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Come read about my third trip to Washington, D.C., and my competition in the 2013 Scripps National Spelling Bee!

Tuesday, April 9, 2013

Spelling Bee News

Just when you thought it couldn't get ANY more interesting... it does.

The Scripps people officially announced today that some rule changes were in order for the Spelling Bee.  Guess what?  It's a vocab bee now, too.

They say (and I quote):

For the first time in the 86-year history of the Scripps National Spelling Bee, the evaluation of vocabulary knowledge will be formally incorporated as an element of the competition.

This is a significant change in the Scripps National Spelling Bee, but also a natural one. It represents a deepening of the Bee's commitment to its purpose: to help students improve their spelling, increase their vocabularies, learn concepts and develop correct English usage that will help them all their lives.

Since 2002, a written or computer spelling test has been a component of the Bee that, along with onstage spelling, factored in determining which spellers advanced to the Semifinals.

This year, a speller’s qualification for the Semifinals and Championship Finals will be based on a cumulative score that incorporates onstage spelling, computer-based spelling questions and computer-based vocabulary questions.

Vocabulary evaluation will count for 50 percent of a speller’s overall score. The score determines which spellers advance to the Semifinals (Thursday, May 30 at 2:00 p.m. on ESPN2) and the Championship Finals (Thursday, May 30 at 8:00 p.m. on ESPN).

Because the computer-based tests of spelling and vocabulary are not part of the onstage portion of the Bee, they will not be broadcast on ESPN or any of its affiliates.

The timing of the announcement to formally incorporate vocabulary is consistent with the Bee's commitment to fairness for all spellers. All local bee championships were decided by the end of March, and the timing of this announcement provides each speller with the same opportunity to prepare for the vocabulary component of the competition.

For the 2013-2014 school year, the Bee plans to support the learning of vocabulary at all levels by extending vocabulary content to teachers and local spelling-bee organizers. Implementation will be optional. As you know, vocabulary testing was not part of the local bee championships this year.

There are other changes being introduced to the competition this year:
  • There will be a time limit of 45 minutes to take the computer-based spelling and vocabulary test in the Preliminaries and Semifinals. In previous Bees, there was no time limit for taking the computer-based test. In 2012, the median time to take the test was 29 minutes and 34 seconds.
  • If a speller misspells in either Round Two or Three of the Preliminaries, the judge will ring the bell and the speller will exit the competition. In recent years, misspelling in Round Two or Three did not immediately result in elimination.
  • A computer-based spelling and vocabulary test will be incorporated into the Semifinals this year. In previous years, the computer-based test was only part of the Preliminaries.
  • In the minutes following the conclusion of Round Six, in general terms no more than 12 spellers will be named as Championship Finalists. In previous years, the rules neither addressed the number of spellers to qualify for the Championship Finals nor the timing of the determination of Championship Finalists.
In other words, I have to actually know what I'm spelling now...

In other news, the Rounds two and three are now elimination rounds.  That's right - if I misspell, I'm done.  Period.

I found this infographic helpful in explaining the change.

And that's about it.  Just FYI, that's what we found out today.

Saturday, April 6, 2013

Here We Go!

Here we are again - two years later, and I can finally use this blog again!  Yes, it's true - if you haven't read already, I am officially participating in the 2013 Scripps National Spelling Bee (story here)!  (And for the record, yes, I can spell hydraulic.  It's a long story.)

And I've slightly changed the design for this year - hope everybody likes it!

The National Bee will be held in the week of May 27-31, so I have quite a bit of time to study.  Here's hoping for a good showing in May!

If you want, you can feel free to read about my escapades two years ago to wile away the days until we really get going here.  :)  But until then, we'll just have to kill some time, won't we?  Akeela and the Bee, anyone?