GED and HiSET science — reading graphs, tables and data
Most science questions on the GED and HiSET high-school-equivalency tests are built around a table, a graph or a diagram. The GED Testing Service describes its science test as asking you to read and analyze graphs and data sets and to interpret scientific information, and the HiSET science subtest lists interpreting and evaluating scientific information as one of its three parts. This material trains exactly that skill with short, realistic data sets drawn from adult life: a pond tested by a county water office, bread dough rising in a kitchen, insulation panels in a home-improvement lab, flu cases tracked by a health department, a rain barrel filling during a storm.
Each quiz question prints its own data, and several come with a drawn line graph, bar chart, scatter plot or flow diagram. You practice reading a value together with its unit without mixing up rows; describing a trend, including a rise that slows and levels off; interpolating between two measured points; judging whether an extrapolation far outside the tested range can be trusted; comparing groups in a bar chart; telling the independent variable from the dependent one by the axes; separating what a correlation supports from a causal story it does not test; handling an outlier; finding the best condition in a two-variable table; tracing a process through a diagram; choosing the right kind of graph; and computing a rate of change with the correct units.
The flashcards review the vocabulary these questions rely on: interpolation and extrapolation, independent and dependent variables, correlation and causation, outliers, plateaus, linear trends, and when a line graph, bar chart or pie chart fits the data.
The written work asks you to explain your reading of a data set in a few sentences, as you would when defending an answer: why a trend levels off, why an extrapolation is risky, what a scatter plot does and does not show, how to compute and label a rate. In the oral exam an examiner gives you small data sets one at a time, asks what they show, and follows up on your reasoning before giving brief feedback at the end.
No formulas need to be memorized for these skills; what matters is careful reading, simple arithmetic and a clear sense of what a set of numbers can and cannot prove. This is independent practice material based on the publicly described content of the two tests; it is not produced or endorsed by GED Testing Service or by ETS.
- Read values and units from data tables and graphs without mixing up rows or axes
- Describe trends, including a rise that slows and levels off
- Interpolate between measured points and judge when extrapolation is not supported
- Identify independent and dependent variables from a graph's axes
- Distinguish what a correlation supports from a causal claim
- Handle outliers and compute a rate of change with correct units
- Choose a suitable graph type and trace a process through a flow diagram
Practice material written by Zestly, based on the published descriptions of the GED Science test (ged.com: reading and analyzing graphs and data sets, experimental setup) and the HiSET Science subtest (hiset.org: interpret and evaluate scientific information).
Sample question
A baker measures the volume of a bowl of bread dough as it rises. The readings, plotted in the line graph, are: 0 hours — 2 cups; 0.5 hours — 2.8 cups; 1 hour — 3.5 cups; 1.5 hours — 3.9 cups; 2 hours — 4.0 cups; 2.5 hours — 4.0 cups. Which description fits the trend?
- The dough rises for 2 hours and then shrinks back toward 2 cups.
- The dough rises quickly at first, then more slowly, and then levels off at about 4 cups.
- The dough rises at the same rate for the whole 2.5 hours.
- The dough rises slowly at first and then faster and faster.
See the answer
The dough rises quickly at first, then more slowly, and then levels off at about 4 cups.
The gains in each half hour are 0.8, 0.7, 0.4, 0.1 and 0 cups: the rise slows down and stops at 4.0 cups. A constant rate would give equal gains, speeding up would give growing gains, and nothing in the data falls back toward 2 cups.