PTE Listening: Write from Dictation

PTE Tips for Write from Dictation

In PTE Write from Dictation task, candidates will listen to a sentence and they are expected to type that sentence into the box present at the test screen’s bottom. The audio begins playing automatically and candidates can listen to it just once. They can make notes with the help of an erasable notebook.

Here, the main challenge is being able to memorize and enter long sentences. There are chances that you may forget certain words.

Also, you need to spell each and every word correctly. If you could understand how words are uttered in different accents, this skill will come in handy. In this listening task, your focus needs to be centered until the very end.

Write from Dictation task, the difficulty mainly originates from having to recall long sentences from a diverse range of subjects. To excel in this task, you have to keep certain things in mind!

Take better notes

Candidates can use their own abbreviations for various words. Keep on noting the first three letters of every word you hear. If there are certain words that you do not know the spellings of, write them down with the help of phonetics.

The main idea here is to write sufficiently to be able to kick-start the memory for typing the correct sentence. Make sure you write clearly as much as possible so that you do not waste time in attempting to decrypt your handwriting.

Have your note-board and pen ready before the audio recording starts. When the spoken text begins playing, keep pace with the same and try not to fall behind. Note-taking lets you carry out a sense and spell check before typing the words.

Improve your spelling

Increase your English reading. Read news, books, and literary works that you get your hands on. For improving your spelling, you can begin writing about your regular experiences. In this way, you learn about new words and adapt the mind for writing the accurate spellings.

Enhance your listening

For improving listening skills, you can listen to podcasts. Watching videos for enhancing listening is not the best strategy because the understanding infers from the visual cues. When you reach the standard level, you can challenge yourself by listening to dedicated podcasts. You can then listen to podcasts on your favourite subjects.

Take rest

Before you take this test, get enough sleep and take enough intake of proteins, nutrients, fat, and carbs for building resilience. Also, get enough practice but do not overload the brain.

Do not skip questions

Even if you cannot recall all parts, do not skip any question. Type the words as accurately as you could. As there is no negative marking, even if you put in some portion of the sentence, you will be rewarded some marks.

Check the sentences for spelling, punctuation, and grammar

Ensure that all sentences that you write in this ‘Write from Dictation’ task starts with a capital letter and concludes with a full stop. Here, you should not mix plural and singular nouns or put in articles when there’re none.

Follow the correct order of words

While rewriting a sentence, you need to follow the correct order of words. In this task, you will lose marks if the correct sequence is not followed. Also, the content is marked by counting the number of accurate words in the response.

Practice

The practice is important to improve your listening and writing skills. For this kind of tasks, you need to practice a lot.

You can try mock tests for practicing listening from audios and then, writing the same correctly.