GCSE · Data representation

Bar charts & pie chartsExam-style questions

Why a bar chart carries the frequency in its height while a pie chart carries only the share in its angle — so two identical-looking pies can stand for wildly different numbers — and how to convert between frequency and angle both ways.

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11 questions · GCSE (Higher) level · mark scheme and worked solution on each · no sign-up to try

DifficultyAll Level 1 Level 2 Level 3 Level 4 Level 5

1
Every student at Ashbourne School and every student at Beckworth School named their favourite subject. The results were shown in two pie charts.

Ashbourne School has $400$ students. Beckworth School has $250$ students.

On both pie charts the sector for Science has an angle of $72°$ .

(a) Work out the number of students at Ashbourne School who chose Science.

(b) Work out the number of students at Beckworth School who chose Science.

(c) Priya says: "The two sectors are the same size, so the same number of students chose Science at each school." Explain why Priya is wrong.
Level 4 · 5 marksTry it
2
The composite bar chart shows the number of tickets sold for each of three school plays. In every bar the lower section shows adult tickets and the upper section shows child tickets.

(a) Work out the number of child tickets sold for Play 3.

(b) Work out the total number of tickets sold for the three plays.

(c) Explain why this chart makes it harder to compare the numbers of child tickets across the three plays than a dual (comparative) bar chart would.
Level 4 · 5 marksTry it