My audiogram in 2012.

An audiogram is a graph that shows the softest sounds a person can hear at different pitches or frequencies. … A hearing test helps to determine if someone has a hearing loss and the severity of the hearing loss. The results are recorded on a chart called an audiogram. The pure tone audiogram is a graph which shows the pitches (frequencies) across the top and the loudness (intensity) down the side. In general, the audiogram indicates how loud different sounds must be before they are first heard. The pure tone audiogram is filled out by an audiologist to indicate the degree of hearing loss. 

Take a look at my audiogram from 2012, where right ear is marked in red and left ear is marked in black. As you can see, all the vowels are located in the ‘banana’ range; you can clearly tell which vowels are out of my reach, why it makes it so hard for me to understand speech. To hear I need to be wearing my hearing aids AND to be able to lip read.

Frequency: speech, music and noise are composed of numerous frequencies. To better understand frequencies, let’s compare the ear to a piano. On the left of the audiogram are deep notes (or low frequencies) and on the right, the sharp sounds (or high frequencies).

Intensity: the intensity is the strength of the sound. The higher the number of decibels ( dB ), the more the sound is strong. For example, when we put up the volume on the radio, we increase the intensity of the music.

The audiogram of a person without hearing loss would show hearing at all frequencies between -10 to 26 dB HTL. All recordings on the audiogram greater than 26 dB HTL represent a hearing loss at that frequency.

More information can be found here: