PSAT Reading — reading the graph: data that support or weaken a claim

Some questions in the PSAT/NMSQT Reading and Writing section come with an informational graphic: a table, a bar graph or a line graph, next to a short text in science or social studies. The question then asks which choice most effectively uses data from the graphic to support a claim, to weaken it, or to complete a statement. These Command of Evidence (Quantitative) questions reward two things at once: reading the graph accurately, and seeing which accurate reading actually bears on the claim. The most common wrong answer is a true statement about the graph that has nothing to do with the claim.

This material gives twelve such questions, each with its own graph drawn from the numbers in the question: bee visits to flowers of four colors, commuting by car, bus and bicycle in two survey years, the shrinking ice season on a lake, library visits against e-book loans, seed germination at five temperatures, the share of farm workers in a county over forty years, bus ridership before and after fares were dropped, memory errors in quiet and noisy rooms, bean plants with and without fertilizer, the reasons seniors give for choosing a college, a mill town's population, and eggs per nest in four habitats. The scenarios are hypothetical, as they may be on the test, and every number in the choices has been checked against the graph. The questions practice the scope words that decide these items (every, sped up, only partly), before-and-after comparisons, two series read against a legend, and the difference between percentage points and percent. Each explanation says which numbers matter and why each wrong choice fails.

The flashcards summarize the method and the traps. The printable written work asks you to write your own supporting and non-supporting sentences, evaluate claims that overstate the data, separate correlation from cause, and complete statements with exact figures. The oral exam states the data in words and asks you to reason aloud, checking every number you give.

Practice material written by Zestly for students preparing for the PSAT/NMSQT; it is not produced or endorsed by the College Board or NMSC.

• Read bar graphs and line graphs accurately, using axes, units and legends
• Choose the data that support or weaken a stated claim
• Reject accurate data that do not bear on the claim
• Match evidence to the scope of a claim (every, sped up, partly)
• Distinguish percentage points from percent and association from cause
• Complete a statement with exact figures from a graph

Practice material written by Zestly, based on the Command of Evidence (Quantitative) skill and the informational graphics (tables, bar graphs, line graphs) described in the College Board's Assessment Framework for the Digital SAT Suite. All data are hypothetical.