Work out the scale first: charts and graphs
The Short Answer
The first thing to do with any chart is work out what one small line is worth, and write it down. Scales in the 11+ rarely go up in ones — expect threes, fours, twenties and fifties — and every reading afterwards depends on getting that right. Then read across from the top of a bar, or up and then across on a line graph.
What do these questions ask?
To read a value off a chart, or to compare two, or to work something out from several readings together.
Your child can read a bar chart. What the transfer test adds is scales that do not go up in ones, pie charts where you are given one slice, and graphs that have to be read backwards.
The scale is where the marks are
Find two labelled numbers next to each other up the side. Count the small lines in the gap. Divide.
If 100 and 200 are five gaps apart, one small line is 20.
Then a bar reaching two lines above 200 is 240 — counted, not estimated.
The routine
Work out the scale — or read the key, on a pictogram.
Read across from the top of the bar, or up then across on a line graph.
One number, or several put together? Check what the question wants.
Check it against the picture. A bar that looks like about a third of the tallest should give an answer about a third of the largest.
Only rung one changes shape between chart types. Everything after it is the same on a bar chart, a line graph and a pictogram.
Pie charts from one slice
The whole pie is 360 degrees, and it is also 100% of something.
Recognising a quarter or a half by eye saves the calculation entirely, and most pie chart slices in these papers are chosen to be recognisable.
Reading a graph backwards
An ordinary question gives you a value on the bottom axis and asks for one up the side. A backwards question does the reverse.
How long had the car been travelling when it had covered six miles?
Start on the axis you have been given — the vertical one — go across to the line, then down.
It is the same graph and the same skill, and children who have only ever gone up-then-across find it disproportionately hard, which is why it is worth practising deliberately.
Where do pupils lose marks?
Assuming a scale of ones, and reading every value wrong by the same factor.
Estimating a bar's height instead of counting lines.
Re-deriving the scale halfway through and getting it different.
Going up-then-across on a question that needed across-then-down.
Try it yourself
Work out the value of one small line before reading anything, and write it at the side of the chart.
- On a bar chart, the axis is labelled 100 and 200, with five gaps between them. What is one small line worth?
- A bar reaches two small lines above 200. What value is it?
- A pie chart of 240 people has a slice of 90 degrees. How many people is that?
- What fraction of a pie chart is a right angle?
- Why write the value of one small line down rather than remember it?
- 20. Two labelled numbers, a hundred apart, with five gaps between them: 100 ÷ 5 = 20.
- 240. Two lines above 200 is 200 + 40. Counting the lines rather than estimating the height is what makes this exact.
- 60 people. A right angle is a quarter of 360, so it is a quarter of the 240 — or work it as 240 × 90 ÷ 360.
- A quarter. The whole pie is 360 degrees, and 90 is a quarter of it. Recognising quarters and halves by eye saves a calculation on most pie chart questions.
- Because you are about to use it four or five times, and re-deriving it under time pressure is exactly how it goes wrong. Writing it once at the side of the chart costs two seconds and protects every reading after it.
How much practice does this type need at home?
Charts are everywhere — weather apps, sports tables, the back of a cereal packet, a news article.
Point at one and ask two questions: what is one line worth? and what does that bar say? The first question is the one that matters, and asking it about a chart nobody prepared is much better practice than a worksheet where the scale is always sensible.
Free: a Maths workbook
Questions across the Maths question types, with the method printed at the top and full answers at the back. One workbook for the whole strand, not a sheet per question type.
Frequently Asked Questions
How does my child work out an awkward scale?
Find two labelled numbers next to each other up the side, count the small lines in the gap between them, and divide. If 100 and 200 are five gaps apart, one line is 20. That is the whole method, and the only thing that changes in Year 5 is what you are dividing — expect threes, fours, twenties and fifties rather than the ones they had in Year 4.
Why write the scale down?
Because the same chart will be used for four or five readings, and working the scale out afresh each time is how a correct method produces a wrong answer at question three. Write 'one line = 20' at the side of the chart the moment you know it. It takes two seconds and it makes every subsequent reading a lookup rather than a calculation.
What is a graph read backwards?
A question that gives you the value on the vertical axis and asks for the corresponding one on the horizontal — how far had the car travelled when it had been going twenty minutes, reversed into how long had it been going when it had travelled six miles. The method is simply the reverse: start on the axis you are given, go across to the line, then down. Children who have only ever gone up-then-across find it awkward, and it is the same graph.
What about pie charts where only one slice is given?
Use the whole. The pie is 360 degrees or 100% of something, so one slice tells you what a degree or a percent is worth. If 90 degrees is 60 people, then 360 degrees is 240 people, and any other slice can be worked out from there. Recognising a quarter or a half by eye saves the calculation entirely.
Sources
- GL Assessment — 11+ familiarisation materials and question type descriptions Published 2025.
- Clever Clogs Academy — our own Year 4 and Year 5 lesson records, Winslow Published September 2025 to July 2026.
We are not affiliated with, endorsed by or connected to GL Assessment or Buckinghamshire Council. Test arrangements change; always check the council's own pages for the current year's dates.
We Teach This Method Every Week in Winslow
Groups of no more than six pupils with two qualified teachers, in person or online. Come and see a session before you decide.