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An introduction to question types

The data-Representation can be broadly classified as Tables, Graphs, and Caselets.

A. TABLE in tabular form the data is systematically arranged in horizontal rows and

vertical columns with captions/ heading. Grand total figures may be given in thetable itself or separately also. A title tells you what that table encompasses. Please

carefully read all tittles, subtitles, and notes/footnotes. Read it carefully or

you may even end up confusing important things and end up with wrong

answers. Units of measurement are given along with captions, in data or 

separately also.

For example the following table show the hypothetical averages of 5 batsmenover the last five years .

Batsmen over the years

1998 1999 2000 2001 2002

Lara 41 39 22 65 45

Tendulkar 88 24 78 15 66

Inzamam 7 77 81 41 25

Steve Waugh 24 32 36 41 28

Dravid 32 33 34 35 36

While solving question based on tabulated information, take care of the following.

1 Read the whole question carefully especially the title, caption and unit of measurement. Don’t waste time browsing through the data.

2 Analyze the possible answer before calculation. Most of the question only call for 

an approximate answer and it may be possible to round off thus saving time andeffort

3 Make sure to express your answer in the correct units. The units of measurement

in question and given answer do not match, and then conversion is required.

B GRAPHS –  Graphs give you a bird’s eye view of the entire data and therefore the

information presented is easily understood. But graphs give you only anapproximate idea of data unlike tables which depict data precisely.

However, the graphs are more vivid in depicting trends like growth,

 plateaus. They can be of various types

1. Bar Graphs2. Line Graphs

3. Cumulative Bar Graph

4. Pie Graph5. Combination Graph

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1. Bar Graphs-Bar graphs use two axis for better repersenation of data over twocrietai.her in each year ,the avarges of the five batsmen are shown.Not always are

the bars having a numvber on top of them and sometimes this can cause

confusion.

41 39

22

65

45

88

24

78

15

66

7

77 81

41

252432 36 41

2832 33 34 35 36

0

20

40

60

80

100

1998 1999 2000 2001 2002

Lara Tendulkar Inzamam Steve Waugh Dravid

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2. Stacked graph/ Cumulative Bar Graph-in this type of a graph, all data of one type

is stacked over the other for a year. This “ stack” can be expressed in percentageas well wherein all players average in one year adds up to 100 .

41 39 22

6545

88

2478

15 66

7

77

81

41

25

2432

36

4128

3233

34

35 36

0

50

100

150

200

250

300

1998 1999 2000 2001 2002

Dravid

Steve Waugh

Inzamam

Tendulkar Lara

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3. Line Graphs-the various lines represent the players scores.

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90100

1998 1999 2000 2001 2002

Lara Tendulkar Inzamam

Steve Waugh Dravid

4. Pie Graph-the pie chart is a cake like representation of data. Here the entire “pie”

is broken into percentagesadding up to 100%. One % =3.6 degrees

1998

Lara

21%

Tendulkar 

45%

Inzamam

4%

Steve

Waugh

13%

Dravid

17%Lara

Tendulkar 

Inzamam

Steve Waugh

Dravid

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5. Combination Graph - combination graphs combines data of one graph with that of 

another/some other. These may look intimidating but essentially have to be

tackled one at a tome and are rather easy.

C .Caselets – This is the waterloo for most students. Caselets are essentially data, whichis not in the form of a graph/table, but in a paragraph form. The data is in an unprocessed

form so you need to make it palatable – You do this by doing some precalculations.

Sometimes making a table or diagram of the given information and filling in the rest by

calculations, makes it very easy.

D. Puzzles/structural diagrams – Again, these question types are considered tough bystudents. In these questions it does make sense making a table or diagram of the given

information .To be comfortable with these types, you need to have practiced puzzles

 beforehand and have no mental block for them. CAT has had at least 5 to 10 such

 problems over the past few years.