In answering a question on a multiple choice test, a student either knows the answer or guesses. Let $\frac{3}{4}$ be the probability that he knows the answer and $\frac{1}{4}$ be the probability
that he guesses. Assuming that a student who guesses at the answer will be correct with probability What is the probability that the student knows the answer given that he answered it correctly?
Let E1 and E2 be the respective events that the student knows the answer and he guesses the answer.
Let A be the event that the answer is correct.
$\therefore P\left(E_{1}\right)=\frac{3}{4}$
$P\left(E_{2}\right)=\frac{1}{4}$
The probability that the student answered correctly, given that he knows the answer, is 1.
$\therefore P\left(A \mid E_{1}\right)=1$
Probability that the student answered correctly, given that he guessed, is $\frac{1}{4}$.
$\therefore \mathrm{P}\left(\mathrm{A} \mid \mathrm{E}_{2}\right)=\frac{1}{4}$
The probability that the student knows the answer, given that he answered it correctly, is given by $\mathrm{P}\left(\mathrm{E}_{\mid} \mid \mathrm{A}\right)$.
By using Bayes’ theorem, we obtain
$P\left(E_{1} \mid A\right)=\frac{P\left(E_{1}\right) \cdot P\left(A \mid E_{1}\right)}{P\left(E_{1}\right) \cdot P\left(A \mid E_{1}\right)+P\left(E_{2}\right) \cdot P\left(A \mid E_{2}\right)}$
$=\frac{\frac{3}{4} \cdot 1}{\frac{3}{4} \cdot 1+\frac{1}{4} \cdot \frac{1}{4}}$
$=\frac{\frac{3}{4}}{\frac{3}{4}+\frac{1}{16}}$
$=\frac{\frac{3}{4}}{\frac{13}{16}}$
$=\frac{12}{13}$