IELTS combination charts Task 1: two figures, Band 9

You turn the paper over and there are two figures, a line graph and a pie chart, sitting side by side. The instinct is to write two little reports, one for each, and staple them together. Or to describe the graph in detail and run out of time on the pie. Both cost you Task Achievement, because a combination task is not two Task 1s. It is one report that has to hold two sources together.

This is the last of the seven Task 1 figures, and the only one that tests integration on top of describing a single visual. So this guide skips how to describe any one chart; that material lives in the seven chart types and the individual deep dives. It stays on the skill that is unique here: one introduction, one overview, a clean split, and two tenses held apart. A Band 9 model is at the end, with the reasons it scores. It sits under the Writing Task 1 guide.

Two sources, one report

Every other Task 1 prompt hands you one figure. A combination hands you two, and the question stem is two sentences instead of one. That doubling is the whole task. You are not marked on describing the line graph well and the pie chart well as separate exercises. You are marked on whether the two read as a single report that selects across both.

So the single-figure technique still applies, but it is not what is being tested here. If the pair is a bar chart and a table, you describe each using its own rules, then the combination skill sits on top: joining them. That is why this article does not re-teach trends, proportions or comparison language. Reach for the figure's own deep dive when you need the mechanics, and spend your attention here on the four things that only a two-source task asks for.

One introduction, not two

Write a single sentence that covers both figures, and combine the two question sentences to build it. This is a built-in grammar showcase, because joining two ideas with while, whereas or and is exactly the complex sentence the higher bands look for.

The prompt gives you two stems, something like "The line graph shows visitor numbers" and "The pie chart shows how visitors travel." Copying both costs marks before you start. Paraphrasing both into one is the win: "The line graph illustrates how many people visited a museum each year, while the pie chart breaks down the ways they typically arrive." One sentence, both sources named, the question reworded rather than repeated. That is the Lexical Resource and grammar test cleared in the first line.

One overview for both

Write it or accept a Band 5. The Academic Task Achievement descriptor first asks for an overview at Band 6, "a relevant overview is attempted," and on a combination there is one extra rule: the overview has to touch both sources. Name at least one key feature from each figure and stop there, with no numbers.

This is where the two most common combination failures show up. The first is covering only one source, so the overview reads as if the second figure were not there, and Task Achievement caps low because half the data is missing. The second is drowning: two figures mean twice the numbers, and the temptation is to report all of them. Select harder, not less. Something like "Overall, visitor numbers rose over the period, and the car is the most common way people reach the museum" pulls one feature from the graph and one from the pie, and a reader knows the shape of both before a single figure is quoted.

Split by chart, not by sentence

Two body paragraphs, one per figure, is the default that works almost every time. Graph in the first, pie in the second, each selected down to its key features. This keeps the coherence clean, because the reader always knows which source they are in.

There is a second option, splitting by theme rather than by figure, but it only works when the two sources genuinely share a dimension, say both are broken down by the same regions or the same years. Then a paragraph can run a comparison across both. If they do not share a dimension, forcing that structure produces a muddle, so default to one paragraph per figure.

Either way, the paragraphs cannot sit as two strangers. A cross-chart signpost joins them: as for the way visitors arrive, turning to the pie chart, by contrast, correspondingly. One phrase at the seam is what turns two descriptions into one report, and it is a cohesion move the single-figure tasks never call for.

Mind the two tenses

Each figure takes the tense its own data demands, and in a combination the two can differ. That split is the grammar trap here, because it is easy to lock the whole report into one tense and get half of it wrong.

A figure covering a finished period is past tense, like a line graph from 2010 to 2020. A figure with no time frame, a breakdown of how something is "typically" done, is present simple. A figure with a projected year needs future forms. So a line graph over a past decade paired with an undated pie chart runs past in one paragraph and present in the other, on purpose. Read each figure's time frame before you write it, and let the two tenses stand side by side rather than flattening them into one.

A Band 9 model, and why it works

Take a mixed-tense pair: "The line graph shows the number of visitors to a museum each year from 2010 to 2020, and the pie chart shows how visitors travel to the museum in a typical year."

The line graph illustrates how many people visited a museum annually between 2010 and 2020, while the pie chart breaks down the ways in which visitors typically reach it.

