A teacher recorded the test scores of students in her class and organized the data by score ranges. The bar...

1. TRANSLATE the problem requirements

• What we're asked to find: The number of students who scored in the 80-89 range
• What this means: We need to find the height of one specific bar on the chart

2. TRANSLATE the visual information to numerical data

• Locate the correct bar: Find "80-89" on the horizontal axis (Score Range)
• Read the bar height:
  • Look at where the top of the 80-89 bar aligns
  • Trace horizontally from the bar top to the vertical axis
  • Read the value on the "Number of Students" scale
  • The bar reaches exactly to the 16 mark

Answer: 16 (Choice B)

Why Students Usually Falter on This Problem

Most Common Error Path:

Weak TRANSLATE skill: Reading the wrong bar due to rushing or visual misalignment

Students may look at an adjacent bar instead of the 80-89 bar:

• Reading the 70-79 bar (height = 12) instead → Choice A (12)
• Reading the 90-99 bar (height = 22) instead → Choice C (22)

This happens when students don't carefully verify which bar corresponds to the requested category before reading its height.

Second Most Common Error:

Poor TRANSLATE execution: Misreading the y-axis scale

Students may:

• Estimate between gridlines incorrectly
• Count tick marks instead of reading values
• Confuse the spacing of the scale

This leads to reading an incorrect value from the y-axis and selecting the wrong answer choice.

The Bottom Line:

This problem tests basic graph literacy—the ability to accurately match a category label with its visual representation and precisely read a scaled axis. The challenge lies not in complexity but in careful attention to detail. Students must slow down and verify they're reading the exact bar requested before determining its height.