What is S2: Charts and tables?

Choose the display that matches the data: separated bars or a pictogram with a key for categories, a vertical line chart for ungrouped discrete values, and points joined in time order for a time series.

How many marks are S2 questions worth?

In verified past-paper appearances, S2 questions on Edexcel GCSE Maths 1MA1 have been worth 1–7 marks.

Which past exam papers has S2 appeared in?

S2 has appeared in 50 verified past-paper questions indexed on this page, with direct links to the official question paper and mark scheme for each.

Interpret and construct frequency tables, bar charts, pie charts and pictograms (categorical data), vertical line charts (ungrouped discrete numerical data), tables and line graphs (time series)

Charts and tables

Worked answers, methods and verified real exam appearances for S2 on Edexcel GCSE Maths 1MA1.

Definition

Specification S2: interpret and construct tables, charts and diagrams, including frequency tables, bar charts, pie charts and pictograms for categorical data, vertical line charts for ungrouped discrete numerical data, tables and line graphs for time series data, and know their appropriate use.

Explanation

Choose the display that matches the data: separated bars or a pictogram with a key for categories, a vertical line chart for ungrouped discrete values, and points joined in time order for a time series.
In a pie chart each sector angle is $\dfrac{\text{frequency}}{\text{total}}\times360^\circ$ ; reversing the formula recovers a frequency or the total from an angle.
Complete a two-way table from the totals: fill the cells you can, then subtract.
Reading a chart for a percentage means frequency divided by total, times $100$ .
Every chart needs labelled axes, an even scale, a key where needed and accurate plotting; a criticism question expects specific faults such as missing labels or sector angles that do not match the data.

Worked example

A pie chart shows how

120

students travel to school. The sector for walking has an angle of

126^\circ

. Work out how many of the students walk to school.

(2)

(Total for Question 1 is 2 marks)

Working

1.The sector is $\dfrac{126}{360}$ of the whole pie chart.
2.Apply that fraction to the total: $\dfrac{126}{360}\times120$ .
3.Simplify: $\dfrac{126}{360}=\dfrac{7}{20}$ , and $\dfrac{7}{20}\times120=42$ .

Answer: $42$ students

Mark scheme

Mark scheme for question 1
Question	Answer	Mark	Additional guidance
1	for $\dfrac{126}{360}\times120$ or $120\div360\times126$ or $126\div3$	M1	oe
	for $42$	A1	cao

Common mistakes

Don't fall into the trap of using frequency directly as an angle instead of scaling to $360^\circ$ .
Don't fall into the trap of joining categorical bars or plotting a time series out of order.

Mark-scheme wording to use

“makes some comment about the labels … comments about the inaccuracy of the angles in the pie chart” — Pearson 1MA1, November 2022 Paper 3F, Q16
“for process to find total German eg 200 – 104 – 70 (= 26) … for complete process to find boys choosing Spanish eg 90 – (60 + ("26" – 18))” — Pearson 1MA1, November 2022 Paper 3H, Q3
““2” ÷ 40 × 100 … cao” — Pearson 1MA1, November 2018 Paper 3H, Q4(a)

What the examiner wants

Precise criticism and accurate plotting. The November 2022 Paper 3F scheme rejects vague comments such as “the pie chart is wrong” or “the angles do not add up to $360$ ”, and the November 2024 Paper 3H report says points joined with a curve, or the first and last points joined directly, lost the diagram mark.

Exam tip

After calculating pie-chart sectors, check that all sector angles add to $360^\circ$ .

Worked practice

Tier 1 · Easy

The data are

2,3,2,5,4,3,2,4,5,2

. Construct a frequency table for the values

2

3

4

and

5

(2)

(Total for Question 1 is 2 marks)

Mark scheme

Mark scheme for question 1
Question	Answer	Mark	Mark scheme
1	$2:4$ , $3:2$ , $4:2$ , $5:2$ .	2	Tally each value once. The frequencies $4+2+2+2=10$ match the number of data values.

Tier 2 · Standard

In a survey of

240

journeys,

54

are made by bicycle. Work out the angle of the bicycle sector in a pie chart.

(2)

(Total for Question 2 is 2 marks)

Mark scheme

Mark scheme for question 2
Question	Answer	Mark	Mark scheme
2	$81^\circ$	2	The bicycle fraction is $54/240$ . Multiply by a full turn: $\dfrac{54}{240}\times360^\circ=81^\circ$ .

Tier 3 · Hard

Quarterly sales are Q₁:

320

, Q₂:

410

, Q₃:

390

, Q₄:

520

, and the following Q₁:

350

. State the five points to plot on a time-series line graph. Work out the percentage change from the first Q₁ to the following Q₁ and explain why comparing Q₄ directly with the following Q₁ could mislead.

