PTE Academic · Listening
PTE Write from Dictation
You hear one sentence, once. You type it exactly as you heard it.
A short sentence plays — the kind you would hear in a lecture or a university notice — and you write it down in the box. There is no second play and nothing to read. Every word you get right and spell right is a point, and the task counts towards both your Listening and your Writing score.
How the task works
Listen once, then write
The sentence starts by itself after a short countdown. You can start typing while it plays.
Listen
Catch as many words as you can. Short words like a, the and of count as much as long ones, so keep them in mind too.
Type the sentence
Write what you heard in the box. If you are not sure where a word goes, use grammar to decide: which word needs an -s, which verb needs -ed.
Check your spelling
A word you heard but spelled wrong earns nothing. Read your sentence once more before you go to the next one.
How Pearson scores it
One point for every correct word
Each word of the sentence is a point. There is no mark for style.
Correct words
You earn a point for each word of the sentence that you write and spell correctly. A missing word earns nothing, and so does a misspelled one. Here, capital letters and punctuation are not marked.
Write from Dictation is scored under both Listening and Writing, so each point you keep here counts twice in your score report.
What usually goes wrong
Where students lose points
Dropping the small words
Students hold on to the long academic words and let a, the, of and to slip. Each small word is worth exactly what a long one is.
Losing word endings
“Researchers have develop” loses a point for the missing -ed. Grammar tells you the ending even when your ear did not catch it.
Misspelling words you heard
“Enviroment” for “environment” is a point gone, even though you heard the word. Academic words with silent or doubled letters cost the most.
Running out of memory at the end
The last few words fade first. Note the key words as soon as you hear them and fill in the small ones after the sentence ends.
Worked example
One sentence, one answer, and where each point went
Here is a sentence from our practice and an answer a student typed. Read both, then look at where the points were kept and lost.
The sentence and the answer
- What you hear The sentence The results of the experiment were published in an international journal.
- What was typed The answer results of the experiment were publised in international journal
- Points kept Most of the words results, of, the, experiment, were, in, international, journal.
- Points lost Small words and a spelling One “the” and “an” were missed, and “publised” is a misspelling of “published”.
What a full answer looks like
The results of the experiment were published in an international journal.
Strategy tip: Once the sentence ends, read your answer word by word and ask: does every noun have its article, and does every verb have its ending?
Two of the lost points here were small words. That is the most common pattern, and the easiest to fix.
Practising here
See where each point went
You hear each sentence once, just as in the exam, and your answer is checked the moment you submit it.
One play, like the exam
The sentence plays once. After you check your answer you can listen as many times as you like.
Word by word
Your answer stays on screen with misspellings and extra words marked, and the words you missed are listed.
A tip that fits your answer
Dropped endings, missed small words, a sentence that faded at the end — the tip you see is about the points you actually lost.
Scored like Pearson
One point for each word you write and spell right. Capital letters and punctuation never cost you a point here, and British and American spellings both count — pick one and keep to it.
Your progress in one place
Every attempt is kept, so you can return to a sentence and see whether the same words still trip you up.
Common questions
Write from Dictation, answered
How many times does the sentence play?
Once. There is no replay in the exam, so our practice plays it once too until you check your answer.
Does word order matter?
Pearson asks you to type the words in the order you hear them, and to let grammar guide you when you are unsure. In our practice a word in the wrong place still earns its point, but keep the order anyway — that is how the test asks for it.
Do capital letters and punctuation count?
Not here — capital letters and punctuation are not marked in our practice. An apostrophe that shows possession is part of the word, though: “the student’s results” needs it.
Does British or American spelling matter?
Pearson accepts British, American, Australian and Canadian spelling, but asks you to keep to one of them in an answer. Here, either spelling earns the word as long as it is a real one — “analyse” or “analyze”, never “analize”.
What happens if I write extra words?
Here, extra words do not cost you points, but they take time you could spend checking spelling.
Which scores does this task count towards?
Listening and Writing. Each point counts in both.
Is there a time limit?
Our practice does not time the typing. The whole Listening part is timed in the exam, so write the sentence and move on.
Try it with one play
Hear a sentence once, type it, and see exactly which words kept their points.