CONTEST RULES
1. Participants will be organized into two categories:
Category A: grades 4th to 6th - Category B: grades 7th to 11th.
2. The contest is organized into three stages: Preliminary stage, Semi-finals and Finals.
3. The Contestants participate in two spelling styles:
a. One of the judges pronounces the word and the participant spells it.
b. One of the judges spells and the contestant pronounces the word.
4. Participants will be divided into groups; members of each group will be eliminated until only
two (2) contestants remain left. These two students will continue to the semi-final. The
same procedure will be applied to get the two participants for the finals. A computer
software will choose the words randomly. The contestant is not allowed to see the word on
the screen.
5. The participant will have 15 seconds to spell or pronounce the word, after the judge
finishes reading it. If the judges find it appropriate, the number of seconds can be
decreased after a number of complete repetitive rounds without eliminated contestants.
6. The judge could repeat the word only once within the 15 seconds in the eliminatory stage.
7. In the preliminary stage, there will be a warm-up round. Once the warm-up round is over,
contestant to fail in spelling or pronunciation of a word will leave the competition.
8. Having started to spell a word, the contestant may stop and start over, but she/he can NOT
switch the order of letters or sequences already spelled at the beginning. If one or more
letters or the sequence is changed in the re-spelling, the participant will be eliminated from
the competition.
9. On the day of the contest, participants will be eliminated with two hundred words (200)
from the category A list and three hundred words (300) from the category B list (previously
sent to schools) to select the finalists.
10. The judges will use a list of fifty (50) new words (which WON’T be sent to the schools) in
the final round in order to select the first (1st) second (2nd) and third (3rd) places in each
category (A & B).
11. The judges will have complete control of the contest. Their concept will be simple and
autonomous throughout the event. If a participant hears from the audience or sees the
word on the screen, the jury will select a new word. Likewise, the jury will request any
person to leave the place if necessary, in order to ensure the normal development of the
competition.
12. This year the Oxford Dictionary Online will serve as final authority to spell the
words. There, the meaning, examples and pronunciation of each word will be found.
[Link]
13. The contestants will be eliminated from the competition in groups, (The number of students
per group will depend on the number of participants) a contestant for each Institution. In the
preliminary stage there WON’T be two contestants from the same school in the same
group.)
14. Each school may enter a maximum of two (2) contestants for each category; with each
participant the Tutor Teacher will be enrolled (who has trained the participant) which will
also be awarded if his/her student wins the contest or gets the second place.
15. At all stages and groups, it will be carried out complete rounds to avoid a contestant
classification without having intervened.
16. The prices will be only given to the winners and during the current year. The First Place
Winners of the contest will not be able to participate in future "Spelling Bee Contests" held
by ASPAEN Gimnasio La Fragua.
17. Participants must be born in Colombia and must be native speakers of Spanish. The
ASPAEN Gimnasio La Fragua staff will ask to any participant for his/her identification.
18. Contestants must be at least 10 minutes before the competition starts. If any contestant
arrives late, he/she loses the right to participate. All contestants have to wear the school
uniform of the institution they represent.
19. The registration deadline is on Friday, September 6, 2019.
[Link]
For further information, please get in contact with the ASPAEN La Fragua CAIE
Coordinator, Héctor Eduardo Cleves Díaz. Cell phone number 320 254 5572 or
Spellingbee@[Link]. You can also contact us for any query calling to (8) 873
00 42 - extension number: 101