Updated December 3, 2025
How to Answer SAT Charts & Graphs Questions (Reading & Writing Guide)
Bonus Material: SAT Charts & Graphs Strategy Guide
Many students find SAT Reading & Writing questions involving charts, graphs, and data intimidating, but these “Quantitative Evidence” questions are often the easiest to master with the right approach.
In this post, we’ll share the strategy you need to approach quantitative Reading & Writing questions and how to avoid getting overwhelmed by details.
We’ll focus on just one question type here, but if you’re ready for more, this post lines up the strategy for every single question type on SAT Reading & Writing, with examples for all of them.
Plus, we’ve collected everything you need to know about charts and graphs on SAT Reading & Writing on one page. Grab your free cheat sheet below, then keep reading for how to apply these strategies on the real test.
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How to recognize Quantitative Evidence questions
Your 3-step strategy for Quantitative questions
Step 1: Identify and paraphrase the claim
Step 2: Select the answer that supports or weakens the claim
Step 3: Use the data for confirmation
How to read charts and graphs efficiently (and ignore what you don’t need to know)
Guided example
How to recognize Quantitative Evidence questions
On the SAT, Command of Evidence questions present either a text passage or data (in the form of a chart or graph). The text passage questions can be about science or literature, while the data questions will be about science. In this post, we’ll focus on the data-based (quantitative) questions.
You’ll be asked for the answer option that supports or weakens a claim. This is often phrased as “which finding, if true, would support/weaken this hypothesis?
Here’s an example of a data-based question. (This is an official SAT practice question from the College Board’s question bank.)
Average Temperatures in July in Four Locations in the Navajo Nation
| Location | Average highest temperature (Fahrenheit) | Average lowest temperature (Fahrenheit) |
|---|---|---|
| Teec Nos Pos | 94° | 65° |
| Cameron | 99° | 65° |
| Ramah | 83° | 50° |
| Tuba City | 83° | 50° |
The Navajo Nation has the largest land area of any tribal nation in the United States: over 27,000 square miles in the Southwest. Because this area is so huge and its communities are located at various elevations, the people of the Navajo Nation can experience different climate conditions depending on where they live. For example, in July, ______
Which choice most effectively uses data from the table to complete the statement?
A. the lowest temperature for both Cameron and Teec Nos Pos was 65°.
B. Tuba City’s average highest temperature was 94°, while Teec Nos Pos’s was 93°.
C. Ramah’s average highest temperature was 83°, while Cameron’s was 99°.
D. the lowest temperature for both Ramah and Tuba City was 50°.
Source: SAT Educator Question Bank
Try solving this practice question using our step-by-step strategy below. (The correct answer is C — check this for yourself!)
If these questions look scary, don’t worry. We’ll break them down step by step in the next section. And if you feel like more guidance would help you, give us a call for a free chat about how our SAT tutors can help you reach your goal score.
Your 3-step strategy for quantitative questions
The strategy for data-based questions can be counterintuitive: first you find the answer, then you verify it with the data.
- Identify and paraphrase the claim. This will usually be in the final sentence of the passage that accompanies the data. For more complicated questions, jot down the structure of the argument so that you can see where it could be supported or undermined. Do not look at the data yet.
- Now check whether you’re looking for something that supports or weakens the claim. Compare the claim, as you paraphrased it, to the answer choices to find the one that would support or weaken the claim, if the information in the answer choice were true.
- Once you’ve selected the best answer choice, confirm that it’s actually true by checking it against the data. It will almost always be true, but occasionally, you might find that it doesn’t hold up. In this case, eliminate that answer choice and identify one that is backed up by the data.
The correct choice should meet two criteria:
- It supports or weakens the claim, based on the question.
- It presents information that’s actually true, based on the data.
Once you’ve selected your answer, double-check by confirming that the other answer choices don’t work.
This strategy can be counterintuitive, but it will save you valuable time on the SAT. Let’s break it down step by step in the next three sections.
And to keep a summary of the strategy and other tips all in one place while you practice, grab your free copy of our reference guide for data-based questions. It collects everything you need to know for this question type on one page.
Step 1: Identify and paraphrase the claim
To know whether a piece of evidence strengthens or weakens a claim, it’s important to know first what the claim is.
For data questions, there will be a short piece of text along with the chart or graph where you’ll find the claim. You’ll often (though not always) find the claim in the last sentence.
Look for words like “concludes” or “argues” to help you find the argument. Then paraphrase it in your own words.
These questions often throw lots of jargon at you, but don’t let that trip you up. Remember that you don’t actually need to know what jargon means to be able to assess the claim. Is the question talking about norepinephrine? You don’t even need to sound it out — just think of it as “hormone N.”
