The Integrated Reasoning section of the GMAT contains some questions that involve table analysis. These questions present data in sortable tables, and you use this data to choose one of two opposing answer choices for each of three statements.

Your answers for each of the multiple parts of an Integrated Reasoning question must all be correct to get credit for the question.

Practice exercise

The following table shows stock quotations for 20 companies at the end of a particular trading day in 2018. The table contains the following information:
  • 52-Wk High, the highest price at which a stock has traded over the previous 52 weeks
  • 52-Wk Low, the lowest price at which a stock has traded over the previous 52 weeks
  • Stock, the name of the company
  • Volume (100s), the total number of 100 shares traded that day
  • High, the highest price of the stock for the day
  • Low, the lowest price of the stock for the day
  • Close, the last recorded price of the day when the market closed
  • Net Change, the difference between the closing prices of the day and the previous trading day.

On the actual exam, the table is interactive, and you can sort it in ascending order by selecting the column title you want to sort by from the drop-down menu above the table. The table in this exercise is shown sorted by different column titles to simulate the exam.

gmat-sorted-stock Sorted by Stock (Column 3)

gmat-sorted-volume Sorted by Volume (Column 4)

gmat-sorted-close Sorted by Close (Column 7)
  1. Each of the following options consists of a stock and a quote category. For each option, select Less than median if, based on the information in the table, the value of the stock's quote is less than the median of the 20 stocks for that quote category on this day. Otherwise, select Greater than or equal to median.
GMAT_0201

Answers and explanations

1.1. The correct answer is B.

First, sort by Stock. Under Column 4, the volume quote for Company B is 2,315. Re-sort by Volume. The median for the 20 companies is halfway between 2,290 and 2,315. Thus, the volume quote for Company B is greater than or equal to the median.

1.2. The correct answer is A.

First, sort by Stock. Under Column 7, the close quote for Company G is 39.65. Re-sort by Close. The median for the 20 companies is halfway between 55.27 and 56.45. Thus, the close quote for Company G is less than the median.

1.3. The correct answer is A.

First, sort by Stock. Under Column 8, the net change quote for Company L is 0.23. Re-sort by Net Change. The median for the 20 companies is halfway between 0.32 and 0.67. Thus, the net change quote for Company L is less than the median.

About This Article

This article is from the book:

About the book authors:

Sandra Luna McCune, PhD, is professor emeritus and a former Regents professor at Stephen F. Austin State University. She's now a full-time author. Shannon Reed, MA, MFA, is a visiting lecturer at the University of Pittsburgh, where she teaches composition, creative writing, and business writing.

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