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General Aptitude · topic

Data interpretation

Reading bar, pie, line and tabular data, 2-D and 3-D plots, maps and contour plots: units and base first, change versus share, percent versus percentage points, pie angles, growth rates and estimation that stays within the gap between options.

Cheat sheet

GA-12Cheat sheet1 pageIn a paid pack

Data Interpretation: Graphs and Tables

Method for data interpretation: units, scale and base before arithmetic; change versus share versus value; percent versus percentage points; pie-chart angles and why angles in two pies cannot be compared; line-graph slopes; tables with totals; 2-D plots (scatter, log scale); 3-D surface and contour plots with a worked contour reading; maps with scale and area scale; index numbers; growth rates (CAGR); and estimation by rounding and cross-multiplication. One original data set is shown as a bar chart and a pie chart and worked through.

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Diagrams from GA-12

Bar chart of units sold in thousands for North, South, East and West: 2025 values 40, 50, 20, 90 as white bars and 2026 values 50, 65, 30, 75 as dark bars, axis 0 to 100. Beside it a pie of 2026 shares: North 22.7%, South 29.5%, East 13.6%, West 34.1%.
Original data. Bars: 2025 (white) and 2026 (dark). Pie: 2026 shares of 220 thousand. Source: sheet GA-12.
Contour map of a hill: four closed loops labelled 100, 120, 140 and 160 m from outside in, a peak marker inside the 160 m loop. The loops are bunched together on the east side and widely spaced on the west side.
Contours every 20 m: close lines on the east mean a steep slope; the peak lies between 160 and 180 m. Source: sheet GA-12.