I find it really hard to dictate a melody, do you have any tips?

Dictation is a skill that can sometimes be difficult to master, but in the exam, there will always be a trick to get you to the answer! The first key thing to work on is recognising intervals. The most common ones would be a tone, 3rd, 4th, 5th and octave and these can be identified by linking them with well known songs. For example, the interval of a 4th is the first two notes of 'Away' in 'Away in a Manger' and a 5th is the first two notes of the Star Wars theme tune! Other things to think about are repeated notes (do any of the notes that you need to dictate repeat themselves or are they the same as any just before?); chords and harmony (does the melody end on the tonic note i.e. does it sound finished or does it feel as if it is suspended in mid-air?); repetition of a phrase heard earlier in the piece (if you can recognise the melody from earlier, it is easier to remember it in the first place!)