Practise Write from Dictation for PTE Core. Open a question and work on your response at your own pace.
PTE Academic version of this page3648 questions · PTE Core
Write from Dictation plays a short sentence once. You type it back exactly, in the correct word order. There is no template for the content since you are reproducing exactly what you hear — the repeatable part is your process for capturing and checking it.
Write from Dictation asks you to type, from memory, a short sentence you hear only once. It appears 3 to 4 times in PTE Core's Listening section and is one of the most direct tests of accurate spelling under listening pressure, since every correctly spelled word you reproduce earns a point toward both your Listening and Writing scores.
You hear a short sentence once, then type it into a text box using the exact words you heard. There is no transcript on screen and no second playback; you rely entirely on memory and spelling.
In PTE Core, this task credits both Listening and Writing, because reproducing the sentence correctly depends on hearing every word accurately and then spelling each one correctly when you type it.
A typical PTE Core test includes 3 to 4 Write from Dictation items, more than any other single Core listening task type. Each dictated sentence is only 3 to 5 seconds of audio, so the sentences themselves are short.
Pearson does not publish a fixed answer time for typing your response; the task sits inside the Core Listening section's overall 22-to-37-minute allowance along with the other six listening task types.
Scoring is partial credit: you earn 1 point for every word you reproduce correctly and spell correctly, with a minimum of 0. A misspelled or incorrect word simply scores 0 for that word rather than being penalised further. Pearson's published scoring rule does not mention word order, but Pearson's advice for this task is to type the words in the correct order, so reproduce the sentence as you heard it.
Pearson does not publish how much each item contributes to a skill score, but this task appears 3 to 4 times and feeds both Listening and Writing, so it is worth steady practice. For context on why small gains matter, IRCC's table converts a Core Writing score of 60-68 to CLB 6 and 69-78 to CLB 7: a few points can separate two adjacent CLB levels.
Example (written by LexiPTE). Dictated sentence: "The manager will review your application before the end of the week." A candidate types: "The manager will review you application before the end of the week."
Scoring here: every word is correct and correctly spelled except "your," typed as "you," which scores 0 for that single word. The other eleven words each still earn their own point, because Write from Dictation scores word by word rather than requiring the whole sentence to be perfect. This is why partial, accurate answers are worth far more here than leaving the response blank or guessing wildly at a word you did not catch.
