Now that you’ve got an understanding of how to approach questions with data (remember: requirement, context and ‘zoom in’), we’re going to now look at specific presentation of data to help you become more familiar with different formats and how to best approach them in your exam.

One of the most common types of data that you’ll be asked to “analyse” (even though that word won’t be used, it’s most likely you’ll be doing it!), is data in tables. That’s data that looks like this:

Source: Women in NSW 2012 – Education (Fact Sheet) is licensed with CC BY 4.0.

Now, let’s see what you’ll need to know about tables.

What you need to know about data in tables

Tables are used to organise information to show comparisons, patterns and relationships for a range of reasons – it could be to:

• Provide a key – guidance on how to understand other results.
• Make information easier to understand (if there are many areas to consider).
• Support arguments or discredit arguments.
• Provide a breakdown/composition (like the dietary table you may see on food packaging).
• Provide information to help people make a decision (benefits of using A vs B).

In terms of background – you have your main heading and then ‘categories of organisation’ that come in the form of:

• Rows, and
• Columns.

Below that, you then have your:

• Values.

The thing to remember with tables is while it presents information, you need to make inferences on the information (i.e., you need to understand what that information is telling you and make certain decisions). This is where the ‘thinking’ part comes in – and it’s important to consider what’s:

• Included, and
• Excluded.

Let’s look now at the above chart – how is it organised? What does it include/exclude? What inferences can be made? (Remember inferences are additional links of thinking from a source – in this case, the source is your table) – See video for full discussion.

How to answer questions with data in tables

Interpreting data is very much based on the individual table (aka chart sometimes) at hand. But there are general rules that you can follow:

1. Know the requirement.
2. Orientate yourself with the background – e.g., title, units, row labels and column labels.
3. Questions may ask you to locate data points or they may ask you to find ‘categories’ for certain data points and this will determine whether you’re working top-down or bottom-to-top.
4. If working top-down, use the columns/rows to navigate and ‘zoom in’ on individual data values. Work from left to right and top to bottom to make sure you don’t miss any parts.
5. If working bottom-to-top, look at values directly to see if you can identify amounts that meet the criteria and then identify their categories from the row or column labels.
6. Make inferences were appropriate.

Let’s see it in action now with a worked example.

Example Question/s

Watch video for explanation of the following question/s:

Source: Data.gov.au is licensed with CC BY 4.0.

Which of the following statements is false?

A. While new workplace injury claims have decreased with time, serious injuries have started to present.
B. Gross workers compensation payments peaked in 2015-16.
C. Income support payments – gross, was the greatest in 2015-16 only.
D. From 2013-14 to 2017-18, there was only 1 fatality recorded.

Bonus question: How could the data in this table be understated? (see answer in video).

Source: Data.gov.au is licensed with CC BY 4.0.

Assuming that the organisation surveyed is a school, which one of the following activities below, do you believe the school, would struggle most to do?

A. Start using an online tool (with good reviews) to send our weekly newsletters.
B. Creating a dedicated portal to access general school news.
C. Using social media to invite prospective parents and students to tour the school.
D. Generating a list of resources customised for each individual student’s learning needs.

Key Rules to remember

• Tables are made up of values organised in rows and columns.
• Look at what’s included and excluded – remember, inferences will have to be made.
• Orientate yourself – title, units and labels.
• Will you use a top-down or bottom-up approach? It depends on the question and information you’re looking for!

Practice time!

Now, it's your turn to practice.

Here’s a thought experiment #12.

Remember, there is no formal answer and this experiment is provided to help stimulate your creativity and critical thinking (a ‘thought experiment’ is provided at the end of every checkpoint except checkpoint 18).

Thought experiment 12:

Do you believe that there are questions in an exam that can test innate intelligence where students have no way of preparing?

Take your time to work through this thought experiment as it is not assessed and provided to help develop your deeper thinking skills. Think about various components of the question. What questions will you ask yourself and how do you answer your questions?

Now, let’s turn to the checkpoint questions.

Click on the button below and start your practice questions. We recommend doing untimed mode first, and then, when you're ready, do timed mode.

Every question has two solutions videos after you complete the question. The first is a quick 60 second video that shows you how our expert answers the question quickly. The second video is a more in-depth 5-steps or less explainer video that shows you the steps to take to answer the question. It's really important that you review the second video because that's where you'll learn additional tips and tricks.

Once you're done with the practice questions, move on to the next checkpoint.

Now, let’s get started on your practice questions.

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