4.1 Reading Tables, Schedules, and Rate Charts
Key Takeaways
- OPM states you will be asked to read a passage or a table, and the Reading Comprehension competency expressly includes charts, graphs and tables.
- Read the title, column headers, row labels, units and any footnotes before reading a single data cell.
- Footnotes and header notes frequently carry the condition that decides the item.
- Locate the intersection of the correct row and correct column deliberately rather than scanning, since adjacent-cell errors are the most common table mistake.
- Check whether the question asks for a value from the table or for a calculation performed on values from the table.
4.1 Reading Tables, Schedules, and Rate Charts
Quick Summary: OPM's Occupational Reading instructions say you will be asked to read a passage or table and answer questions based on the information provided. The Reading Comprehension competency is defined to include charts, graphs, or tables. Table items are not a footnote to this assessment; they are half of it.
Read the structure before the data
The reflex on seeing a table is to hunt for a number. Resist it. The single highest-value habit on table items is spending the first thirty seconds reading everything except the data.
Work this order:
- Title. What is this table about, and over what period or population?
- Column headers. What does each column contain? Are two columns similar enough to be confused?
- Row labels. What identifies each row — a category, a person, a date, a location?
- Units. Dollars or thousands of dollars? Hours or days? Counts or percentages? A units error is invisible in the arithmetic and fatal to the answer.
- Footnotes and header notes. Anything marked with an asterisk, dagger, or a note beneath the table.
Step 5 earns its place. Table items are frequently built so that the plain lookup gives a plausible wrong answer and the footnote gives the right one.
Why footnotes decide items
Consider a processing-time table with a note beneath it: * Figures for the Western region exclude requests received during the system outage in the third quarter.
Any question comparing regional totals, or asking which region processed the most requests, is now about that footnote. A candidate who read only the grid gets a confident wrong answer, and the wrong answer will be among the options.
So: if a table has a footnote, assume it is load-bearing until you have checked otherwise.
Locating the cell deliberately
Adjacent-cell errors — reading the row above, or the column to the left — are the most common table mistake, and they happen because candidates scan diagonally toward a plausible-looking number.
A deliberate method:
- Identify the row the question names and mark it (a finger on screen, or the row label written on scratch paper).
- Identify the column the question names and confirm the header wording matches the question wording.
- Read the intersection.
- Confirm the value is plausible given the column's units.
On a wide table, tracking with a straight edge — the edge of a sheet of scratch paper — is genuinely worth doing.
Lookup versus calculation
Occupational Reading table items come in two shapes, and mistaking one for the other wastes time or produces a wrong answer.
| Question type | What it asks | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Lookup | "How many requests did the Central region process in April?" | Read one cell |
| Comparison | "Which region processed the most requests in April?" | Read one column, compare |
| Aggregate | "How many requests were processed across all regions in April?" | Sum a column |
| Derived | "By how much did Central's April total exceed March's?" | Read two cells, subtract |
| Conditional | "Which regions exceeded 500 requests in every month shown?" | Apply a test to each row |
Remember from Chapter 2 that a calculator and scratch paper are permitted on the Math assessment. On Occupational Reading, the arithmetic required by a table item is deliberately light — a comparison, a sum, a difference. If you find yourself doing heavy computation on a reading item, reread the question; you have probably answered a harder question than the one asked.
Worked example
Table. Requests Received by Intake Method, First Quarter
Method January February March Online portal 1,240 1,310 1,455 380 342 361 In person 210 198 173 Telephone* 96 104 118 * Telephone figures include requests later transferred to the online portal.
Question. Which intake method showed a decline in every month shown?
Read structurally first. The rows are methods, the columns are months, the units are counts of requests, and there is a footnote on Telephone.
Now apply the test row by row:
- Online portal: 1,240 → 1,310 → 1,455. Rising.
- Mail: 380 → 342 → 361. Falls then rises. Not every month.
- In person: 210 → 198 → 173. Falls each month. ✓
- Telephone: 96 → 104 → 118. Rising.
Answer: in person.
Notice two things. The footnote did not matter for this question — but you could only know that after reading it. And Mail is the designed trap: it declines in the first step, and a candidate comparing only January to February selects it.
The five recurring table traps
- Wrong row or column. Especially when two headers are similar, such as "received" and "processed".
- Ignored units. "Amounts in thousands" turns 45 into 45,000.
- Ignored footnote. As above.
- Partial comparison. Checking the first pair of columns and generalising, as with Mail.
- Total row treated as a category. Many tables include a Total row; including it when summing double-counts everything.
A table of quarterly figures carries a note reading: "Amounts are shown in thousands of dollars." A cell reads 45. A question asks for the actual amount. What is it?
Why should a candidate read a table's footnotes before answering, even when the question appears to be a simple lookup?
Using the intake table in this section, a candidate compares only January and February and concludes that Mail declined in every month shown. What error is this?