Charts and Graphs

These questions are pretty easy to identify, because they are the only ones in the Reading & Writing section that have some kind of graphic like a chart, graph, or table.

Without any context, the graphic can often be difficult to interpret. And even if it's relatively straightforward, until you read the question and passage, you don't know what you're looking for. So don't bother trying to analyze the graphic until you've read the question and passage.

The actual question can vary between problems. It will often ask you to use data from the graphic to either support or weaken a claim or hypothesis made in the passage. Or, sometimes there will be a blank in the passage, and you need to choose the answer that best uses data from the graphic to fill in the blank. Pay careful attention to exactly what the question is asking you to do. Especially if it's asking you to use data that weakens the claim, as it is easy to just assume that we're looking for something to support the claim.

There is almost always a claim or hypothesis being made in the passage. Typically, this will fall in the last sentence or two of the passage. Try to identify what this claim or hypothesis is before looking at the graphic or reading the rest of the passage.

Once you've identified the central claim or hypothesis, you'll likely need the context of the rest of the passage to better understand the claim and be prepared to answer the question. So now go to the beginning of the passage, and read it carefully, asking yourself how information from the passage relates to the claim or hypothesis.

Now that you know what the question is asking, what the claim is, and have read the passage, it's time to look at the graphic. Students often overlook the title of the graphic, but it can deliver important information relevant to interpreting the graphic. So make sure you read the title of the graphic before jumping in and analyzing the data from it.

Now to get a full sense of what the graphic is depicting, you'll need to read the axis labels and any keys that are provided.

Now you should have a good sense of how to interpret the graphic, so see if you can spot anything in the graphic that answers the question. For example, if the question asks you to use data from the graphic to support the hypothesis, look for trends in the data that support the hypothesis. If you aren't able to quickly find what you're looking for, don't spend too much time on it - you can always go through the answers and they might help point you toward what to look for. If you do think you spot data that achieves what you're looking for, then you can skim the answers to see if there is one that points out the trend in the data you found.

If you were able to spot the right trend yourself and find it in the answer choices, then you might not need to do this - if you feel confident you can just select it and move on. But often it's best to go through the answer choices one by one. When you do so, ask yourself two things: