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Dear Parents,

In this page, I am presenting few tips and guidelines to prepare your kid for spell bee examination conducted by Brainstormm.

The aim of spell bee examination is to improve spellings and vocabulary of the kids. The reference material provided here is helpful for students of Standard 3 and 4.

This Spell Bee is conducted in Four levels:

Level - 1: It is School Level Assessment within school. Top students from each school are selected for the next level.

Level - 2: It is Inter-School Assessment. The assessment is for 50 marks using 50 words. Scheme of assessment is as given below:

Dictation Words - 15 words for 15 marks.
Jumbled Words - 5 words for 5 marks.
Correct Spellings - 5 words for 5 marks.
Fill in the Blanks - 5 words for 5 marks.
Homophone in Statement - 10 words for 10 marks
Crossword - 10 words for 10 marks

Level - 3: It is District Level Assessment. Format or District Championship level. Format of test is WRITTEN + ORALS.

WRITTEN & ORALS shall be conducted on the same day at venue on given date on the ADMIT CARD.
Students will first go through the WRITTEN round.
Oral will be on ONE-ON-ONE basis, meaning each participant shall be asked a set of words separately. “Spell the Word” round consist of 25 words. ALL 25 words would be asked irrespective of mis-spells or errors but within prescribed time limit of 15 seconds to spell each word. Time is of the essence in Oral Competitions.
In Orals, upon careful listening of the question word, participant will repeat the word he/she heard & proceed to spell it clearly.
The Examiner/Reader of Question, will offer one of the following assistance tools as enumerated below - only when asked for.

Repeat pronunciation of the word
Alternate Pronunciation of the word (If applicable)
Meaning of the word (In English & wherever possible in Hindi/Marathi)
Parts of Speech (Noun/Verb/Adjective/Adverb) – wherever possible
Origin of the Word (If available)
Use of the word in a statement

Generally, one assistance tool guides student to the correct answer in mind, however participants can use multiple assistance tools if necessary but within the prescribed time frame as mentioned above.
The Reader of Questions may allow up to 5 seconds extra on specific questions at his/her discretion based on the difficulty level of the question word.
Participant can get along writing pad and use a paper to scribble/work out their answers.

Level 3 Scheme of assessment is as given below:

Written

Jumbled Words - 10 words for 10 marks.
Origin of Words - 5 words for 5 marks.
Pronunciation Keys - 3 words for 3 marks.
Acronyms - 3 words for 3 marks.
Spelling Rules - 4 words for 4 marks

Oral

Spell the Word - 25 words

Preparation Guidelines:

I have prepared my daughter not only for various levels but also for various examinations using following methodology. Key to success is prepare a study schedule. Block out a chunk of time each day for spell bee study.
Spell Bee is good to become better at spelling and memorization. Spell Bee are offered through school as well as different organizations at different levels. Therefore, one should be take Spell Bee seriously, if you are competing.

Go through the wordlist given in the booklet. This list will reflect the difficulty level of the types of words you will be tested with. It will be the base for your preparation. Keep in mind, however, that the list is not necessarily contain the exact words you will be tested with. Simply memorizing this list will not be sufficient for studying because it is meant to be used as a guide, rather than quiz material.

Circle (or mark) words you don’t know on the list. Keeping these words separate from the ones that you do know will give you an idea of how much studying you need to do. If you know the majority of the words on your list, consider trying the next level up of the spell bee.

Write down the spelling of words for difficult words.

Learn root words. Etymology is important to understand how words work in the English language. If you don’t know a word or meaning of the word, you can often make an guess about its spelling and its meaning depending on what root word(s) it may contain.

Learn diacritics for pronunciation. Diacritics are the small symbols above words in the dictionary. Learning these will help you hear how a word should be officially pronounced. In the English language, words are often pronounced differently than they look on the page. So, you may have the spelling of a word memorized, but if the spell bee examiner pronounces it differently than you would, you may not think you know that word.

Read the dictionary. This may sound daunting, but reading the dictionary as if it were a novel is useful for recognizing how root words transform as you progress alphabetically. You will also have maximum exposure to unknown words by reading the dictionary. Watch as words build off of words that have come before them, and notice how spelling is comprised of a connection of words, and their roots. Pick three words from a random page and try using them in a sentence, after spelling them. This will make those words memorable to you. This exercise can also be done with the words on your word list. Reading the dictionary can be more useful than pleasure reading because your brain will be focused solely on learning words and their definitions, rather than complex or literary concepts.

Read, recite, and write alone. Read the dictionary, recite words aloud to yourself, and write words out on your own. Try to use the words in your everyday vocabulary, instead of just memorizing them, which will help both on the short term and the long term.

Look up words you don’t know when you read for pleasure such as stories or novels. You can use this opportunity of reading for pleasure as you study for a spell bee, but it must be an active reading practice. That means looking up the pronunciation, context, and definition of words you don’t know, even if they aren’t on your spelling list.

Keep your difficult word list up to date. Remove words that you have successfully learned from your word list. This will allow you to add new words to your list, and avoid wasting study time on those words that are already safely in your mind.

Post notes with difficult words written on them throughout your house. The more you see a word, the more it will stick in your brain. Change Post-It notes out once you have had them up for a sometime. Practice spelling the word out loud whenever you look at the note.