(4)

(Total for Question 3 is 4 marks)

Mark scheme

Mark scheme for question 3
Question	Answer	Mark	Mark scheme
3	$(\text{Q1},320),(\text{Q2},410),(\text{Q3},390),(\text{Q4},520),(\text{next Q1},350)$ . Percentage increase $=9.375\%$ . Q₄ and Q₁ may have different seasonal patterns, so that comparison may not represent an underlying fall.	4	Plot the values in time order and join consecutive points. Like-for-like Q₁ change is $350-320=30$ , so the percentage change is $30/320\times100=9.375\%$ . Comparing different quarters confounds the change with possible seasonality.

Tier 1 · Easy

A vertical line chart shows the number of goals scored by a team in each match. The lines at

0

1

2

and

3

goals have frequencies

3

8

6

and

4

respectively. Write down the frequency for

2

goals and the modal number of goals.

(2)

(Total for Question 4 is 2 marks)

Mark scheme

Mark scheme for question 4
Question	Answer	Mark	Mark scheme
4	The frequency for $2$ goals is $6$ . The modal number of goals is $1$ .	2	Read the height of the line at $2$ goals to get frequency $6$ . The greatest frequency is $8$ , at $1$ goal, so the mode is $1$ .

Tier 2 · Standard

A café records the number of hot drinks sold on four consecutive Mondays as

42

46

44

and

51

. Write down the four points for a time-series graph, using Monday number on the horizontal axis, and describe the overall trend.

(2)

(Total for Question 5 is 2 marks)

Mark scheme

Mark scheme for question 5
Question	Answer	Mark	Mark scheme
5	$(1,42)$ , $(2,46)$ , $(3,44)$ and $(4,51)$ . The number of hot drinks sold shows an overall increase (also accept noting the fall from $46$ to $44$ between Mondays $2$ and $3$ ).	2	Pair each Monday number with its sales value and plot the points in time order. Although sales fall from $46$ to $44$ between Mondays $2$ and $3$ , they rise from $42$ to $51$ overall.

Tier 3 · Hard

A pie chart represents

300

votes. Three sectors have angles

72^\circ

108^\circ

and

126^\circ

. Work out the angle of the fourth sector and the frequency represented by each of the four sectors.

(4)

(Total for Question 6 is 4 marks)

Mark scheme

Mark scheme for question 6
Question	Answer	Mark	Mark scheme
6	Fourth angle $=54^\circ$ . The frequencies are $60$ , $90$ , $105$ and $45$ , corresponding respectively to $72^\circ$ , $108^\circ$ , $126^\circ$ and $54^\circ$ .	4	The missing angle is $360^\circ-(72^\circ+108^\circ+126^\circ)=54^\circ$ . Since $300/360=\dfrac{5}{6}$ , multiply each angle by $\dfrac{5}{6}$ : the frequencies are $60$ , $90$ , $105$ and $45$ . They add to $300$ .

Tier 2 · Standard

A survey of

48

pupils records their favourite after-school activity. Sport has frequency

14

, music has frequency

10

and drama has frequency

8

. The remaining pupils choose art. A bar chart uses a scale of

1\,\text{cm}

for

2

pupils. Work out the frequency for art, write down the height of each of the four bars, and state whether the bars should touch.

(4)

(Total for Question 7 is 4 marks)

Mark scheme

Mark scheme for question 7
Question	Answer	Mark	Mark scheme
7	Art frequency $=16$ . Bar heights: sport $7\,\text{cm}$ , music $5\,\text{cm}$ , drama $4\,\text{cm}$ and art $8\,\text{cm}$ . The bars should not touch because the activities are categories.	4	The art frequency is $48-(14+10+8)=16$ . Divide each frequency by $2$ to use the stated scale, giving heights $7$ , $5$ , $4$ and $8\,\text{cm}$ . A categorical bar chart has gaps between its bars.

Tier 3 · Hard

A bar chart compares

64

bookings on Monday with

76

bookings on Tuesday. The vertical axis begins at

60

, so the visible parts of the bars have heights of

4

units and

16

units. Sam says, ‘Tuesday had four times as many bookings as Monday.’ Is Sam correct? Work out the percentage increase from Monday to Tuesday and explain how the axis makes the chart misleading.

(4)

(Total for Question 8 is 4 marks)

Mark scheme

Mark scheme for question 8
Question	Answer	Mark	Mark scheme
8	No, Tuesday did not have four times as many bookings as Monday. The percentage increase is $18.75\%$ . Starting the axis at $60$ makes the visible heights $4$ and $16$ , exaggerating the difference; the actual values are $64$ and $76$ .	4	The increase is $76-64=12$ , so the percentage increase is $12/64\times100=18.75\%$ . The ratio of the actual values is $76/64=1.1875$ , not $4$ . The fourfold visual ratio comes only from subtracting the truncated-axis baseline of $60$ .

Tier 3 · Hard

A time-series graph uses the number of months after January 2024 on the horizontal axis and the meter reading on the vertical axis. The readings are

120

in January 2024,

150

in April 2024,

132

in October 2024 and

168

in July 2025. Write down the four coordinates that should be plotted, in date order.

