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Dictation: The Method
🎧 Dictation: The Method
The dictation section is unique to AQA 8652 Paper 1 (Listening) and is new for first exams 2026 — many students underestimate it. You hear a short French paragraph read at dictation speed, and you must write it down accurately, including correct spelling, accents, and agreement. Every error costs marks, so a systematic method is essential from day one of practice.
What the dictation task involves
The AQA 8652 Paper 1 dictation section typically:
Earn the mark scheme marks
💡 Exam Tips & Common Errors
- Use the 5 minutes at the end — most students stop after the second reading. Scan every word systematically using the 5-step method even in the check phase.
- Don't erase massively — cross out neatly with a single line. Markers can still credit a word that is crossed out incorrectly if the correct version is written next to it.
- Practise writing accents quickly by hand — ´ é, ` è, ^ ê, ¸ ç — many students are slow in exams because they are used to keyboard shortcuts.
- Liaison is your friend: if you hear a z sound between a determiner and a noun (e.g., lez-ami), you know it is les amis (plural). If no liaison, it may be le / la (singular).
- Practice regularly with short dictation texts — even 2–3 sentences per day builds the automaticity needed for exam conditions.
❌ Common error: il a manger un repas délicieux.
✓ Correct: il a mangé un repas délicieux.
Why it costs marks: In the perfect tense (avoir + past participle), the past participle of -er verbs ends in -é (with acute accent), not -er. The spoken forms are identical — [mɑ̃ʒe] — but in writing, the infinitive (manger) and the past participle (mangé) are different. Whenever you write a verb after j'ai / il a / nous avons, it must be the past participle form with -é, not the infinitive.