The point is your ability to tell what evidence would support or weaken an argument, not your understanding of the argument itself.
Step 2: Select the answer that supports or weakens the claim
Once you’ve identified what the claim is, go straight to the answer choices.
Assuming every answer choice is factually true, which one would support or weaken the claim? If you were trying to convince someone that the claim was true (or false), which one would you point to?
Do not look at the data at this point! We’ll get to that in the next step.
If this step is tricky for you, working with an experienced tutor can be a big help. All our tutors have been specifically trained for the digital SAT, and they can help you zero in on the strategy steps that are costing you points.
Step 3: Use the data for confirmation
When you see a quantitative question, don’t start with the data. First find your answer. Then, depending on the question, look only at the data that’s relevant to the claim.
Take this question:
Sample of Food Items from Gemini Mission Menus
| Food item | Day | Meal |
|---|---|---|
| Sugar cookie cubes | 1 | B |
| Chicken and vegetables | 2 | B |
| Shrimp cocktail | 4 | C |
| Hot cocoa | 3 | A |
To make sure they got the nutrition they needed while in space, the astronauts of NASA’s Gemini missions were given menus for three meals a day (meals A, B, and C) on a four-day rotating schedule. Looking at the sample of food items from these menus, a student notes that on day 1, the menu included ______
Which choice most effectively uses data from the table to complete the statement?
A. shrimp cocktail for meal B.
B. hot cocoa for meal C.
C. sugar cookie cubes for meal B.
D. chicken and vegetables for meal A.
Source: SAT Educator Question Bank
Based on the final line in the passage, we only care about the Day 1 menu. That means we can completely ignore 3 out of the 4 rows in the chart.
Once you know what you’re looking for, target your reading of the data so that you don’t waste time (and potentially get confused) wading through data that isn’t relevant to the question.
Occasionally, you might see a data-based question that doesn’t include a claim and just asks you to read the graph or chart. These are usually the easiest level of questions. In this case, use the question to determine what piece of information you need from the chart or graph and then target your reading to find that information.
Guided example
  |
Source: SAT Educator Question Bank
Let’s use the strategy for data-based questions.
- Identify and paraphrase the claim. This will usually be in the final sentence of the passage. For more complicated questions, jot down the structure of the argument so that you can see where it could be supported or undermined. Do not look at the data yet.
As is often the case, the claim is in the last sentence of the paragraph that accompanies that data. The claim is that hominins who lived at this site may have been able to use fire, since some objects may have been exposed to temperatures above 400 degrees.
- Now check whether you’re looking for something that supports or weakens the claim. Compare the claim, as you paraphrased it, to the answer choices to find the one that would support or weaken the claim, if the information in the answer choice were true.
We’re looking to support the claim, so we’re looking for answer choices that say some of these objects were exposed to temperatures above 400 degrees.
Both answer choices A and B would work, if they’re true. C doesn’t meet the threshold for a high enough temperature, and D is irrelevant, because we’re not interested in comparing the individual objects.
- Once you’ve selected the best answer choice, confirm that it’s actually true by checking it against the data. It will almost always be true, but occasionally, you might find that it doesn’t hold up. In this case, eliminate that answer choice and identify one that is backed up by the data.
Remember, the correct choice should meet two criteria:
- It supports or weakens the claim, based on the question
- It presents information that’s actually true, based on the data
Both A and B meet the first criterion: they would support the claim, if true. Looking at the data, though, we can see that A isn’t actually true. Neither of the artifacts named were exposed to temperatures above 400 degrees. B is true, according to the data, so B is our final answer choice.
Double-check by confirming that the other answer choices don’t work.
We’ve done this during earlier steps.
Next Steps
These guidelines will help you approach all of the quantitative evidence questions you’ll see on SAT Reading & Writing. But don’t forget about the other question types! Here’s a guide to the strategy for every single SAT Reading & Writing question type, as well as 12 test-taking strategies that work for any SAT question.
And if you’re looking for more personalized help to take your SAT score to the next level, reach out to get paired with one of our expert tutors, each of whom has been trained specifically for the new digital SAT. Many of our students see their scores go up by 100-300 points over a few months of intensive tutoring.
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Ro
Rosamond graduated summa cum laude from Princeton. During college, she worked as a peer tutor for Italian, French, Greek, and academic writing. Since graduation, she’s continued to tutor students of all ages in French, Italian, Latin, English, and math, some of them for several years. She’s currently a graduate student studying the relationship between religion and secular law, and she works as a freelance journalist and translator.