Evidence in Tables & Graphs
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SAT Reading & Writing › Evidence in Tables & Graphs
An economist analyzing work-from-home patterns across industries argues that information services experienced the greatest shift toward remote work between 2019 and 2024. The table lists average days per week employees worked from home in each industry during those two years. Consider which statement best supports the economist's claim.
Which choice best describes data from the table that support the claim?
From 2020 to 2024, information services added 2.1 remote days per week.
In employee surveys, information services reported the biggest gains in productivity during remote work.
Finance increased from 1.1 to 2.3 days per week, outpacing manufacturing and retail.
Information services rose from 1.3 days per week at home in 2019 to 3.4 in 2024, the largest increase among the industries shown.
Explanation
Information increased by 2.1 days (1.3 to 3.4), more than finance (+1.2), manufacturing (+0.6), and retail (+0.4). A is irrelevant to the claim, B is not shown by the table, and D uses the wrong timeframe.
A city health department claims that the highest average weekday afternoon ozone occurs in midsummer rather than spring. The accompanying table lists this pollutant by month in 2024. The department argues that July, not May, marks the seasonal peak.
Which choice best describes data from the table that support the claim?
April averaged 30 ppb, the lowest reading listed.
Residents reported more smog alerts in July than in May.
July averaged 54 ppb, higher than May's 38 ppb.
Ozone rose steadily each year from 2021 to 2024.
Explanation
July's 54 ppb exceeds May's 38 ppb, showing a midsummer peak over spring. A is true but irrelevant; B and C are not shown in the table.
After a scheduling overhaul, hospital administrators contend the policy cut average waits by about one-third at its busiest clinic. The bar chart compares average appointment wait times at three clinics before and after the change.
Which choice most effectively uses data from the chart to support the claim?
Clinic B fell from 30 to 26 minutes, a 4-minute reduction.
Clinic A dropped from 45 minutes in 2022 to 30 minutes in 2024, a one-third reduction.
By 2024, the average across all three clinics was 26 minutes.
The median wait at Clinic A was cut in half after the policy.
Explanation
Clinic A, the busiest in 2022 at 45 minutes, fell to 30 minutes in 2024, a one-third decrease. The other choices either do not address the busiest clinic, compute a different summary, or cite a statistic (median) not shown.
As marine mammals, whales dive beneath the ocean’s surface to feed and then resurface to breathe. With a variety of diets and habitats, whales vary greatly in the depths of their dives with many species staying near the surface and others diving near the ocean floor. A marine biology graduate student hypothesizes that dive depth is heavily influenced by a whale’s size: larger whales require more energy to dive and resurface longer distances, and cannot afford such a large caloric energy expenditure given the need to maintain its size with frequent feedings.
Which of the following best uses data from the table to support the graduate student's hypothesis?
The world’s largest animal, the blue whale, nonetheless dives significantly deeper than the length of its body.
The only whales to dive deeper than 300 meters measure, on average, 6 meters or less.
Although larger than the gray whale, the humpback whale dives 50% deeper.
The smallest whale measured, the beluga, dives a modest 370 meters compared to thousands of meters for larger species.
Explanation
The student’s hypothesis is that larger whales do shallower dives and smaller whales do deeper dives. Choice B is consistent with that: the three whales with the deepest dives (Beluga, Culver’s, and Narwhal) are the three smallest whales. Note that choices A and D go the opposite direction, working against the student’s hypothesis, by highlighting comparisons of larger whales doing deeper dives and smaller whales doing shallower dives.
Student loan debt is a heavy burden carried not only by college graduates but by those who attended some college but never completed a degree. And while proponents of college as an investment in one’s future continue to highlight the increased earnings that those with higher education can expect, it is perhaps even more important to point out that a college degree leads to dramatically lower levels of unemployment. For example, a 2011 study found that .
Which of the following best uses evidence from the graph to support the claim?
average weekly earnings were higher for every level of educational achievement
college graduates earned more than twice as much, on average, as those who never graduated from high school
unemployment rates were significantly lower for degree-holders than for those who did not have a degree
those with professional or doctoral degrees were half as likely to be unemployed as those who have only a bachelor’s degree
Explanation
An important factor on any questions that ask you to find evidence in a graph or table is reading the prompt to determine specifically what the claim or conclusion is. Here the claim is that “a college degree leads to dramatically lower levels of unemployment.” For that reason, both A and D are incorrect as they focus on earnings and not on unemployment rate. And choice B is incorrect because it compares types of degrees when the claim is specific to having “a college degree.” Choice C directly addresses the specific claim and matches evidence from the graph: for groups with a degree of any kind, unemployment rates were indeed significantly lower than for those without.
