Academic Writing Task 1 · table

Daily lunch and dinner sales at a downtown restaurant for one week

The table below shows the sales at a small restaurant in a downtown business district.

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

Sales: Week of October 7th – 13th

Category	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday
Lunch	$2,400	$2,450	$2,595	$2,375	$2,500	$1,950	$1,550
Dinner	$3,623	$3,850	$3,850	$3,800	$4,350	$2,900	$2,450

Chart redrawn by BandLadder from the data in the original IELTS practice task. Many IELTS practice tasks come from the Cambridge IELTS series (Cambridge University Press & Assessment); all rights in the original tasks remain with their owners.

Band 8 sample answer

The table illustrates the daily revenue generated by a downtown restaurant for lunch and dinner services during the week of October 7th to 13th. Overall, dinner sales consistently outperformed lunch throughout the week, with both meal periods experiencing a significant decline in revenue during the weekend.

During the weekdays, from Monday to Friday, lunch sales remained relatively stable, fluctuating between $2,375 on Thursday and a peak of $2,595 on Wednesday. Similarly, dinner revenue was robust during this period, starting at $3,623 on Monday and climbing to a weekly high of $4,350 on Friday. Notably, Wednesday saw identical dinner figures of $3,850 as Tuesday, while Thursday’s dinner sales dipped slightly to $3,800.

In contrast, the weekend witnessed a marked downturn for both services. Lunch revenue dropped to $1,950 on Saturday and reached its lowest point of $1,550 on Sunday. Dinner sales followed a similar downward trajectory, falling to $2,900 on Saturday and further decreasing to $2,450 on Sunday. Despite this weekend slump, dinner remained the primary source of income, consistently generating higher figures than lunch across all seven days, with the gap between the two services being most pronounced on Friday.

190 words. Every figure in the answer comes from the chart above.

How to write about tables

Tables hide the trend: find the highest, lowest and biggest change yourself.
Select; do not list every cell.
Organise paragraphs by row or by column, whichever gives the clearer comparison.

outperformed: achieved better financial results than another category
fluctuating: changing irregularly between high and low values
peak: the highest point reached during a period
downward trajectory: a trend showing a continuous decrease over time
pronounced: very noticeable, obvious, or strongly marked difference
slump: a sudden or significant decline in performance

Write your own report and get a band

Take a timed Academic writing test and get a band for task achievement, coherence, vocabulary and grammar, with the sentences to fix.

Practise IELTS Academic writing

On your phone? Get the BandLadder app.

Frequently asked questions

What should the overview say?

Overall, dinner sales consistently outperformed lunch throughout the week, with both meal periods experiencing a significant decline in revenue during the weekend.

How long should an IELTS Task 1 answer be?

At least 150 words; 170 to 200 is the safe range. Spend about 20 minutes on it and leave 40 for Task 2, which carries twice the marks.

How do I describe tables?

Tables hide the trend: find the highest, lowest and biggest change yourself. Select; do not list every cell. Organise paragraphs by row or by column, whichever gives the clearer comparison.