IELTS Writing Task 1 table: question, model answer and how to select data
Tables look easy because the numbers are printed for you, but that is the trap: candidates copy too many of them. The skill being tested is selection. Spend two minutes finding the patterns before you write a word.
Updated 2026-10-23
What a table question asks you to do
A table can hold twenty or thirty numbers. You cannot report them all in 150–200 words, and you are not supposed to. The examiner is checking whether you can find the patterns the numbers make.
A five-step method for tables
- Read the title and units. Here the units are thousands, so 820 means 820,000.
- Mark the extremes in each column: highest and lowest.
- Mark the direction of each row: up, down or flat.
- Look for ranking changes: a row that overtakes another.
- Group the rows by direction and write one body paragraph per group.
| Group | Rows in the practice question |
|---|---|
| Rising | Science Museum, Natural History Museum |
| Falling or flat | Art Gallery, History Museum (after 2019), Transport Museum |
Practice question
You should spend about 20 minutes on this task.
The table below shows the number of visitors to five museums in one city in 2015, 2019 and 2023.
Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons where relevant.
Write at least 150 words.
| Museum | 2015 | 2019 | 2023 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Science Museum | 820 | 910 | 1,050 |
| Art Gallery | 640 | 600 | 480 |
| History Museum | 450 | 520 | 510 |
| Natural History Museum | 390 | 470 | 620 |
| Transport Museum | 150 | 140 | 135 |
The figures are invented for practice.
Band 9 model answer
The table shows how many people visited five museums in one city in 2015, 2019 and 2023.
Overall, the Science Museum was by far the most visited museum throughout the period, and the Transport Museum the least visited. Attendance grew at the Science and Natural History museums but declined at the Art Gallery and, to a lesser extent, at the Transport Museum.
The Science Museum attracted 820,000 visitors in 2015, and this figure rose steadily to just over a million in 2023. The Natural History Museum showed the strongest growth: its attendance climbed from 390,000 to 620,000, an increase of almost 60%, so that it overtook both the History Museum and the Art Gallery to become the second most popular venue.
By contrast, visitor numbers at the Art Gallery fell from 640,000 to 600,000 and then more sharply to 480,000. The History Museum grew from 450,000 to 520,000 by 2019 before levelling off at 510,000. The Transport Museum attracted the fewest visitors in every year, with numbers edging down from 150,000 to 135,000.
Word count: 173
Why this answer scores highly
Task Achievement. The overview gives the top and bottom museums and the direction of change. The most important detail, the Natural History Museum overtaking two others, is reported with the figures that prove it.
Coherence and Cohesion. Rising museums are in one paragraph and falling or flat ones in the other, opened by By contrast. The reader never has to work out why a museum appears where it does.
Lexical Resource. Attendance, visitor numbers, attracted, venue, levelling off and edging down avoid repeating "visitors" and "increased".
Grammatical Range and Accuracy. A result clause (so that it overtook…), noun phrases in apposition (an increase of almost 60%) and a time clause with before + -ing show range without errors.
Language for tables
- Ranking: the most visited, the second most popular, ranked third, the least visited, moved up from fourth to second place
- Overtaking: overtook, surpassed, fell behind, was overtaken by
- Approximation: just over a million, almost 60%, roughly half as many as
- Stability: remained broadly stable, levelled off, changed little
Common mistakes on tables
- Listing the table row by row. This is the most common reason table answers stay at band 5.
- Ignoring the units. Writing "820 visitors" when the table is in thousands is a factual error.
- No overview. A table still needs an overview: the biggest and smallest items and the general direction.
- Too many numbers in one sentence. Two or three figures per sentence is plenty. Spread them out.
Before you hand it in
- Did you group rows by pattern rather than by printed order?
- Is every number given in the right unit?
- Did you mention any change in ranking?
Next, try a process diagram, or practise selecting figures on a line graph.
Frequently asked questions
How do I decide which numbers to include from a table?
Highlight the highest and lowest value in each column, the biggest change in each row, and any change in ranking. Those figures usually give you everything you need. Leave out middle values that do not show a pattern.
Can I round the numbers in a table?
Yes, as long as it stays accurate: 1,050 thousand can be 'just over a million'. Do not round so much that the comparison becomes wrong.
How should I group the rows of a table?
Group rows that moved in the same direction: everything that rose in one paragraph, everything that fell or stayed flat in another. Do not describe the rows in the printed order unless that order already reflects a pattern.