A library board proposes shifting funds to its digital collection, arguing that growth in e-book checkouts drove most of the recent increase in borrowing. To support this, the report notes that .
Which choice most effectively uses data from the table to complete the text?
the number of people checking out e-books nearly doubled from 2022 to 2024
print books remained the largest category in both years
overall borrowing across all formats exceeded 2 million checkouts in 2024, up from 1,800,000 in 2022
e-books rose by 240,00 checkouts, accounting for most of the total increase of 340,000
Explanation
Total growth is 340 thousand (1260-1200 + 740-500 + 220-180), and e-books contributed 240 thousand, which is more than half.
Among the incorrect choices, the fact that print books remained the highest type of checkout and that overall borrowing was significantly up do not specifically address the claim, and the data table does not support the notion that the number of people checking out e-books nearly doubled (the number of items checked out was only up by ~50%, not double, and the table does not address the number of people, just the number of items).
An agronomist argues that applying more nitrogen beyond a certain rate does little to boost yields. The table summarizes field trial averages. Conditions were rainfed with uniform hybrid and planting density.
Which choice best describes data from the table that support the agronomist's claim that higher nitrogen beyond 120 kg/ha did not produce meaningful increases in yield?
At every stage of the trial, adding additional nitrogen resulted in increased corn yield.
Yield increased from 4.10 to 4.50 t/ha when nitrogen rose from 80 to 100 kg/ha.
The lowest (80 kg/ha) nitrogen treatment produced the lowest corn yield among all rates tested, and the highest (160 kg/ha) nitrogen treatment produced the highest.
Yield rose substantially up to 120 kg/ha (to 4.80 t/ha) but then increased only slightly, from 4.80 to 4.92 t/ha between 120 and 160 kg/ha.
Explanation
The increases in nitrogen are uniform in each row of the table (+20 each time) but the increases in corn yield get smaller at each stage, with the difference in the last stage being a paltry 0.02. This directly supports the claim.
Note that for other answer choices, the data is consistent with the table (the lower the nitrogen the lower the yield) but while those choices are "true" they do not address this specific claim.
Following pandemic disruptions, a city arts brief evaluates attendance recovery at two museums. It claims that after a 2020 dip, Museum A exceeded its 2019 attendance by 2023, while Museum B did not.
Which choice most effectively uses data from the graph to complete the text?
In 2023, both museums surpassed their 2019 attendance levels.
By 2023, Museum A rose to 620 thousand, above its 2019 level of 600 thousand, while Museum B reached 520 thousand, below its 2019 level of 540 thousand.
The recovery in attendance at both museums was driven primarily by new blockbuster exhibitions introduced in 2022-23.
Both Museum A and Museum B had lower attendance in 2020 and 2021 than in 2019.
Explanation
In graph/table questions that ask you to strengthen or support a claim, the correct answer must do two things:
1\) Directly support the specific claim given.
2\) Be true based on the information in the table or graph.
And almost always, at least two if not all three incorrect answers will fail the test in #1. Note here that three choices use "both" to lead with facts that are true of both museums, but the claim is about a difference (A recovered its attendance, B did not). Only the correct answer leads to a difference, showing that by 2023 Museum A's attendance had not only recovered to its 2019 figure but exceeded it, while Museum B's attendance was still below its highest point.
Note also that the the answer that says they both surpassed their 2019 attendance not only doesn't support the claim, but is factually incorrect based on the graph too.
An advocacy group compared smartphone adoption rates by age in 2018 and 2024 to assess progress among older adults. The report claims seniors have made gains but still lag younger groups in the most recent year.
Which choice best describes data from the table that support the claim?
In 2018, adults ages 30–49 had 85% adoption, higher than the 67% rate among 50–64-year-olds.
Adults 50–64 matched the 30–49 group in 2024 adoption.
Among adults 65+, adoption rose from 45% in 2018 to 68% in 2024 but still trailed 18–29-year-olds at 96% in 2024.
Much of the increase in the 65+ group is attributable to the people who aged from the younger cohort and "graduated" to 65+ between 2018 and 2024.
Explanation
The 65+ group increased from 45% to 68% yet remained below the 96% rate for 18–29 in 2024. This statistic is true from the table and directly supports both pieces of the claim: the oldest group's smartphone adoption significantly increased over that time period, but is still less than a younger group's figure.
The other choices are all irrelevant to the specific claim, which 1) must be about senior citizens in the 65+ group and 2) must be true based on the table. Nether of the stats in B and C are relevant to 65+, and the notion in choice D may well be true but is not data from the table nor would it directly impact the claim of "grew, but still lagged behind other groups."