# Finding probability of a student to be a topper of the class

There are totally $$6$$ students in the class. $$5$$ students have written the test and 1 student was absent. The test was for $$40$$ marks. Out of $$5$$ students, a student ‘Ram’ topped the class with $$32$$ marks. The course instructor announced that he topped the exam. The student who was absent for the test is writing the test tomorrow. What is the probability of this student to become a topper?

Ans 1: As there are $$6$$ students in the class, we have found the topper out of remaining five, the probability of him being a topper is $$1/6$$ .

Ans 2: A student can get $$0,1,2\ldots 40$$ any of the marks out of $$40$$. When he gets more than $$32$$ he will be the topper. So the probability of him being the topper is $$8/41$$.

Which answer is right? Or is there any other approach?

• If the absent student didn't open his/her books, the probability is very near to 0. Why should all marks be equiprobable? Oct 5, 2013 at 13:24