Digital SAT · Command of Evidence (Data)
How to Solve Reading a Value from a Graph or Table on the Digital SAT
A sentence needs a number or comparison from an accompanying graph or table to complete it. Unlike the support version, the work here is mostly accurate reading: find the right category or row, read its value against the scale, and pick the choice that states it correctly. The traps are misreading the axis, pulling the wrong row, or picking a value that is close but for a different category. Match the sentence's terms to the figure's labels first.
- per test
- less than 1 per test per test
- typical difficulty
- Mostly easy typical difficulty
- practice questions
- 48 practice questions
Frequency reflects how often this question type appears on a full-length Digital SAT. The difficulty mix reflects every question of this type across our bank.
What the question bank shows
The sentence names one slice; reading the wrong row is the main error.
Intervals and non-zero axes distort a quick read, so confirm how much each gridline counts.
The value is on the figure; the work is careful reading rather than arithmetic.
How to recognize reading a value from a graph or table questions
- A graph or table accompanies a sentence with a blank for a value.
- The choices are specific numbers or comparisons from the figure.
- The sentence names a category, year, or group to look up.
- The prompt asks which choice is best supported by the data.
Why students miss these
The step-by-step method
- 1
Read the sentence's target
Note the exact category, group, or time the blank refers to.
- 2
Locate it in the figure
Match that label to the correct row, bar, or point.
- 3
Read against the scale
Take the value carefully, checking the units and how much each gridline counts.
- 4
Match the choice
Pick the option stating that value or comparison exactly.
Worked examples
Medium example
Investigating how ambient warmth accelerates the loss of water from a reservoir, hydrologist Bruno Costa measured the daily evaporation on days that he had stratified by their mean temperature. He anticipated that warmer days would draw substantially more water into the atmosphere than cooler ones rather than producing an equivalent loss regardless of the prevailing temperature. Reasoning that an evaporation pattern increasing consistently with every warmer band of days would corroborate the proposition that temperature strongly governs how rapidly the reservoir surrenders water to the surrounding air, he plotted the mean daily evaporation observed within each temperature band in the accompanying graph.
A: Incorrect. The bars rise as temperature increases, and the coolest days lose the least, so this reverses the graph.
B: Correct. The bars rise from 2 at 10 degrees to 14 at 40 degrees, the increase with temperature that Costa describes.
C: Incorrect. The bars range from 2 to 14 millimeters, so describing them as nearly constant misreads the graph.
D: Incorrect. Evaporation is highest in the 40-degree band, not the 20-degree band, so this misplaces the peak.
Explanation
Costa claims evaporation rises with temperature. Only the choice tracing the increase from 2 to 14 millimeters reads the bars correctly.
Medium example
Investigating how rapidly the telephone penetrated ordinary households, technology historian Bea Aldous compiled the proportion of residences possessing a telephone at four representative points across the early twentieth century. She anticipated that adoption would escalate substantially decade by decade as prices declined and networks expanded rather than stalling at an early plateau. Reasoning that an adoption pattern ascending consistently from one representative year to the subsequent one would corroborate the proposition that the telephone diffused steadily into the household across the entire period, she plotted the proportion of telephone-equipped residences in each year in the accompanying graph.
A: Incorrect. The bars rise over the period rather than falling, so this reverses the graph's direction.
B: Correct. The bars rise from 12 percent in 1910 to 88 in 1970, the steady spread that Aldous describes.
C: Incorrect. The bars range from 12 to 88 percent, so describing them as nearly constant misreads the graph.
D: Incorrect. The share is highest in 1970, not 1930, so this misplaces the graph's peak.
Explanation
Aldous claims the telephone spread steadily. Only the choice tracing the rise from 12 to 88 percent reads the bars correctly.
Medium example
Investigating how the duration of daily illumination governs the development of a fast-growing herb, botanist Lena Cho cultivated chemically identical seedlings under four progressively longer photoperiods and measured their height after three weeks. She anticipated that additional hours of illumination would translate into proportionally taller plants rather than leaving vegetative growth essentially unaltered across the treatments she imposed. Reasoning that a height pattern increasing consistently with every added increment of light would corroborate the proposition that the herb's development closely tracks the radiant energy it receives, she plotted the mean height attained under each photoperiod in the accompanying graph.
A: Incorrect. The bars rise as light increases, and the 4-hour seedlings are shortest, not tallest, so this reverses the graph.
B: Incorrect. The bars range from 10 to 42 centimeters, so describing them as nearly constant misreads the graph.
C: Correct. The bars rise from 10 centimeters at 4 hours to 42 at 16 hours, the steady increase with light that Cho describes.
D: Incorrect. Height keeps rising past 8 hours rather than declining, so this misreads the graph's direction.
Explanation
Cho claims height tracks light. Only the choice tracing the steady rise from 10 to 42 centimeters as light increases reads the bars correctly.
The common traps
| Pattern | What it does | The tell |
|---|---|---|
| Wrong category | Read a nearby row or series instead of the one named. | Match the sentence's label exactly to the figure before reading. |
| Misread the scale | Took a value without accounting for how much each gridline counts. | Check the units and interval before reading a number. |
| Close but off | Chose a value near the right one but for a different point. | Confirm the value belongs to the exact category asked. |
Try it: two real questions
Comparing how compensation varies across the principal sectors of one national economy, labor economist Priya Sandoval compiled the median annual wage of full-time workers in four broad industries, anticipating that the best-compensated sector would stand substantially above the lowest-compensated rather than only modestly ahead, given the markedly different skills and capital that each industry characteristically commands. She reasoned that, were industrial sector genuinely as consequential as she suspected, the disparity separating the highest-paying industry from the lowest ought to prove conspicuously wide rather than narrow, reflecting the divergent value the market assigns to their respective labor. She consolidated the median wage she had recorded in each sector in the accompanying graph.
Which choice best describes data in the graph that support Sandoval's reasoning?
Reconstructing the demographic trajectory of a nineteenth-century mining boomtown, historian Theo Marchetti compiled its recorded population at four points distributed across several turbulent decades, anticipating that the figures would ascend toward a pronounced peak while the surrounding mines flourished and subsequently fall sharply once the accessible ore was exhausted rather than persisting at their height. He predicted that the settlement would relinquish a substantial proportion of its peak population within a single generation of the eventual collapse, retaining only a fraction of the inhabitants it had once managed to support. He consolidated the population he had recorded in each year in the accompanying graph.
Which choice best describes data in the graph that support Marchetti's prediction?
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Related reading
Common questions
How do you read data questions on the SAT?
Identify the exact category the sentence names, find it in the figure, and read its value against the scale. Then pick the choice that states that value; the challenge is matching the label, not computing.
How is this different from a data support question?
A support question asks which value backs a claim; this asks which value the figure shows for a named slice. Here the work is accurate lookup, with less argument to weigh.
Why do I pick a value that is close but wrong?
Usually because you read a neighboring row or series. The figure often holds several categories, so matching the sentence's exact label to the figure prevents a near miss.
Do I need to do arithmetic?
Rarely. Most answers are read straight off the graph or table. At most you compare two values, and even then the numbers come directly from the figure.
Practice reading a value from a graph or table the way it is tested
Start with the free 16-question diagnostic, then drill this type with step-by-step reasoning on every question.
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