IELTS Task 1 table description band 7 sample answer, scored

A band 7 table answer does not describe more of the table than a band 6 answer does — it describes less of it, and chooses better. Below is a complete 170-word answer to a table task, followed by a criterion-by-criterion mark showing exactly where it earns 7 and exactly what is keeping it off 8.

The task and the answer are written for this article. They are not taken from a past paper, and the figures are invented for practice, not real statistics. The marking follows the public band descriptors for Writing Task 1, published by IELTS at ielts.org. Where this article describes what a band requires, it describes it in its own words rather than quoting the descriptor text.

One term first, because it decides everything below: Task 1 is marked on Task Achievement, not Task Response. Task Response belongs to Task 2. If that distinction is new, Task Achievement vs Task Response sets it out properly.

A table hands you nothing. Twelve numbers, and the selecting is entirely yours.

The table

The table below shows the average number of hours per week that adults in three age groups spent on four leisure activities in one country in 2020.

Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons where relevant. Write at least 150 words.

Activity	18–29	30–49	50+
Streaming video	9.4	7.1	6.2
Reading (print)	1.2	2.0	5.8
Sport and exercise	4.6	3.3	2.1
Socialising in person	6.8	4.2	3.9

Before reading the answer, notice what is actually in this grid. There are twelve numbers. A weak answer reports all twelve. A band 7 answer reports perhaps six of them and uses the rest to support a claim.

A band 7 answer

The table compares how many hours per week adults in three age brackets devoted to four leisure activities in a single country in 2020.

Overall, time spent on every activity except reading declined as age increased, and reading was the only category in which the oldest group led. Streaming video was the most time-consuming activity for all three age groups.

Adults aged 18–29 streamed video for 9.4 hours a week, compared with 7.1 hours for the 30–49 group and 6.2 hours for those aged 50 and over. A similar downward pattern appeared in the sport and exercise, which fell from 4.6 hours to 2.1 hours, and in socialising in person, which dropped by 2.9 hours across the three groups.

Reading reversed this trend. The youngest adults read for only 1.2 hours a week, while the oldest read for 5.8 hours, nearly five times as much. Among the over-50s, the gap between streaming and reading was therefore narrow, at just 0.4 hours.

That is 170 words against a 150-word minimum, in four paragraphs.

How this IELTS table Task 1 band 7 sample scores on each criterion

Criterion	Band	Why
Task Achievement	7	Selects the main features rather than listing the grid, and opens with a clear overview that states both the general pattern and its single exception. Figures are accurate and used to support comparisons. Held at 7 by one genuine omission — see below.
Coherence and Cohesion	7	Four paragraphs with one job each: task, overview, the declining activities, the exception. Reference works ("this trend", "the oldest") without repeating nouns. Sequencing is logical throughout.
Lexical Resource	7	Enough range to avoid repeating the prompt: devoted to, brackets, reversed this trend, time-consuming. Held at 7 by visible repetition of "hours" and "group", which a band 8 answer would thin out.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy	7	A mix of structures — relative clauses ("which fell from"), participles, comparatives. Mostly error-free, with one article slip.

Four sevens gives 28 ÷ 4 = 7.0 for Task 1.

That is not your Writing band. Task 2 counts twice as much as Task 1, which IELTS states directly. Following that weighting, a Task 1 of 7 with a Task 2 of 7 gives (7 + 14) ÷ 3 = 7.0; the same Task 1 with a Task 2 of 6 gives (7 + 12) ÷ 3 = 6.33, reported as 6.5. Fixing Task 1 alone moves your Writing band very little — which is the honest reason to spend twenty minutes on it and not thirty-five.

What a table asks you to do that a chart does not

A line graph hands you the shape. A bar chart hands you the ranking. A table hands you nothing — it is the only Task 1 input with no visual claim built into it, so the selecting is entirely yours.

That has three consequences at band 7.

The overview cannot be a description of movement. With no line to follow, your overview has to be a statement about the grid: which direction things run across the categories, and what breaks that direction. The answer above does exactly this in two sentences — everything declines with age; reading does not. If your overview sentences are still shaky, ten overview sentences scored against the band 7 line works through them.

Grouping replaces sequencing. In a chart answer you can move left to right. In a table answer, moving row by row produces four disconnected paragraphs and caps Coherence and Cohesion around 6. The answer above groups the three declining activities into one paragraph and gives the exception its own — a structural decision made before any sentence was written.

Tense is set by the caption, not by the task type. This table is dated 2020, so the answer is in the past throughout. A table of projections would not be. That rule holds across every Task 1 input; which tense to use in Task 1 works through the cases.

The comparison worth making here is with the Task 1 Academic bar chart band 7 sample: same band, same criteria, but the selecting problem is much smaller because the chart has already grouped the data for you. The process diagram sample is the opposite extreme — no numbers to compare at all.

The two decisions keeping this answer at 7 rather than 8

One omission and one unanchored comparison. Neither is a grammar problem, and that is the point.

Naming these matters more than the mark itself, because they are the two decisions that separate most 7s from most 8s.

The omission. Add the four figures in each column and the totals are 22.0, 16.6 and 18.0 hours. The 30–49 group — not the oldest group — spends the least total time on leisure of the three. That is a real feature of this table, it is genuinely interesting, and the answer never mentions it. Task Achievement at band 7 tolerates a small number of omissions like this; band 8 does not. The answer covers the data it selected fully and accurately, which is why the omission costs a band rather than two.

The under-specified comparison. "Socialising in person, which dropped by 2.9 hours across the three groups" gives the size of the fall but never gives a single figure for it. A reader cannot reconstruct 6.8 or 3.9 from that sentence. Every other claim in the answer is anchored to a number; this one is not, and it is the sentence a marker would circle.

Neither of these is a grammar problem, and that is the point most candidates miss. This answer could be made completely error-free and it would still be a 7, because what holds it at 7 is what it selected — not how it wrote what it selected. The same point runs the other way in a Task 1 answer that stopped at 6.5 for exactly this reason: the pie chart band 6.5 sample.

Common questions

Should I describe every row?

No. The instruction says select the main features. Twelve numbers reported neutrally is a list, and a list without a claim tends to sit at 5 or 6 on Task Achievement no matter how clean the English is.

Can I include a conclusion?

There is nothing to conclude. Task 1 asks for a summary, not an argument, and an added opinion is outside the task. The overview does the work a conclusion would do, and it belongs near the top.

Is 170 words too short?

It is above the 150-word minimum, which is what matters. Length is not itself a criterion — but writing under the minimum reliably damages Task Achievement, because you cannot cover the main features in eighty words.

Do I need percentages if the table gives raw numbers?

No, and converting invites arithmetic errors that will show up as inaccurate data. Report the units the table gives you.

Is this an official band 7 answer?

No. IELTS does not publish marked table samples at every band. This answer is written and marked here against the public band descriptors, and the marking is shown so you can disagree with it line by line.

Related reading

• IELTS Task 1 Academic band 7 sample: bar chart — the same band where the chart has grouped the data for you
• IELTS Task 1 pie chart band 6.5 sample — the same selecting problem, half a band lower
• The IELTS Task 1 overview sentence, scored — ten overviews against the band 7 line
• How to get band 7 in IELTS Writing — what has to be true across both tasks

Official task instructions are on ielts.org.