Interpreting workplace tables: Practice 2 (Intermediate)

Interpret regional support and spending tables with ten original questions on totals, rates, units and budget comparisons.

Instructions for this set

Treat each labelled record or displayed table as the complete data for that question. Use stated units. Figures are hypothetical and no missing cell should be guessed. A calculator is allowed.

A calculator is allowed. Read the table caption and column units before selecting cells. Distinguish a raw count from a per-hour rate. Combine counts to find overall percentages and apply the displayed currency scale to money amounts.

Answer keys and reasoning checked 20 October 2026. These checks do not establish psychometric validity.

Feedback mode has no time limit or negative marking. The optional timed challenge allows 15 minutes and uses the scoring shown on its rules screen. Those settings are not official assessment rules.

Practise with feedback Optional timed challenge

  1. Fictional regional support results for one month. Hours are total staff-hours worked.
    RegionRequests receivedRequests resolvedStaff-hours
    UK1,2001,080180
    US1,6001,360160
    Australia800760100
    1. How many requests were received across all three regions?
    1. 3,600
    2. 3,200
    3. 3,400
    4. 4,000

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    Answer: A. 3,600

    Add the received column only: 1,200 + 1,600 + 800 = 3,600 requests. The resolved column totals 3,200; that answers a different question. Do not add received and resolved, since those categories are not separate populations.
  2. 2. What percentage of the UK requests were resolved?
    1. 85%
    2. 90%
    3. 95%
    4. 88.89%

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    Answer: B. 90%

    Use the UK row: 1,080 resolved out of 1,200 received. The fraction 1,080/1,200 equals 0.90, or 90%. Staff-hours measure effort and are not the denominator for a resolution percentage.
  3. 3. Which region resolved the most requests per staff-hour?
    1. Australia
    2. UK
    3. US
    4. All three tie

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    Answer: C. US

    Compute a rate for each row: UK 1,080/180 = 6; US 1,360/160 = 8.5; Australia 760/100 = 7.6 requests per staff-hour. The US rate is highest. Comparing only the resolved counts would not establish productivity.
  4. 4. How many received requests remained unresolved in Australia?
    1. 20
    2. 60
    3. 80
    4. 40

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    Answer: D. 40

    In the Australia row, subtract resolved from received: 800 − 760 = forty requests. This is an absolute count. The unresolved share would be 40/800 = 5%, but that percentage is not what the question asks for.
  5. 5. What percentage of all received requests were resolved across the three regions? Round to two decimal places.
    1. 88.89%
    2. 90.00%
    3. 87.50%
    4. 91.11%

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    Answer: A. 88.89%

    Total resolved = 1,080 + 1,360 + 760 = 3,200. Total received = 3,600. The pooled resolution rate is 3,200/3,600 × 100 = 88.888…%, rounded to 88.89%. Averaging the three regional percentages ignores their different request counts.
  6. Fictional spending for one period. All amounts are in thousands of US dollars.
    ExpenseBudget (US$000)Actual (US$000)
    Software4854
    Training2421
    Travel1827
    6. Which expense exceeded its budget by the greatest dollar amount?
    1. Software
    2. Travel
    3. Training
    4. Software and travel tie

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    Answer: B. Travel

    Software exceeds budget by six thousand dollars; travel by nine thousand; training is three thousand under budget. Travel therefore has the greatest dollar overspend. The caption scales each displayed difference by 1,000.
  7. 7. By what percentage did total actual spending exceed total budget? Round to two decimal places.
    1. 10.00%
    2. 12.00%
    3. 13.33%
    4. 20.00%

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    Answer: C. 13.33%

    Budget totals 48 + 24 + 18 = 90 thousand dollars; actual spending totals 54 + 21 + 27 = 102 thousand. The excess is twelve thousand on a ninety-thousand budget: 12/90 × 100 = 13.333…%, rounded to 13.33%.
  8. 8. How many US dollars of the training budget were unspent?
    1. US$300
    2. US$30,000
    3. US$24,000
    4. US$3,000

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    Answer: D. US$3,000

    Training budget minus actual is 24 − 21 = three in the displayed units. The caption says thousands of US dollars, so the unspent amount is US$3,000. Do not omit the scale or report the whole original budget.
  9. 9. What is the simplest ratio of actual software spending to actual training spending?
    1. 18:7
    2. 7:18
    3. 2:1
    4. 9:4

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    Answer: A. 18:7

    Take the actual figures in the requested order, 54:21. Divide both sides by three to get 18:7. Both figures have the same thousands-of-dollars scale, which cancels when forming the ratio.
  10. 10. Which expense had actual spending exactly 50% above its own budget?
    1. Software
    2. Travel
    3. Training
    4. None of them

    Reference: q-63c24913-675 · Report this question

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    Answer: B. Travel

    Travel rises from eighteen to twenty-seven thousand dollars. The increase of nine divided by the original eighteen is 50%. Software is 12.5% above budget and training is below budget, so only travel meets the condition.

Review your method

Return to the interpreting workplace tables lesson and identify the reasoning step behind each mistake before repeating the set.

Choose your practice difficulty

Difficulty labels describe the steps needed in these teaching sets; they are not validated ability bands. Start with foundation practice and move on after you can explain your method.

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