Beginner's Guide to EA & GMAT Graphical Interpretation Questions
UPDATED FOR THE NEW GMAT IN 2024
The Data Insights section of the GMAT throws plenty of graphs and charts at you – and sometimes those graphs and charts are really, really ugly.
Your first job: don’t panic.
The most common mistake we see on GMAT Graphics Interpretation is that students try to answer questions before they’ve invested time in thoroughly understanding the graph itself. That might sound silly, but especially under time pressure, GMAT test-takers often have an irresistible urge to “save time” by jumping to the questions right away.
A far better approach is to invest time in grasping the big picture – especially when that picture is a mess.
To see this approach in action, check out our videos for a nice sampling of basic Graphics Interpretation questions and some wackier graphs and charts:
(A quick note for Executive Assessment test-takers: Graphics Interpretation questions appear on the Integrated Reasoning section of the EA. We’ll refer primarily to the GMAT in this article, but the question format – and our advice for tackling it – is identical for the EA.)
THE BIG PICTURE ON GMAT GRAPHICS INTERPRETATION
When a graph or chart pops up on the screen during your GMAT or EA exam, your first task is to ground yourself in a broad overview of the information presented. To do that, consider these parts of the graph:
The title: This may seem obvious, but it’s remarkably easy for your eyes to skip over the title. Start here to get a sense for what the graph is trying to communicate.
The axes: Next, examine the axes of the graph or chart. Understand what each axis represents – whether it's time, quantity, percentage, or another variable. Look for any labels or units provided on the axes, as these will guide your interpretation of the data.
Any accompanying text: Carefully read the description of the chart or graph for additional context.
These things might sound obvious, but we constantly meet GMAT and EA students who struggle on Graphics Interpretation questions because they’re far too quick to jump into the data and the questions themselves, without understanding the context first. Spending a bit of time on the title, axes, and accompanying text is a small investment that pays off handsomely in terms of both your accuracy and efficiency.
WHAT STORY IS THE GMAT GRAPH OR CHART TELLING?
Once you have a clear understanding of the title, description, and axes, it can be helpful to articulate a simple version of the story that the graph or chart is telling you.
For instance, the story could be: “The number of rainy days in City Z decreases throughout the year.”
Or, “The price of gold per troy ounce was stable for a long time, but has dramatically increased since 2004.”
Or, “Bus riders have to pay different amounts based on several factors, such as where they got on the bus and what type of ID they have.”
Here’s an example of a relatively straightforward graph. What story does this graph tell?
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If we take a look at the title, axes, description, and text, we get the following story:
T-rexes slowly gain mass for the first ten years of life, rapidly gain mass for the next ten years, then remain pretty steady after the age of 20.
Here’s a far gnarlier chart from a GMAT Graphics Interpretation question. What story is it telling?
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Yikes! This is intimidating AF. To make sense of it, I’m glancing at the chart first, but then I’m moving quickly to the text to get an explanation for what the heck is going on here.
First, we learn that the chart shows Earth’s geological history. That’s cool. But what’s up with the columns? To answer that, I’m keying in on the last sentence of the text, which tells us that the middle and rightmost column each magnify a smaller chunk of the previous column.
With that in mind, take another look at the leftmost column: you can see that the Cenozoic, Mesozoic and Paleozoic eras are pretty small. Moving to the middle column, these eras get
“blown up” much larger. The same thing happens when moving from the middle column to the rightmost column – the small purple Tertiary period gets “blown up” far larger.So, the overall story told by this lovely GMAT chart is that the columns all show Earth’s geological history, but that the middle and right columns each zoom in on the more recent time periods to give us more detail.
Once you’ve got your head wrapped around the overall story of the graph or chart, you can move on to answering the questions.
TYPES OF GRAPHS AND CHARTS ON GMAT DATA INSIGHTS
Some of the data displays that appear on GMAT Graphics Interpretation are just plain weird, but others have a fairly conventional form. Some of the most common types of graphics you’ll encounter are:
Bar graphs
Line graphs
Pie charts
Scatterplots
To get a sense of how the GMAT presents these graphics, try a couple of sets of Graphics Interpretation questions on MBA.com. (If you’re completely new to the GMAT, a few questions are available for free in MBA.com’s GMAT Starter Kit.) For each question, give yourself time to understand the format of the information and the story that is told by the graph or chart.
Also, please don’t be surprised if you see a graph or chart that doesn’t fall neatly into one of these categories – either way, the approach is exactly the same. Just give yourself time to understand the graphic before moving on.
HOW MANY GRAPHICS INTERPRETATION QUESTIONS WILL YOU SEE ON THE GMAT?
According to the creators of the GMAT, Graphics Interpretation questions make up 20-30% of the Data Insights section. That means that you’ll see between 4 and 6 Graphics Interpretation questions on the exam.
AVOID SCORE-DESTROYING CARELESS ERRORS ON GMAT GRAPHICS INTERPRETATION
As is always the case on adaptive exams like the GMAT and EA, avoiding silly mistakes is key to achieving your best possible Data Insights score. To steer clear of sloppy, score-killing errors on easier questions, make sure that you carefully read each question twice. When you’re sure that you’ve understood the question, give yourself some time to think through your path before diving in. And when you do find a good way forward, check your work as you go.
We know: all of that sounds trivial. But it’s far harder to be disciplined about avoiding careless errors than it might sound – and the vast majority of GMAT students initially struggle to avoid those sloppy errors.
In all, when you encounter graphs and charts on the GMAT Focus, don't panic, and don’t be too quick to rush through to the questions! Take a moment to grasp the big picture. When you understand the story that the data is telling, you'll be ready to tackle those questions with confidence, accuracy, and efficiency.