Write from Dictation

What does Write from Dictation look like?

You hear one short sentence (typically only a few seconds of audio) and then type it into a text box exactly as spoken. The recording plays once, and while it plays you can jot notes on the erasable whiteboard the test centre provides.

The sentence itself is short enough that most people can hold it in working memory, but the whiteboard is there for the items that run a little longer or that include a tricky name, number or technical term.

Pearson's own Score Guide and format pages list Write from Dictation last among the Listening tasks in both exams, though that isn't a guaranteed live-test order. If it does come near the end for you, that's an easy point to rush if you're behind on the section clock. Because its scoring is so forgiving (no penalty for a wrong or missing word, only ever zero) it rewards a calm, methodical approach more than almost any other task in the section, even under time pressure.

How is Write from Dictation scored?

• Every word is scored on its own: You earn +1 for each word you type correctly and matching a word in the original sentence. There is no single right-or-wrong verdict for the whole sentence, partial credit is very much the norm here.
• A wrong or misspelled word scores zero, not a penalty: This is the detail that makes the task forgiving: an incorrect word earns 0, and nothing is subtracted for it. That is different from Highlight Incorrect Words or Multiple Choice, Multiple Answers, where a wrong choice actively costs you a point.
• Spelling has to be exact: A misspelled word is treated the same as a missing or wrong one for scoring purposes, it earns zero even if the intended word is obvious to a human reader, so a near-miss spelling gets no partial credit for effort.

A worked Write from Dictation example

Notice that every wrong word in this example is a small grammatical detail (a missing plural, a homophone) not a completely misheard word. That is the most common way points are lost in this task: not failing to understand the sentence, but not reproducing its exact grammar and spelling.

How should you approach this task?

• Listen for the whole sentence before you start typing: Typing while the audio is still playing means you're only half-listening to the rest of the sentence. Let it finish, then write from what you retained plus any notes, the same short-term sentence memory that Speaking's Repeat Sentence asks you to hold, just typed instead of spoken back.
• Use the whiteboard for names, numbers and longer sentences: Anything you might otherwise misremember is worth a quick note the moment you hear it, especially figures and proper nouns that don't offer many context clues if you forget them once the sentence has finished.
• Check plurals and verb endings before submitting: Because each of these is its own word for scoring purposes, a fast re-read specifically for -s and -ed endings can recover points a full re-read of meaning alone might miss, the same grammar slips under time pressure that cost points in the Writing tasks.
• Watch for homophones: Words like there/their, whether/weather or affect/effect sound identical but score differently. If a sentence's grammar tells you which one must be correct, trust the grammar over the sound.
• Rebuild the sentence, don't just dump words: Typing the words you remember in a natural sentence order, rather than as a loose list, makes it far easier to notice a missing word or an obviously wrong ending before you submit.

A second worked example, closer to a full score

What mistakes cost the most points in this task?

With 3–4 items in every test and every single word in each sentence scored individually, Write from Dictation carries more scoring opportunities than almost any other single task in the section. A handful of small, consistent habits (writing every word you retained, checking plurals, trusting grammar over sound on homophones) compound across that many separate points in a way that single strategic decisions in other tasks rarely do.