Record keeping
You are given a table of records and asked something the table can answer — a total, a difference, an average, a percentage, or which category ranks where. The arithmetic is deliberately light. Choosing which arithmetic to do is the thing being measured.
- Task
- Read a table and compute from it
- Operations
- Totals, subtotals, averages, percentages
- Format
- Two or more sets of questions, each on its own table
Read the question before the table
A table carries far more figures than any one question needs, and reading it first invites you to hold numbers you will not use. Read what is being asked, decide which cells answer it, and take only those.
The guide describes the format as two or more sets of questions, each concerning a different problem — so expect several questions on one table, and expect them to want different things from it.
The two mistakes that cost most
The first is answering from the wrong row. Tables of records have similar-looking rows by nature, and reading across one line while looking at another produces an answer that is arithmetically perfect and wrong.
The second is the denominator. When a question asks what share something represents, decide explicitly whether the share is of its own column or of the whole table. A total line at the foot of a table adds the columns, which answers a column question directly and never a row one.
Sources
- New York State Department of Civil Service — Test Guide for the Entry-Level Clerical Series · checked 2026-09-04
- Livingston County — Clerk, continuous recruitment examination CR #82300000 · checked 2026-09-04
- Lewis County — Clerk/Keyboard Specialist/Office Specialist, Exam CR02-023 · checked 2026-09-04