Collect Data: Use Simple Frequency Tables to Collect Data . Frequency is a term to describe the number of times an activity or observation occurs. A frequency table can help structure the collection of data. Frequency tables list the categories for the data collection, have space for the data collection and a space for the total that provides a summary of the data. . The data collection is most often represented using tally marks to identify each activity / observation of each category. Tally ma