Since 2012, I have been teaching the GRE. In all these years of teaching, nearly all the students have shown immense anxiety over the GRE probability questions.

Infact probability is the only topic that students go out of their way to study and improve upon – in the process deliberating over irrelevant concepts that are beyond the scope of the new GRE.

One thing that has remained constant in all these years has been the number of probability questions that most people get on their GRE test.

Each year I survey at least 300 GRE students.

• Over 90% of them do not see more than 2 probability questions out of the 40 Quant questions.
• Nearly 40% of the students saw ZERO probability questions.
• Less than 10% of the students see more than 3 questions from this topic.

Therefore the probability of getting a lot of probability questions is nearly ZERO. 

Number of Probability Questions: 0-2 out of 40

Probability questions vary from removing socks from a drawer to tossing coins and dices. Good news is these questions are not very tough and with just some practicing you’ll do fine.

Over years, I came across several students who mentioned GRE combining probability with geometry or with number properties.

For instance, the probability that a random point will fall within a shaded region of a circle or a triangle.

Another common type is where probability is merged with counting and combination questions – however don’t fret over the possibilities. Just practice a few questions and you should do well.

Here is a practice question that would get you started and allay your probability woes. For the entire range of GRE probability questions, you can check this post.

Q) A certain jar contains 60 jelly beans—22 white, 18 green, 11 yellow, 5 red, and 4 purple. If a jelly bean is to be chosen at random, what is the probability that the jelly bean will be neither red nor purple?
A) 0.09
B) 0.15
C) 0.54
D) 0.85
E) 0.91

Explanation:

Since there are 5 red and 4 purple jelly beans in the jar, there are 51 that are neither red nor purple, and the probability of selecting one of these is 51 . Since 60 all of the answer choices are decimals, you must convert the fraction to its decimal equivalent, 0.85. Thus, the correct answer is Choice D, 0.85.

Takeaway

In conclusion I would just say that the probability of getting a probability questions on the GRE is very low 🙂