Charts and graphs are the Level 2 questions that look easy and lose marks anyway: misreading a scale, working out a pie chart angle wrongly, drawing a bar chart with no title or key. This free worksheet covers reading bar charts, line graphs and pie charts accurately, calculating from them, and drawing your own with everything the mark scheme checks.
Free to download, print and share for personal or classroom use. Answers included.
What’s in this worksheet
- Section A – Bar charts and line graphs (11 marks)
- Section B – Pie charts (13 marks)
- Section C – Choosing and drawing (9 marks)
- Revise box with the rules and methods for the topic
- Worked answers for every question
Common mistakes on this topic
From our tutors’ marking and the most recent examiner reports – check your work against these:
- Misreading the scale – assuming each gridline is 1 when it is 10.
- Finding a pie-chart angle as frequency ÷ total × 100 (a percentage) instead of × 360.
- Drawing a chart with no title, no axis labels, no units or no key. Each of those is usually a separate mark.
How to use it
- Print the worksheet (or work on screen) and attempt every question without looking at the answers. Give yourself a rough time limit – Level 2 exams are tight.
- Mark your work against the answer page. For maths, check the method as well as the final number; method marks are where most of the marks are.
- Read the ‘common mistakes’ notes below and check whether any of them happened to you. Then redo the questions you got wrong a day later.
Related free resources
- Estimating the Mean from Grouped Data Worksheet – Functional Skills Maths Level 2
- Functional Skills Maths Level 2: Mean, Median, Mode and Range Worksheet
- Level 2 Maths Mini Practice Paper 1 – Functional Skills Maths Level 2
- All free Functional Skills Maths Level 2 resources
Frequently asked questions
How do you work out the angles for a pie chart?
Divide each frequency by the total and multiply by 360. Pizza: 36 ÷ 90 × 360 = 144°. Check that all the angles add up to 360° before you draw.
What does a bar chart need to get full marks?
A title, a labelled horizontal axis, a labelled vertical axis with units and an even scale, bars of equal width with equal gaps, and a key if there is more than one set of bars.
When should I use a line graph rather than a bar chart?
A line graph is for data that changes continuously over time – temperature through the day, sales month by month. A bar chart compares separate categories, such as different branches or days.
Want a tutor to mark your work? Not sure where you stand? Take the free 15-minute mini mock test. Ready to get qualified? Our live 10-week Functional Skills Level 2 Maths course runs in small groups with a mock exam included, and the 5-day revision course is there if your exam is close.