Introduction to Data
Interpretation:
In
our day to day life, we come across many situations where we are required to analyze
information in the form of data to make a decision or to arrive at a
conclusion. For a manager, analysis of present and past sales to predict future
sales.
All
the information we have in different cases represent data in different forms.
The
term data is used to represent numerical information of a particular situation
or data is nothing but a collection of facts or figures.
But
data, when it is not organized, is very little useful. Marks of students of a
university are little use unless they are well organized in a proper form such
as students got first class, second class and failed in each college.
Data, when organized in proper form, is
very useful to make interpretations and called information. And the objective
of any data is to help us to obtain the required information and make
interpretations.
Data Interpretation: The
act of organizing and interpreting data to get meaningful information is data
interpretation.
Nowadays,
data interpretation is an important aspect of a very competitive examination.
Recent developments in competitive examinations, where test makers are trying
to assess the intellect and skills of the test takers by gauging their ability
to analyze and interpret the data, we find DATA INTERPRETATION to be of great
importance to get a good score with the examinations like Bank Clerks, Bank PO,
CSAT, CAT, XAT, SSC, and other competitive examinations. Data interpretation is
also a very important topic for GMAT and GRE. The importance of DATA
INTERPRETATION questions in competitive examinations are regularly increasing.
Usually,
a table, or graph or a diagram is given with some facts or required information
and test takers are required to answer the questions that follow the test of
their ability to analyze and interpret the given information.
Types of data interpretation questions:
The
data interpretation has the following ways in which it can be represented.
1.
Tables
: Also called data tables. Tabulation is one
of the easiest and convenient way used
for summarizing and presenting the data in a meaningful way
2.
Venn
Diagram: Venn diagram is a way of representing data pictorially. The use
of a Venn diagram is to test your ability about the relation between some items
of a group by diagrams
3.
Pie
Charts: Pie charts are also called pie graphs. Pie
charts are a circular representation of data. Generally, the data in the
question represents the breakups of a whole into its parts. Each slice of the pie
shows the portion of the entire pie allocated in each category
4.
Line Graphs:
Line graph or line charts show the trend of the data in any form. Trend denotes
the rise or fall in the values of the data. The data is given on Cartesian coordinate
plane that has two axes names X-axis and Y-axis
5.
Bar
Graphs: A bar is a thick line, which may be
horizontal or vertical. A bar graph is a chart that uses bars to show
comparisons among categories.
6.
Mixed
Graph or Combination Graph:
Often, data interpretation questions based not on a single graph but a
combination of two or more graphs(Either bar chart with pie or line graph with
data table).
7.
Case
lets: A case let is a complete paragraph full
of numerical information that provides the data to answer the questions. The given paragraph contains numerical information and the test taker is required to
answer the question after arranging the data in a proper way.