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Maths · Data

Interpret a pie-chart sector

Express one pie-chart sector as a fraction, percentage, or count.

Free to use and free to share. There is no sign-up, no score, and nothing a child does here is recorded or sent anywhere.

Practise it now

Tap the Drama sector. Then say what fraction of the whole pie it covers, written as simply as it goes.

It covers most of this skill rather than all of it.

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A worked example

One question of the kind this skill is tested with, worked all the way through: the reasoning, and what the wrong answers are there to catch.

Outings logged by the rowing club

Look at the Veterans sector. What fraction of the whole chart is it?

Masters 11, Veterans 7, Senior 2, Junior 5 - 25 outings in total.

  1. 718
  2. 15
  3. 14
  4. 725

Answer: 725

How you get there

The Veterans sector is 7 of the 25 outings, and 725 cancels to 725, which means 725 of the whole chart is Veterans.

Why the other answers tempt

A sector is compared with the whole chart, not with the slice sitting next to it.

If they are stuck, say this

Write the Veterans count over the total of 25, then cancel that fraction as far as it will go.

Now do it live in Pie Reader

What this exercise is doing

Pie Reader

Tap the Drama sector. Then say what fraction of the whole pie it covers, written as simply as it goes.

The pie is cut into 8 equal parts and Drama covers 2 of them, which is 28, and that simplifies to 14. The bottom of the fraction counts EVERY part of the pie, the Drama sector included. Comparing it with what is left over instead of with all of it is the commonest way a pie chart is misread, and it is the reason the whole pie is the thing you measure against.

  1. Step 1. Find it. Tap the sector the question names.
  2. Step 2. Read it. Now choose the fraction it covers.

What to say if they get stuck

  1. Find the bar, row or slice the question names before you read anything. Getting the label right matters as much as the reading.
  2. The scale does not always count up in single steps. Work out what a single line is worth before you read anything off it.
  3. Keep your finger level as you slide from the board across to the scale. Drifting up or down by a line is the commonest slip there is.

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Related maths skills

All maths 11+ skills

Questions parents ask about interpret a pie-chart sector

Answered from what the skill map records about this skill, not from a template. Every answer here is on the page, and the same questions are the page's FAQ structured data.

Express one pie-chart sector as a fraction, percentage, or count. It is one of 55 named maths skills in the 11+, in the data strand, and this page carries 1 interactive exercise that practises it.

Knowing which maths topic to practise is most of the work

A free diagnostic covers arithmetic, fractions, geometry, measure and data handling, and comes back with the topics to spend the next few weeks on.