c.) The next logical step then, is to look closely at the scores for the different age groups. When we do this we find that some interesting patterns emerge. For all of the subjects, except the weak subject for each sex (languages and sports), the scores, between the ages of 7 and 15, increased overall, for both sexes. But if we look at the scores for the years between these two we see that the improvement was not constant, and that at a particular age the scores for most subjects fell. Also, the age at which this occurred was not the same for boys and girls. This pattern seems to reveal that both boys and girls went through a slump in academic performance, but at different times, which is certainly an interesting feature of the data in the tables, and definitely needs to be mentioned. The largest difference between scores for two different age groups ( Languages - 10%; 65-75% 13-15yrs) should also be noticed.
3. The next thing to do is to take our analysis of the data and make a plan for our report. A plan for these tables might look like this:
a.) Introductory sentence- table shows: percentage scores for school subjects (list), different ages (list), different sexes.
b.) Highest and lowest subjects for boys/girls- sport/languages- opposites
c.) Other subjects very similar- subjects by sex not too significant
d.) More significant- age groups- all subjects increased (overall)- except for slumps(list subject figures)- different ages for boys/girls- 13-15/ 11-13
e.) Concluding sentence- boys performed better in sport, girls languages- both sexes experienced performance slump but at different ages.
4. After a plan has been made, we can write the report incorporating the facts and figures from the charts. Look at how this has been done below. Keep in mind that the answer below is quite extensive, and that often because of time answers will not be as detailed as this. In those cases the least significant information should be discarded. In this case the least significant information is that about boys being slightly higher in Geography, and the part about the greatest difference between two particular age groups.