Table DI for LIC AAO

A table is the friendliest DI format you will meet. Nothing has to be read off a scale, every number is printed, and the questions come from a short list of types. That makes a table set the natural first stop in the mains Data Analysis & Interpretation section, where each question carries three marks. The candidates who lose marks on tables rarely lose them on arithmetic. They take a percentage on the wrong base, miss that the figures are in thousands, or read "more than" as "at least".

Read the table before the questions

Spend the first 20–30 seconds on the table itself, not the questions. Four checks:

• Title and units. "Policies sold (thousands)" or "premium (₹ lakh)" changes every answer. Write the unit at the top of your rough sheet.
• Rows and columns. Know what each axis is: years down the side, products across the top, or the other way round.
• Totals. If the table gives a total row, use it. If it does not, and two or more questions will need totals, add them once and write them beside the table.
• What is missing. Tables sometimes leave cells blank or give a percentage instead of a number. Spot these before you start.

The five question types

Almost every table question is one of these. The difference between them is the base, the number you divide by.

Why the base matters: a change is measured against where you started, so "growth from 2023 to 2025" divides by the 2023 figure. A share is measured against the whole, so "ULIPs as a percentage of all policies in 2025" divides by the 2025 total, not by the ULIP total over three years.

Methods that save time

• Fractions over long division. 12/60 is 1/5, which is 20%. 46/230 is 1/5 again. Reduce first and the percentage is often one you know.
• Compare growth by fractions. To decide which of 36/240 and 30/150 is bigger, reduce: 3/20 = 15% and 1/5 = 20%. When fractions do not reduce neatly, cross-multiply.
• Average by deviation. For 60, 54 and 48, take 54 as the base: deviations +6, 0, −6 cancel, so the average is 54.
• Approximate when options are far apart. If the choices are 18%, 23%, 27% and 32%, you only need to know the answer is "a bit over a quarter".

Worked set 1: new policies by product

New policies sold by an insurer (in thousands). Made-up figures for practice.

The Total column is not always printed. Here it is added once, before the questions.

Q1. How many policies were sold in 2024?
50 + 54 + 24 = 128 thousand.

Q2. By what percentage did term policies rise from 2023 to 2025?
Rise = 60 − 40 = 20. Base = 2023 value, 40.
20 ÷ 40 × 100 = 50%.

Q3. By what percentage did endowment policies fall from 2023 to 2025?
Fall = 60 − 48 = 12. 12/60 = 1/5 = 20%.

Q4. What percentage of all 2025 policies were ULIPs?
32/140 reduces to 8/35. Since 35 × 0.23 = 8.05, the share is just under 23%: about 22.9%.

Q5. What is the ratio of total term to total ULIP policies over the three years?
Term = 40 + 50 + 60 = 150. ULIP = 20 + 24 + 32 = 76.
150 : 76 = 75 : 38.

Worked set 2: premium by branch

First-year premium collected by five branches (₹ lakh), and the number of active agents in 2025. Made-up figures for practice.

Q1. Which branch had the highest percentage growth in premium?
A: 36/240 = 15%. B: 27/180 = 15%. C: 16/320 = 5%. D: 30/150 = 20%. E: 21/210 = 10%.
Branch D. Note that A had the biggest rise in rupees (36 lakh), but D had the biggest rise in percentage terms.

Q2. What was the overall percentage growth across all five branches?
Rise = 1,230 − 1,100 = 130. 130 ÷ 1,100 × 100 = about 11.8%.

Q3. In how many branches did premium grow by more than 10%?
A, B and D. E grew by exactly 10%, which is not "more than". Three.

Q4. Which branch had the highest premium per agent in 2025?
A: 276 ÷ 12 = 23. B: 20.7. C: 336 ÷ 16 = 21. D: 18. E: 231 ÷ 11 = 21.
Branch A, at ₹23 lakh per agent.

Q5. Branch C's share of the 2025 total premium was about:
336 ÷ 1,230 × 100 = about 27.3%. Since 1,230 ÷ 4 is about 307, and 336 is a little more, the share is a little over 25%.

Q6. What was the average 2025 premium per branch?
1,230 ÷ 5 = ₹246 lakh.

Speed habits

• Calculate totals once and write them beside the table.
• Circle the unit. An answer of 128 when the table is in thousands is 1,28,000 policies.
• For "which is highest?", compare roughly first. Exact values are needed only when two candidates are close.
• Read the options before calculating. If they are far apart, approximate.
• Give a five-question set a budget of about six to seven minutes. If one question is taking longer than two minutes, move on.

Common mistakes

• Dividing a change by the new value instead of the old one.
• Taking a share of the wrong total: the year's total, the product's total and the grand total are three different bases.
• Treating "exactly 10%" as "more than 10%".
• Ignoring units, or mixing ₹ lakh and ₹ crore across two tables.

Practice set

Use the two tables above.

1. What was the average number of endowment policies sold per year? 54 thousand. (60 + 54 + 48) ÷ 3 = 162 ÷ 3.
2. How many policies were sold in 2023? 120 thousand. 40 + 60 + 20.
3. By what percentage did ULIPs rise from 2024 to 2025? About 33.3%. 8 ÷ 24 = 1/3.
4. In which year was the share of term policies highest? 2025. 40/120 = 33.3%, 50/128 ≈ 39.1%, 60/140 ≈ 42.9%.
5. Which branch had the lowest premium per agent in 2025? D. 180 ÷ 10 = ₹18 lakh, below every other branch.
6. What was the premium per agent across all five branches in 2025? About ₹20.8 lakh. 1,230 ÷ 59 ≈ 20.85.
7. By what percentage was C's 2024 premium more than D's? About 113.3%. (320 − 150) ÷ 150 = 170/150.
8. How many branches had a 2025 premium above the 2025 branch average? Two, A and C. The average is 246; only 276 and 336 exceed it.

What to do next

• Solve one table set a day for a week, timed at six to seven minutes.
• Before each set, write the unit and any totals first. Make it a habit.
• Revise the change and share formulas in percentage for LIC AAO.
• Move on to chart DI and then caselet DI.