Charts: Percentage Difference vs Real difference

[user1731]

Hi.

Have a look at the following graph and the question from the ETS Quant Review Guide.

Just by eyeballing, we can see that the “Miscellaneous” category bar goes way higher in 2004 than its previous year counterpart.

Although the correct answer to the question is the “Miscellaneous” category according to the answer key, is mere eyeballing the right strategy in such questions? Are there any counterexamples where it might not be the best course of action? Must we recourse to calculating percentage difference

[Leaderboard]

For this graph, yes since there isn’t any other category that could reasonably compete with this category. Sometimes it may not be as obvious as this one, but you often don’t have to compute the percentage difference of all categories even then.

[user1731]

alright thanks.