Reading and interpreting pie charts, understanding sectors as fractions/percentages of the whole.
Where your child meets this in real life: Understanding budget breakdowns, survey results, or time allocation
Each SEAG paper has 28 maths questions. Questions 29 to 50 are multiple choice with five possible answers, and questions 51 to 56 need a short written answer. With 56 questions in 60 minutes across English and maths, that is about a minute per question.
SEAGReady breaks read pie charts into 3 steps, taught in order so each skill builds on the last.
Identify sectors as simple fractions (half, quarter, third) of the whole
Read and interpret pie charts with percentage labels, including adding to find remaining percentages
Calculate actual quantities from pie chart fractions/percentages when the total is given
Try three free questions from our read pie charts course. They start easy and get harder, so you can see where your child's confidence runs out. If they manage the last one without a hint, this topic is probably secure. If not, the steps above show where to start.
The pie chart shows how P6 pupils travel to school. What fraction of the pupils travel by bus?
The pie chart shows pupils’ favourite book genres. The comics sector is unlabelled. What percentage chose comics?
The pie charts show favourite sports at two schools. Which school has more football fans?
This is the exact interactive worked example your child sees in SEAGReady. Step through it and watch the method build up.
A pie chart shows how a group of pupils travel to school. The 'Walk' sector takes up exactly half the pie chart.
What fraction of the pupils walk to school?
Half of pie = ?
The whole pie chart represents all the pupils
Step 1 of 4
A pie chart shows how a group of pupils travel to school. The 'Walk' sector takes up exactly half the pie chart.
What fraction of the pupils walk to school?
Half (½) of the pupils walk to school.
The key insight: A pie chart is like cutting a cake - the whole pie is everyone, and each slice shows a group's share!
Common mix-up: Thinking the sector shows '1 pupil' because it's one slice. Pie charts show proportions, not exact numbers. One half-slice means half of ALL pupils, not 1 pupil.
These are the misconceptions we see most often in read pie charts, including the ones our practice questions are specifically designed to catch.
Struggling with read pie charts? The real gap is often in one of these earlier topics.
Sitting the SEAG test this November? Read our last-month revision plan, Paper 1 vs Paper 2 and test day guide.
SEAGReady finds the exact step where your child gets stuck, teaches it with worked examples like the one above, and brings it back for review so it sticks.
Free to start · no card needed