Diagrams & Tables in the Leuphana Study Skills test: Strategies to improve your score
Most applicants underestimate the Diagrams and Tables section of the Leuphana Study Skills test. In the Diagrams and Tables section, also known as Analysing Interrelationships, they discover too late that reading charts quickly and correctly under time pressure is a learnable skill, not an innate talent. Here’s how to build it systematically.
What makes the Diagrams and Tables section tricky
The difficulty is rarely in the maths. Most calculations involve simple percentages or comparisons. The challenge is: reading fast, reading accurately, and not being deceived by visual presentation. Data visualisations can be deliberately (or accidentally) misleading, and the test exploits this.
Three classic traps to watch out for
Trap 1: Truncated axes. A bar chart that starts at 80 rather than 0 makes small differences look enormous. Always check where the y-axis starts.
Trap 2: Absolute vs. relative change. Country A grew from 100 to 120 (20% growth); Country B grew from 1,000 to 1,100 (10% growth but larger absolute number). Statements about ‚fastest growth‘ versus ‚largest increase‘ target this distinction deliberately.
Trap 3: Statements that go beyond the data. ‚Country X will continue to grow‘ — a graph showing past data cannot prove future trends.
Daily training routine for the Analysing Interrelationships section of the Study Skills test
Week 1–2: Spend 10 minutes each morning with one data visualisation. Find them on Statista, Our World in Data, or the Economist.
Week 3–4: Add timed practice with test-format exercises from a preparation book. Final week: Full simulation including this section under time conditions.
Free data visualisations to practise with:
Our preparation book: Analysing Interrelationships (Diagrams and Tables) on Amazon.
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