Tables & Paired Graphics | Reading and Writing for Digital SAT PDF Download

Tables

Some questions will not use graphs at all but rather tables. For example, in a science passage discussing the antibiotic-resistant bacteria, you could see something like the table below. MRSA is a type of bacteria that is especially resistant to common antibiotics.

Don't let the complicated names distract you. Focus on the numbers, and compare the similar columns: effective vs. effective, resistant vs. resistant.
The main thing to notice is that tire "General Effectiveness" numbers are always higher than tire "MRSA Effectiveness" numbers. Basically, the chart is telling us that antibiotics that are generally effective are a lot less effective against MRSA. That makes sense: as stated above, MRSA is a particularly antibiotic-resistant type of bacteria.

Q. Based on the table, which antibiotic showed the greatest discrepancy between its general effectiveness and its effectiveness against MRSA?
(A) Erithryomycin
(B) Vancomycin
(C) Penicillin
(D) Rifampicin
This question doesn't need to be hard - remember, all the information you need is right in front of you - but it does have the potential to be confusing.
The first thing to do is to make sure you're clear on what the question is asking and do some basic work upfront to determine what sort of information the correct answer must contain.
In this case, tire key word is "discrepancy" - the question is asking which antibiotic shows the greatest difference between its general effectiveness and its effectiveness against MRSA.
The correct answer will therefore have a much higher number in the "general effectiveness" column than in the "MRSA effectiveness" column. One by one, we're going to check each answer, We're going to round tire numbers to make things easy.