Leonard’s Newsletters

In the math, science, and social studies sections of the GED, you’ll run across a lot of charts and graphs. Charts and graphs are visual ways to show data, or information. It’s important to be familiar with charts and graphs so that you can answer these questions.

First, become familiar with different types of charts and graphs.

On the GED, you’ll need to look at several types of charts and graphs: bar graphs, line graphs, and pie charts. You can see some examples here:

http://www.twingroves.district96.k12.il.us/ScienceInternet/ChartsGraphs.html

Bar graphs use a bar to compare amounts of different things. Usually, the bars start at the bottom of the graph, and the left-hand side of the chart shows the value of different bars.

Here’s an example of a bar graph used to show sales of Wii game systems: http://www.consolewatcher.com/2007/05/wii-tops-six-months-sales/

Line graphs show a relationship between two values. One value is shown on the x-axis, the vertical line on the left hand side of the graph. Another value is shown on the y-axis, the horizontal line on the bottom of the graph. The line shows how these two values relate to each other.

Here’s an example of a line graph showing changes in population: http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/planning/wtp/datalibrary/population/
PopulationGrowthMetropolitan.htm

A pie chart is a circle divided into sections. The pie chart shows how much each part is compared to the whole. The larger pieces are bigger amounts, and the smaller pieces are smaller amounts. The whole pie is all the pieces added together.

Here’s an example of a pie chart showing what search engines people use: http://searchenginewatch.com/showPage.html?page=2156431

Look for charts and graphs in newspaper articles or on websites. How are they similar? How are they different? What kind of data are they presenting? Get familiar with how to read basic charts and graphs.

Read the questions before looking at the chart.

When you run across a chart or graph on the GED, first read the question. What information are you trying to find? Use the question to read and understand the chart or graph. It’s much easier to look for specific information that you need than to just try to understand the whole chart. It will also help you finish the test faster!

This entry was posted on Monday, October 22nd, 2007 at 3:21 pm and is filed under Newsletters. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.