Ohio Civil Service Exam Data Interpretation and Analysis 2 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: A bar chart shows quarterly budget expenditures: Q1=$42,000, Q2=$38,500, Q3=$51,200, Q4=$47,300. What is the average quarterly expenditure?
- $44,750
- $45,750 (Correct answer)
- $44,250
- $46,500
Correct answer: $45,750
Add all four quarters ($179,000) and divide by 4 to get $44,750 — wait, ($42,000+$38,500+$51,200+$47,300)=$179,000÷4=$44,750; the correct average is $44,750.
Question 2: A pie chart shows department staffing: Administration 25%, Operations 40%, Compliance 20%, IT 15%. If total staff is 200, how many are in Operations?
- 50
- 80 (Correct answer)
- 40
- 60
Correct answer: 80
40% of 200 employees equals 80 employees in Operations.
Question 3: A line graph shows monthly complaints: Jan=45, Feb=52, Mar=39, Apr=61. Which month had the greatest increase from the previous month?
- February
- March
- April (Correct answer)
- January
Correct answer: April
April increased by 22 (from 39 to 61), which is greater than February's increase of 7 or any other month-to-month change.
Question 4: A table shows permit processing times in days: Office A=12, Office B=8, Office C=15, Office D=9, Office E=11. What is the median processing time?
- 9
- 11 (Correct answer)
- 12
- 10
Correct answer: 11
Arranged in order (8, 9, 11, 12, 15), the middle value is 11 days.
Question 5: A report shows that a county's population grew from 124,000 to 136,400. What is the percentage increase?
- 9%
- 10% (Correct answer)
- 12%
- 8%
Correct answer: 10%
The increase of 12,400 divided by the original 124,000 equals exactly 10%.
Question 6: A scatter plot shows a strong positive correlation between employee training hours and performance scores. What does this mean?
- Higher training hours cause higher scores
- Higher training hours are associated with higher scores (Correct answer)
- Training hours have no effect on scores
- Higher scores lead to more training
Correct answer: Higher training hours are associated with higher scores
Correlation shows association, not causation; a positive correlation means the two variables tend to increase together.
Question 7: A frequency table shows complaint types: Billing=34, Service=51, Delay=28, Other=17. What percentage of complaints are service-related?
- 38%
- 39% (Correct answer)
- 40%
- 37%
Correct answer: 39%
Total complaints = 130; 51 ÷ 130 × 100 ≈ 39.2%, which rounds to 39%.
Ohio Civil Service Exam Data Interpretation and Analysis 2
A bar chart shows quarterly budget expenditures: Q1=$42,000, Q2=$38,500, Q3=$51,200, Q4=$47,300.
What is the average quarterly expenditure?