How to explain school sports scores in data reasoning to your student: example question
27 October 2026
Understanding school sports scores is a key part of data reasoning for the 11+ exam. Children often see tables or charts showing points scored by different teams, and are asked to compare them.
Here is a simple example that shows how to find out which team scored more points and by how much.
Worked example
A table shows the scores for Red Team and Blue Team in a sports match.
Red Team: 18 points Blue Team: 12 points
How many more points did Red Team score than Blue Team?
Step 1: Write down the scores for each team. Red Team = 18 Blue Team = 12
Step 2: Subtract Blue Team's score from Red Team's score. 18 - 12 = 6
Key insight: Subtracting the smaller score from the bigger score tells you the difference.
The correct answer is 6.
After working through this example, your child will recognise how to spot the difference between two scores in a table. This is a common type of question in 11+ data reasoning, and similar questions are ready for them to practise next.