Overall, visitor numbers were higher at the end of the period than at the start, despite a mid-period peak and decline, and by far the most common way to arrive is by car.

In 2010, the museum received 400,000 visitors. This figure climbed steadily to a peak of 600,000 in 2015, an increase of roughly 40,000 a year, before falling back to 500,000 by 2020. Even after that decline, the final total remained a quarter above the level recorded a decade earlier.

As for how those visitors reach the museum, the car is by far the most popular option, used by 45 per cent, close to half of all arrivals. Public transport accounts for a further 30 per cent, while the remaining quarter travel either on foot (15 per cent) or by bicycle (10 per cent), the least common method of all.

Read what the report does. The introduction paraphrases both prompt sentences into one, joined by while, and names both sources. The overview gives one feature from each figure, the graph's shape and the pie's largest slice, with no number in it. The body splits by figure, one paragraph each, and the seam between them is a signpost (as for how those visitors reach the museum) rather than a full stop. The tenses are held apart on purpose: the graph paragraph is past (received, climbed, remained), because it covers a finished period, and the pie paragraph is present (is, accounts for, travel), because a typical year has no fixed date. About 170 words, both sources covered evenly, and every figure quoted is one that selection kept.

The mistakes that cap you

Two separate mini-reports with no overview and no seam is the commonest fault, and it reads as two half-tasks rather than one. Covering one figure heavily and the other in a single thin sentence breaks the "cover both" requirement, which is Task Achievement on a combination. No overview caps Task Achievement at 5, the same as on any Task 1. Reporting every number from both figures buries the key features, because two sources double the data. Select harder. Locking both paragraphs into one tense gets the undated figure or the dated one wrong. And copying the two question sentences instead of combining them throws away the easiest grammar mark on the page.

Drill it in five minutes

• The double-overview drill. Take a two-figure prompt and write only the overview: one standout feature from the first figure, one from the second, no numbers. Thirty seconds, and the "cover both" habit is trained before you write a body.
• The combined-intro drill. Take the two question sentences and rewrite them as one complex sentence using while or and, then label the tense of each half. That single sentence is your introduction and a grammar-range mark at once.
• The seam drill. Take a body that describes the two figures back to back and add exactly one cross-chart signpost between them (as for, turning to, by contrast). That one phrase is most of your cohesion mark on a combination.

That is the idea behind IELTS Drills. Feedback comes back tagged to a single Band Descriptor, so when a combination answer lands at 6.5 you can see whether the 0.5 went on covering both sources (TA), the seam between them (CC), the paraphrased intro (LR), or the two tenses (GRA), and drill that one axis five minutes a day.

Frequently asked questions

How many paragraphs for a combination chart? Four is the reliable shape: a combined introduction, an overview covering both figures, and one body paragraph per figure. Splitting the body by theme instead of by figure only works when the two sources share a dimension.

Do I write one overview or two? One, and it has to touch both figures. Name at least one key feature from each source, with no numbers. An overview that covers only one figure caps Task Achievement.

Should I combine the two question sentences? Yes. Rewriting both stems into one complex sentence (with while, whereas or and) paraphrases the prompt and shows the grammar range the higher bands reward. Copying them loses marks.

Do both charts use the same tense? Not always. Each figure takes the tense its own time frame needs, so a dated trend runs in the past while an undated breakdown runs in the present, and a projected year takes a future form. Holding the two tenses apart is correct, not a mistake.

Do I compare the two figures directly? Only if they share a dimension, such as the same categories or years. If they do not, describe each and join them with a cross-chart signpost rather than forcing a comparison the data does not support.

How long should it be? At least 150 words, with roughly 170 to 190 giving room to cover both figures evenly. Aim for 20 minutes, since Task 2 is worth twice as much, and never let one figure eat the time for the other.

The bottom line

A combination is the Task 1 figure whose make-or-break skill is joining two sources, not describing either one alone, so the focus is integration: one introduction that combines both question sentences, one overview that names a feature from each, a body split by figure with a signpost at the seam, and each figure in the tense its own time frame demands. For the mechanics of any single figure, reach for its deep dive: the line graph, bar chart, pie chart, table, map and process diagram, all mapped in the chart-types guide. With IELTS Drills, the feedback tells you which axis is still costing you the 0.5, five minutes a day.