Gaining an effective understanding of what data series tell you was one of the main aims of this section.

It also focused on how to use appropriate terminology to describe variables. You should make sure you know the difference between nominal and real values, because the analysis of changes in the data over time will be completely different. If you aren't sure then it would be worth going back and having a look at the illustration section. Make sure also you know how to interpret index numbers as they crop up everywhere, and it is vital to be able to analyse the data patterns revealed by them, something that will be tricky if you don't know what they are!

Now to conclude this section, why not have a go at the re-basing an index activity?