Alex Hollis, Founder & Wonderlic Expert, Beat the Wonderlic
April 10, 2017
The following is an explanation for QUESTION 10 from our Free Wonderlic Test. The strategy listed below is just one of many from my online course, which has helped thousands of people beat their Wonderlic test and land their dream job.
10. In a 3-year period, the revenues of A Corp. (in millions) were 42, 27, and 19; and for B Corp. (in millions): 27, 42 and 16. Which graph below best contrasts the number of acquisitions each company made over this period?
A quick review of how to read a line graph.
Line graphs are typically utilized to show a change in value over time. You read a line graph from left to right.
INCREASING
If the line in the graph is going up (from left to right), then this means the value is increasing over time.
DECREASING
If the line in the graph is going down, then this represents a decrease in value over time.
NO CHANGE
A straight line means that there is no change in value over time.
How to answer line graph questions on the Wonderlic test.
There are a couple of variations of line graph questions you may see on the Wonderlic.
I cover each of them in my Wonderlic online course.
Let’s quickly review how to attack the type of graph we saw on the Free Wonderlic Practice Test, which asks us to compare graphs with multiple sets of data.
Compare trajectories of the two graphs (trajectory scribble).
Read the first data set and draw what a graph of this may look like, or simply think about how it would look.
We like to keep it simple by saying something like “the first line starts up, then goes down and then up”. Draw that on scrap paper.
Once you have that down for the first data set, repeat this step with the second set of data.
Finally, look for the graph that looks most like the graph you scribbled on your scrap paper.
Let’s try this with Question 10 from the Free Wonderlic Practice Test:
10. In a 3-year period, the revenues of A Corp. (in millions) were 42, 27, and 19; and for B Corp. (in millions): 27, 42 and 16. Which graph below best contrasts the number of acquisitions each company made over this period?
1. Scribble trajectories of the data sets.
My first data set should start up (42) and then down (27) and then go down more (19).
My second data set should start down (27) then go up (42) and then go back down (16).
We can eliminate C and E.
2. Matching numbers.
I know that the first plot should be 42 and 27 and then the second should be the reverse of that. I need to look for the remaining graph where the first plot of one graph matches the second plot of the other.
Answer: B.
Practicing these types of questions will go a long way in helping you answer them more quickly on the actual Wonderlic. Let’s try one more together.
Scribble trajectories of each graph on scrap paper.
Knowing what the graph should look like before you look at the answers will help you get it more quickly.
Another Wonderlic test example question.
In a 3-month period, the average number of points Player 1 scored were 40, 50, and 30; and for Player 2, it was 30, 40 and 15. Which graph below best contrasts the number of points scored by each player over this period?
1. Scribble trajectories of the data sets.
My first data set should go up and then down. My second data set should also go up and down. We can eliminate A, C, D, and E.
Answer: B.
How did you do? Was our strategy helpful? Let us know in the comments section!
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