How to Study for a Spelling Bee

Spelling bees have a long history of fostering healthy competition and academic excellence. If you have ever dreamed of competing in a spelling bee watched one on television or simply wanted to become better at spelling bee online and memorization then it's probably time to start studying. Spelling bees are offered to school regional and national organizations. Studying for them should be taken seriously because competition can be fierce.

This list will reflect the difficulty level of the types of words you will be tested with. It will be the base for your list of words to study. Keep in mind however that the list will not necessarily contain the exact words you will be tested with your school or the spelling bee organization. Simply memorizing this list will not be sufficient for studying because it is meant to be used as a guide rather than quiz material. It's best to also cover difficult words from anywhere as spelling bees will turn to secret off list words later in the competition. 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 a spelling bee. SpellQuiz is the official dictionary used by the Scripps National Spelling Bee association. Reading the dictionary looking words up and memorizing official pronunciation will comprise the bulk of your studying habits.

If you don't want to purchase a dictionary you can borrow one from your local library although it may not be the current edition or visit the Spelling Bee. This technique will create muscle memory for words that are more difficult to memorize, just as you write words on paper. Writing them in your hand can be a useful trigger to recall spelling when you are confronted with during the competition. This technique is especially useful because you are allowed to spell words into your hand while on stage at an actual spelling bee.

Etymology is incredibly important to understand how words work in the English language. If you don't know a word you can often make an educated guess about its spelling depending on what root words it may contain. If you don't know the word antebellum for instance you might be able to recognize the common root of a... At the beginning of the word and guess the rest and team mean before and bellow means war. So while you may not have known vellum you could piece together that antebellum main priest something pre-war. In this case, asking the origin of a word here is important. It can give you a clue to what root the word is derived from.

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. Pick one five-page section at a time to read at random. 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. 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 “B” announcer pronounces it differently than you would. You may not think you know that word, diacritics, for example, will be written two other ways in the dictionary. The first shows its syllables di dot a dot crit, “diacritics”.
The second shows its pronunciation D plus the acrylic dot these symbols tell you to emphasize the first three letters, with the most emphasis going on the eye that has a small horizontal line above it. The written “a” in diacritics will sound more like an “e” according to this chart.
Read the dictionary, recite words aloud to yourself and write words out on your own. This way you'll foster your own learning experience unfettered by other people's ideas and associations. Ultimately, you will be on the spelling bee stage by yourself. So it's a good idea to practice techniques that will best serve you when gearing up for the big day.

Try to use the words in your everyday vocabulary instead of just memorizing them which will help both in the short term and the long term. You can still read for pleasure as you study for a spelling 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. once a week, 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.

The more you see a word the more it will stick in your brain. Change post-it notes out. Once you have had them out for a week, practice spelling the word out loud whenever you look at the note. This will prepare you for the performance-oriented nature of spelling bees. It can be easy to lose your train of thought when you are nervous. So if you have trouble speaking in public this tactic is especially important. Speaking out loud even if someone is not present is important as well.

Learn the sound of your voice the spell and you will become more confident in your abilities. Have a friend or family member quiz you on words they think of themselves. Every so often this will keep your mind alert and test your ability to use root identification and pronunciation to spell words. This will help you know what to expect of your spelling bee. Friends and family members may notice things that you won't. So bringing an extra set of eyes and ears with you can be a boon to observing the bee in action.

If you cannot attend a bee. There are plenty of videos of them on the internet when you study too hard. You will find yourself drifting off to sleep or getting bored. Be sure to stretch talk to friends or go for a quick walk in between long bouts of studying.