A table or chart is given and the questions ask you to read it, compare parts of it, or compute from it.
Read the headings and the units before the numbers. A surprising share of lost marks on these items come from answering with a total when the question asked for a share, or reading a row as a column.
Most questions need only two or three cells. Find them, ignore the rest, and resist recomputing the whole table.
Where a question asks which category is largest or smallest, check whether it means in absolute terms or as a proportion. Those are different answers and both will be on the list.
Worked examples
Try these, then read why.
Written for this platform and generated from the same bank the practice sets draw on. Every wrong option is explained, because knowing why a distractor was tempting is most of the learning.
The table shows the number of digitised records by region.
What is the total number of digitised records for Region I across all periods shown?
Region Q1 Q2 Q3
Region I 78 38 452
Region IV 74 32 406
Region VII 206 246 296
Region XI 407 205 333
A1020
B568 (correct)
C374
D1487
Find the row and the column the question names before doing any arithmetic. Add across the Region I row: 78 + 38 + 452 = 568. Most errors here are correct arithmetic on the wrong cells, so locate them first.
A This includes a value the question does not ask for.
C This uses only two cells where the question asks about more.
D This totals the other direction of the table.
Practise this properly.
Three examples show you the format. Finding out whether data interpretation is actually costing you marks takes a measured set, which is what the free diagnostic is for.