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Spelling Challenge Rules
NOTE: Spelling Bee Rules follows Spelling Challenge
Rules (Revised April 2005)
1. Words: Forty words (10 beginners, 15
intermediate, 15 advanced) will be selected by the
coordinator of the spelling challenge from the
Scripps-Howard National Bee Paidi (current year)
booklet. The pronounce will pronunce the word, use
it in a sentence, and define it.
2. For the spelling challenge students will be
seated in individual desks and will be given only
the answer page, pencil & scratch paper.
3. Students from the same school will not be seated
next to one another.
4. A team score will be based on the sum of the
three best individual scores earned by the team
composed of three or four persons.
5. The number of points a team earns depends on the
number of teams taking part in the tournament. If
there are "N" teams taking part, then the first
place teams earns "N" points; the second place team
earns "N -1" points, the third place team earns "N -
2"; etc. Scoring is done the same as with the
academic Olympiads.
6. All team adjusted points earned during the
Spelling Challenge go towards the team's total
points for the Academic Games overall winner.
7. The Spelling Challenge will last 30 minutes
followed by a five minute break before the next
event.
8. In the case of a tied score, a fifteen minute
run-off will take place later in the tournament.
9.There will be no coaching or assistance given to
the students during the challenge.
10. Contestants are not allowed to ask any questions
about the words.
11. After the Spelling Administrator has graded the
challenges, each school's student paper will be
given to the team coaches for distribution.
12. The Spelling Administrator is responsible for
posting team points and delivering the scores to the
Academic Games Coordinator.
Spelling Bee Rules
(Revised April 2006)
1.The contestants in the spelling bee will be the
ten high scorers as determined from the spelling
challenge held earlier in the tournament. The
pronouncer will give the first contestant a word; if
the contestant is successful, then he/she will
remain where he/she is. If the contestant is
unsuccessful, then after the first round he/she
leaves the designated site and joins the audience.
The same format is then repeated.
2. (Name of American Dictionary ) and (Name of
British Dictionary ), shall serve as the final
source for the spellings of words in the competition
since both American and British spelling are
acceptable. If more than one spelling is listed for
the word, any of these spellings will be accepted as
correct if the word appears in bold face type and if
it either matches the pronunciation and definition
provided by the pronouncer, or it is clearly
identified as being a standard variant of the word
that the contestant has been asked to spell.
3. If a word is spelled incorrectly, the pronouncer
will give the correct spelling of the word.
4. Words shall be selected from the second half of
the lists in the Scripps-Howard National Bee Paidia
(current year) booklet. (First half is for the JV
Academic Games tournament) The words will be grouped
according to difficulty prior to the event and
placed in three containers and then randomly
selected by the pronouncer. The person in charge of
this event should CAREFULLY select the questions
that will be in the three containers. In the past,
questions that were selected from the same container
ranged from words that students were familar with
from school to words that even the coaches had never
heard.
5. Words shall be pronounced according to the
Scripps Howard pronouncers guide.
6. After the pronouncer gives the contestant a word,
the contestant will be encouraged to pronounce the
word before spelling it, and especially after
spelling it, so the pronouncer knows the contestant
is finished spelling the word. No contestant,
however, will be disqualified for failing to
pronounce a word. The pronouncer will decide on the
time limit that the contestant has before he/she
must start to spell the given word.
7. The contestant may request the pronouncer to
repronounce the word, define it, or use it in a
sentence. The contestant may ask for the language
origin of a word. NO other information about the
etymology or history of a word will be given. If the
contestant has a specific root word in mind, the
contestant may ask if the dictionary lists that word
as the root of the word to be spelled. The
pronouncer shall grant all such requests until the
judges agree that the word has been made reasonably
clear to the contestant. Judges may disqualify any
contestant who ignores the request to start
spelling.
8. Having started to spell a word, a contestant may
stop and start over, retracing the spelling from the
beginning, but in retracing, there can be no change
of letters and their sequence form those first
pronounced. If letter and the sequence are changed
in the respelling, the speller will be eliminated.
The speller is NOT allowed to use paper or writing
utensil in the spelling competition.
9. Upon missing the spelling word, the contestant
immediately drops out of the contest but remains
where he/she is until the round is completed. The
next word on the pronouncer's list is given to the
next contestant.
10. If none of the spellers remaining in the
spelling bee at the start of a round spells a word
correctly during the round, all shall remain in the
competition. All spellers eliminated in the same
round will be tied for the same place. In order to
name the third- and second-place finishers, separate
spell-offs may be necessary. If only one of the
spellers remaining in the competition at the start
of a round spells a word correctly during that
round, a new round shall begin and the speller shall
be given an opportunity to spell the next word on
the list. If the speller succeeds in correctly
spelling the new word, the speller shall be declared
the champion. Otherwise (that is, if the speller
does not succeed in correctly spelling the new
word), all the spellers remaining in the competition
at the start of the previous round shall remain in
the competition. A new round will begin, with these
spellers spelling in the original order. The
champion is not the champion until he or she has
spelled correctly two more words than the speller(s)
placing second have spelled. These two words will be
spelled consecutively only if the champion is the
last speller in a round.
11. If one of the last two spellers misses and the
other speller corrects the error, but misspells the
new word submitted to him/her, then the misspelled
new word shall be referred to the first speller. If
the first speller then succeeds in correcting the
error and correctly spells the new word on the
pronouncer's list then he/she shall be declared the
champion.
12. If both spellers misspell the same word, both
shall continue in the contest, and the one who first
misspelled the word shall be given a new word to
spell. The contest shall then continue under Rules
10 and 11.
13. Any questions relating to the spelling of a word
should be referred to the judges immediately. The
deadline for making a protest is before the
contestant affected receives his/her word had he/she
stayed in the contest. No protest will be
entertained after that word has been given to
another speller. When only two spellers remain, a
protest must be made immediately, that is, before
the second speller has started to spell the word
given him/her, or if both have missed the same word
before the correct spelling is given to the
audience.
14. The pronouncer and judges are in complete
control of the spelling competition and their
decision shall be final on all questions concerning
the Spelling Bee.
15. A small plaque will be presented to the student
taking first place in the Spelling Challenge, and
first, second and third place will receive
certificates.
16. This individual non-team event awards no points
to the overall academic games unlike the spelling
challenge which was a team event.
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