second coin at random. Find the probability that both coins are bronze, given that at least one of the coins is bronze.

Answers

1: -6/5

2: Variance = 32 × 0.4 × 0.6 = 7.68. Standard deviation = 2.77

3: P (at least one bronze)

= 1 - 0.8 x 0.8

= 0.36

P (both bronze / at least one bronze)

= (0.2 x 0.2) / 0.36 = 1/9

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