Maps and Graphs
About 7 min · General Intelligence and Reasoning · English
Time worked out from the lesson's 509 words at 150 words a minute, plus a minute for each question.
Maps and Graphs is a dual-natured topic that tests spatial reasoning and data interpretation skills. Direction sense problems require you to track movements and determine final positions or distances, while graph reading questions assess your ability to extract and compare numerical information from visual representations.
Key ideas
- Cardinal directions: The four main directions are North (N), South (S), East (E), and West (W). Pairs are opposite: N-S and E-W. When facing North, right is East and left is West.
- Inter-cardinal directions: The diagonal directions are North-East (NE), South-East (SE), South-West (SW), and North-West (NW). Each lies exactly between two cardinal directions at 45° angles.
- Distance calculation: For movements along cardinal directions (N, S, E, W), use simple addition/subtraction. For diagonal paths or mixed movements, apply Pythagoras theorem: distance² = horizontal² + vertical².
- Shadow problems: Morning shadows fall westward; evening shadows fall eastward. The shadow always points opposite to the sun's position. If a person faces their shadow in morning, they face west.
- Bar graphs show discrete categories as vertical or horizontal bars. Height/length represents quantity. Use them to compare values across categories or time periods.
Watch out for
- Confusing left-right turns with compass directions → Always maintain a reference point. If facing North and turn right, you face East (not West). Draw a quick compass if needed: N at top, E at right.
- Adding distances instead of using Pythagoras → When movements are in perpendicular directions, you cannot simply add. If someone walks 3 km N then 4 km E, the answer is NOT 7 km—it's 5 km by Pythagoras.
- Misreading graph scales → Bar and line graphs often don't start at zero or use intervals like 5, 10, 50. Always check the Y-axis scale before calculating. If one unit = 1000, don't treat it as 1.
Quick reference
- N-S and E-W are perpendicular; use Pythagoras for diagonal distance after finding net displacements.
- Morning shadows → West; Evening shadows → East; Face your morning shadow → You face West.
- Pie chart: Full circle = 360° = 100%; any sector = (angle/360) × total or (percent/100) × total.
- Percentage increase = [(New - Old)/Old] × 100; percentage decrease = [(Old - New)/Old] × 100.
- Bar graphs: Compare heights/lengths directly; line graphs: focus on slope and trend direction.
Check yourself: 3 questions
1. A man is facing North. He turns 90 degrees clockwise, then 180 degrees anticlockwise, and finally 45 degrees clockwise. Which direction is he facing now?
2. The following bar graph shows the number of trains running on five different routes in a week. If Route A has 35 trains, Route B has 50 trains, Route C has 40 trains, Route D has 30 trains, and Route E has 45 trains, what is the average number of trains per route?
3. A pie chart shows the distribution of a railway budget across five departments: Operations (30%), Maintenance (25%), Safety (20%), Administration (15%), and Development (10%). If the total budget is Rs. 50 crore, how much more is allocated to Operations than to Development?
This lesson is cut from the topic's note, not rewritten. Fact-checked on 18 Oct 2026: an AI-assisted check of this note against cited sources; the errors it found were corrected that day. Some errors may remain. The questions are from Shishya's validated question bank.
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