In melodic dictation exercises you will generally be given the starting note, the key signature, the meter and the tempo. When taking dictation:
1. Write in the pulses above your notation in advance. Think about what kind of material you expect to hear and look at the information given in the score.
2. Once you have established the tempo and pulse, try to follow the meter throughout. To keep your place, follow the bars with your pencil, conduct them, or mouth the beats silently with your lips. Never tap your foot.
3. Listen to the exercise and try to memorise it. Try to perform it in your head that way you can play it back as many times as you want.
4. Work at the tempo of the exercise; that is, don't get stuck on one measure while the rest of the passage goes by. It is much better to fill in many measures incompletely then to get only the first one perfect.
5. Listen for patterns: scale-wise movement, arpeggios, sequences, etc. Jot these down in short-hand or some kind of graphic notation. You can go back later and re-copy it in standard notation.
6. Whenever possible, check your notation against reference points (downbeats, tonics, dominants, repeated notes). Don't make each event depend on the preceding one only.
7. Think. Think. THINK! Use common sense. Use what you learned in theory class to make educated decisions. Use any information you know in advance about what kind of material you expect.
Whatever technique you use for dictation, you must PRACTICE IT over and over outside of class to build up your speed and accuracy. Be creative and experiment with different techniques for taking dictation. Everybody's mind works a different way. Try notating nursery rhymes from your childhood and see how fast you can get them out in a key of your choice. Notate the hook or melody of your favourite pop song. Improvise a short passage and see if you can notate it in. The 'tricks' that work for some will not work for others. Try forming a mental image of a piano, or your own instrument, playing while you are listening to the dictation; or try visualizing the notes on the staff before you start to write them down. Try 'playing along' silently as if you were playing your own instrument (or voice). Literally move your fingers, or whatever, as if you had an instrument (i.e. an 'air-guitar', or 'air-trumpet', etc.). Use a paper piano keyboard to `play' on.