GRE Preparation

The data analysis questions on the GRE (or, like most people call them, the "graph" questions), require you to interpret from and utilize graphs, charts, and tabulated data. There will be four such questions on the Quantitative section, and there is no general rule or fool-proof study method which will prepare you for all possible data interpretation questions.

However, there are general tactics that you can apply when answering data interpretation questions -- tactics that are simple steps which are used to read and interpret any graphic or tabular data set. Among the key things that you should remember:

• BEFORE you read the question, look at the chart, table, or data that is provided and make sure you understand what information the data is trying to convey.
• Take note of any units that are used on the chart, and realize that you may have to convert percentages to ratios, pie charts to percentages, bar graphs to concrete numbers, etc.
• If possible, estimate -- most often data interpretation questions can be answered without doing a great deal of calculations.
• Just as in the reading comprehension questions, don't assume outside knowledge. Answer each data interpretation question using only the information that is given.