(4)

(Total for Question 9 is 4 marks)

Mark scheme

Mark scheme for question 9
Question	Answer	Mark	Mark scheme
9	The coordinates are $(0,120)$ , $(3,150)$ , $(9,132)$ and $(18,168)$ , in date order.	4	The dates are $0$ , $3$ , $9$ and $18$ months after January 2024. Pair each of these data values with its meter reading to give $(0,120)$ , $(3,150)$ , $(9,132)$ and $(18,168)$ .

Q10

Tier 3 · Hard

A pie chart represents the after-school clubs chosen by

240

pupils. The school has exactly these four clubs: coding, drama, art and music. The coding sector has angle

72^\circ

and represents

48

pupils. There are

32

pupils who choose drama. The numbers who choose art and music are in the ratio

5 : 3

. Work out the angles of the art, music and drama sectors.

(4)

(Total for Question 10 is 4 marks)

Mark scheme

Mark scheme for question 10
Question	Answer	Mark	Mark scheme
10	Art sector $=150^\circ$ , music sector $=90^\circ$ and drama sector $=48^\circ$ .	4	After the $48$ coding pupils and $32$ drama pupils, $240-48-32=160$ pupils remain. Split $160$ in the ratio $5 : 3$ to get $100$ art pupils and $60$ music pupils. Each pupil represents $360^\circ/240=1.5^\circ$ , so the three required angles are $150^\circ$ , $90^\circ$ and $48^\circ$ .

Verified exam appearances

Series	Paper	Question	Marks	Calculator	Tier	Links
2019-06	1F	Q7	3	Non-calculator	Foundation	QP MS
2019-06	1F	Q21	4	Non-calculator	Foundation	QP MS
2019-11	2F	Q21	2	Allowed	Foundation	QP MS
2019-06	3F	Q7	2	Allowed	Foundation	QP MS
2021-11	3F	Q20	3	Allowed	Foundation	QP MS
2024-11	3F	Q17	2	Allowed	Foundation	QP MS
2021-11	2F	Q16	5	Allowed	Foundation	QP MS
2021-11	3F	Q9	3	Allowed	Foundation	QP MS
2021-11	1F	Q8	1	Non-calculator	Foundation	QP MS
2024-11	1F	Q9	7	Non-calculator	Foundation	QP MS
2019-11	3F	Q9	6	Allowed	Foundation	QP MS
2019-06	3H	Q4	2	Allowed	Higher	QP MS
2019-11	1F	Q18	4	Non-calculator	Foundation	QP MS
2024-11	3F	Q15	4	Allowed	Foundation	QP MS
2023-11	1F	Q8	6	Non-calculator	Foundation	QP MS
2022-11	1F	Q13	4	Non-calculator	Foundation	QP MS
2022-06	2F	Q13	3	Allowed	Foundation	QP MS
2021-11	1F	Q11	6	Non-calculator	Foundation	QP MS
2022-06	1F	Q6	1	Non-calculator	Foundation	QP MS
2024-06	3F	Q13	3	Allowed	Foundation	QP MS
2019-06	3H	Q21	4	Allowed	Higher	QP MS
2022-06	1F	Q8	3	Non-calculator	Foundation	QP MS
2021-11	2F	Q8	3	Allowed	Foundation	QP MS
2019-11	1F	Q6	4	Non-calculator	Foundation	QP MS
2022-11	2F	Q9	3	Allowed	Foundation	QP MS
2023-06	3F	Q9	6	Allowed	Foundation	QP MS
2022-11	2F	Q15	5	Allowed	Foundation	QP MS
2024-06	3F	Q7	2	Allowed	Foundation	QP MS
2022-06	2F	Q15	4	Allowed	Foundation	QP MS
2023-11	2F	Q16	4	Allowed	Foundation	QP MS
2019-06	2F	Q9	5	Allowed	Foundation	QP MS
2024-06	2F	Q6	5	Allowed	Foundation	QP MS
2019-06	3F	Q26	3	Allowed	Foundation	QP MS
2022-11	3H	Q3	3	Allowed	Higher	QP MS
2022-06	2F	Q9	3	Allowed	Foundation	QP MS
2021-11	2F	Q18	3	Allowed	Foundation	QP MS
2022-06	3F	Q26	2	Allowed	Foundation	QP MS
2023-11	3F	Q6	4	Allowed	Foundation	QP MS
2024-11	3F	Q22	4	Allowed	Foundation	QP MS
2022-06	1F	Q21	3	Non-calculator	Foundation	QP MS
2019-06	3F	Q27	2	Allowed	Foundation	QP MS
2024-06	3F	Q14	3	Allowed	Foundation	QP MS
2023-06	1F	Q23	2	Non-calculator	Foundation	QP MS
2023-11	2F	Q17	3	Allowed	Foundation	QP MS
2022-11	3F	Q6	2	Allowed	Foundation	QP MS
2023-06	3F	Q12	4	Allowed	Foundation	QP MS
2022-11	3F	Q23	3	Allowed	Foundation	QP MS
2024-06	1F	Q7	4	Non-calculator	Foundation	QP MS
2022-11	3F	Q16	2	Allowed	Foundation	QP MS
2019-06	3F	Q18	3	Allowed	Foundation	QP MS

Other points in S Statistics

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