Junior Beta Spelling Bee

The Beta Spelling Bee is a competition designed for one student from a club to compete in by completing an online multiple choice spelling test. The Top 16 individuals will advance to the oral rounds. The online test, as well as the oral rounds, will require the student to spell a broad selection of words, usually with a varying degree of difficulty.

A student may take only one Academic test to include Creative Writing, Poetry and Beta Spelling Bee.

Written Test Guidelines - Online Competition Only

Time Limit: 30 Minutes

One member from a club will take an online multiple-choice test with a time limit of thirty minutes.
Completion time of the test will be recorded. In case of a tie, the student that finished first will be the winner.
The member that takes the written test should be the same member that participates in the oral rounds.
The top sixteen individuals will advance to the oral rounds. Oral rounds will ONLY be conducted at onsite conventions.
We hold all parties responsible for the integrity of the testing environment. No consultation is allowed during the testing time. Supervision by school personnel is strongly recommended during all testing sessions.

Oral Round Guidelines - Onsite Competition Only

A Code of Conduct must be signed by all participants and coach/parent prior to the start of the oral rounds.
An audio recording will pronounce the word to be spelled according to the diacritical markings in the word list.
The speller listens carefully to the audio pronunciation and may request the word to be repeated, provided with a definition, used in a sentence, and/or provided with an alternate pronunciation(s) as listed in the competition word list. The audio recording does not provide the root word or part of speech.
If a word has one or more homonyms, the audio recording will be played to indicate which word is to be spelled by defining the word.
When the speller is sure he/she understands the word, the person must pronounce it, spell it, and then say the word again. The speller must say it loudly enough for the judge(s) to hear it.
The judge(s) determines whether or not the word was spelled correctly.
If the correct spelling was given, the speller remains in the Beta Spelling Bee. The speller will move to the next round of the competition.
If a student asks to start over when spelling, that is acceptable. Be sure to remind him/her that he/she can’t change the letters that have already been said or the order they have been said in.
If the spelling was incorrect, the speller could potentially be eliminated. The audio recording will then give the same word to the next speller. If the next speller spells the word correctly, the previous speller is elimainated from that round. However, that speller may participate in an additional round to determine placement.
If none of the spellers remaining in the Beta Spelling Bee at the start of a round spells a word correctly, all remain in the competition and a new spelling round begins. The spellers spell in the orginal order.
When there are only two spellers left, if one speller misspells a word, the other must spell that word correctly, plus one more word to be declared the winner of the Beta Spelling Bee.
No spellers should be dismissed until the competition is complete.

Rules and Additional Guidelines

Judges’ role: The judges uphold the rules and determine whether or not words are spelled correctly.

Interaction with the speller: Because seeing the speller’s lip movements may be critical in detecting misunderstandings or misspellings, the judges encourage spellers to face them when pronouncing and spelling the word.

Notice of rules: The judges ensure that all spellers and audience members are given an opportunity to receive a complete copy of the rules prior to the start of the Beta Spelling Bee.

Misunderstandings: The judges participate in the exchange of information between the speller and coordinator if they feel that clarification is needed. Also, the judges listen carefully to the speller’s pronunciation of the word; and, if they sense that the speller has misunderstood the word, the judges work to assist the speller in understanding the word. While the judges are responsible for attempting to detect a speller’s misunderstanding, it is sometimes impossible to detect a misunderstanding until an error has been made. The judges are not responsible for the speller’s misunderstanding.

Audio Recording ( Pronunciation of words): The judges compare the audio recorded pronunciation with the diacritical markings in the word list. If the judges feel that the recording does not match the pronunciation specified in the diacritical markings, the judges direct the coordinator to correct the error as soon as soon as it is detected.

Disqualifications for reasons other than error: The judges will disqualify a speller (1) who refuses to spell; (2) who does not approach the microphone when it is time to receive the word and; (3)who, or whose family, engages in conduct that does not promote fair and honest competition, courteous relations and graceful acceptance of competition results; (4) who, in the process of retracing a spelling, alters the letters or sequence of letters from those first uttered; or (5) who, in the process of spelling, utters unintelligible or nonsense sounds.

Speller activities that do not merit disqualification: The judges may not disqualify a speller (1) for asking a question; or (2 ) for noting or failing to note the capitalization of a word, the presence of a hyphen or other form of punctuation or spacing between words in an open compound.

End-of-bee procedure: If none of the spellers remaining in the Beta Spelling Bee at the start of a round spells a word correctly, all remain in the competition and a new spelling round begins.

Ties: All spellers eliminated in the same round are tied for the same place. After the champion has been determined, spelling officials will continue with the spelling bee to determine additional placements. No participants may leave the room until the competition is complete.

How to Enter

Visit www.betaclub.org/events/conventions and follow directions.
Register students and then select competitions to enter.