Trend questions | Types of questions | ACT Science

A trend is a pattern in a graph or table of data. On the ACT test, trends are usually used to relate two different sets of data. Questions that ask about the trends of data are extremely common in the science section of the test, so make sure you are comfortable with these ones!

Identifying trends

Let’s first take a look at how to recognize trends in both tables and graphs. Then, we will look at what we can do with those trends.

Trends in tables

When looking for trends in tables, we are usually only looking at two columns of data. Even if the table has many columns, the question will typically only have you compare two of them. So, let’s see what this looks like. The example below will have the columns $x$ and $y$ for simplicity:

$x$	$y$
1	5
2	10
3	15
4	20
5	25

As the $x$ values increase, the $y$ values also increase. This would be the trend that describes this table. If you feel comfortable with this simple trend, try indicating the claim in the next example.

Temperature (º)	Density (m³/kg)	Viscosity (mm²/s)	Vapor Pressure (kPa)
15	1.004	1.3	1.74
20	1.000	1.1	2.35
25	0.998	1.0	3.16
30	0.994	0.8	4.19
35	0.990	0.5	5.52

As temperature increases, what happens to the viscosity of the chemicals?

Give it a try, and then check our explanation!

(spoiler)

As temperature increases (from $15$ to $35$ ), viscosity decreases (from $1.3$ to $0.5$ ).

There are many columns, but we only need to focus on the ones mentioned in the question: temperature and viscosity. We observe the trend by moving down the table for each column.

Trends in graphs

Find trends in graphs by looking at a line or set of dots and figuring out the direction that they move. As the $x$ axis increases, does the line move upward or downward? In other words, do the $y$ values increase or decrease?

For this line, we can see that as we move along the $x$ axis the line gets higher. This means that as $x$ increases, $y$ increases. In terms of this graph, “as the distance from the epicenter increases, the time difference between P and S waves also increases.”

Graphs with multiple lines will not always follow the same trend. Sometimes one line increases with $x$ and the other line decreases with $x$ . Make sure that you are looking at the trend for the correct line that the question is asking about.

Using trends as prediction

Some questions will have you estimate where a line would end up on a graph, or where a number might go on a table, based on the trend of the figure. For instance, the graph above ends when $x$ is equal to $400$ km. A question along these lines might ask you to predict what the time difference between P and S waves would likely be when the distance from the epicenter is equal to $500$ km. There are a few ways to do this.

First, you may solve this the quick way (recommended) though it will not be perfect. This method is done by simply mimicking the trend of the line and literally drawing the rest of the line past where it ends on the graph. This is an estimation of where it would end up, judging just by how it looks like it is moving.

Second, you may solve this problem by looking at how much the line is increasing as it ends. In our case, since we want to find the point 100 km after the graph ends, we want to know how much it will grow in $100$ km. So, we should measure how much it grew in the last $100$ km (from $300$ to $400$ ). Let’s look at the graph again so we can make sense of this:

The line increases by about $15$ seconds on the $y$ axis from $47$ to $62$ (indicated by the blue lines) when the $x$ axis increases by $100$ from $300$ to $400$ (indicated by the red lines). Apply this number to the final point on the graph to predict what the concentration would be at a distance of $500$ km ( $100$ km after the graph ends): $62 + 15 = 77$ .

Regardless of the method you choose, your goal is to predict where the line would be if the graph extended as far as the question mentions. As long as you are able to confidently predict this, you will do fine on these questions.

Key points

Trends. A trend is a pattern in a table or graph. When one variable changes, what happens to the other variables?

Tables. You can notice trends in tables by looking at what happens when you move up or down the table. In other words, what happens when one variable increases or decreases?

Graphs. Track trends on graphs by looking at the axes. When you look farther down one axis, do the points get farther on the other axis too?

Predictions. You can imagine how a graph or a table might continue if you understand the trend. On a graph, you might simply trace the line past the grid to the value in question. On a table, you might add rows until you reach the value in question. Assume the trend will not change outside the figure!