Annual Report on the National Spelling Bee - Hexco Academic

[Pages:16]AFTER-A-SPELL

Annual Report on Spelling at the National Level - Summary of 2020

The Hexco Team and Vision

A journey unknown

S ince 1983, Hexco, Inc. has honored its roots as a small, family-owned business with a mission to educate and assist the academic elite in their quests to reach their highest potential in academic competitions. Originally founded in 1967 and selling products for large computer installations, the company turned to marketing products for academic competitions in the early 1980s as Hexco Academic. In a historic year of a global pandemic, Hexco once again adjusted to the uncertain climate and dedicated itself to aid the aspiring youth and their growth for the love of spelling and learning. In 2020, the National Spelling Bee (NSB) was cancelled for the second time in its history. While the first cancelled NSB was in 1943 due to World War II, the 2020 cancellation was due to the threat of COVID-19. This sudden change was traumatic to all spellers who had been studying and preparing, but it was an especially hard blow to the eighth-grade participants who lost their final opportunity to compete in the NSB for the coveted title, trophy, and cash prize. Unsettled by this turn of events, Hexco, led by Hexco's Jennifer King and in association with Kaplan, embarked upon a massive adventure to accomplish an often discussed but never attempted idea to host our own national-level spelling bee. Enabling competitors to participate remotely while preserving the integrity of a national competition was a daunting task.



830-367-3825 or 800-391-2891 | hexco@

Countless hours of planning, organizing, researching, marketing, and actual

tears resulted in one of Hexco's biggest accomplishment to date: a fine-tuned,

For the past 20 years,

professional, and oftentimes hilarious, online spelling bee with a coveted title,

one or more of the

a massive trophy, and a $10,000 grand prize and runner-up prizes of $4,000 and

National Spelling Bee

$1,500. And, most importantly, spellers had an opportunity to demonstrate their

champions have used

knowledge, hone their skills, and show off their personalities to the world in a

Hexco products for a

safe and level playing field. Hexco is thankful for the assistance and participation

total of 29 National

of Kaplan who enabled the security side of the virtual spelling bee and worked

Bee winners, counting

closely in producing such a professional event!

the ties along the way

and 7 of the 8 octo-

2021 Scripps National Spelling Bee Resumes

champs in 2019.

This year, the National Spelling Bee will return. Scripps announced that the

National Bee will be held in person on July 8, 2021, at the ESPN Wide World of

Sports Complex at Walt Disney World Resort near Orlando, Florida. The televised event will feature only 10 to 12 finalists.

In following COVID-19 safety precautions, the "Bee Week" format will be structured a little different this year. Preliminaries, quarterfinals, and semifinals will be conducted virtually during the weeks before the finals and televised live on ESPN programs. The semifinals are scheduled for June 27, and dates for earlier virtual rounds will be announced later this spring.

Scripps has appointed J. Michael Durnil as executive director of the National Spelling Bee. Durnil has over 35 years of experience working with nonprofits and helping children achieve their goals. Starting this year, he will lead all parts of the spelling competition in addition to its year-round educational plan.

The National Bee has also decided not to administer a written spelling and vocabulary test; it will be a solely oral spelling competition even though there is a vocabulary element at the school, county, and regional bee levels. The RSVBee invitational program enabled over 200 spellers in 2019 to compete along with the winners of all the sponsored regional and state bees. This RSVBee program has been suspended this year because of the altered program design instituted.

Overview of the Kaplan-Hexco Online Spelling Bee

In 2020, spellers around the nation were deprived of their chance to attend the annual Scripps National Spelling Bee because of the coronavirus. The goal of the Kaplan-Hexco Online Spelling Bee was to provide the optimal spelling bee experience in spite of the limitations caused by the pandemic, and to fulfill this dream, Hexco Academic teamed up with Kaplan Test Prep, a provider of educational programs and services, to host a national online spelling bee. Hexco's venerated word knowledge combined with Kaplan's expertise in video production, test monitoring, and livestreaming services made it possible for spellers to safely compete at the highest level of spelling competition the last week of July 2020.

"Congratulations to Hexco's entire spelling bee team. It was very

professionally done. There was a zero chance of cheating--an awesome job monitoring everything. Ms. Browning's pronuncia-

tion was fantastic." - Parent of participant

Due to the online nature of the bee, various security requirements were instituted throughout the competition. Spellers were assigned to Zoom rooms that were closely monitored, and they were instructed to follow protocols to maintain the bee's integrity, such as using a webcam to pan the room and ensuring their hands were visible while spelling.

Spellers - A total of 88 participants ranging from first to eighth grade registered to participate. These spellers were given a study list of 600 words to prepare for the first oral round and part of the preliminary written test. This study list is found in this newsletter.

Preliminary Written Spelling and Vocabulary Test - Each of these contained 25 questions to be completed in one hour with all participants taking the test through a portal organized by Kaplan and monitored using Zoom rooms. The spelling test presented words from the study list plus a miscellanea of words of different difficulties from the dictionary. The vocabulary portion included 25 multiple-choice questions, with 10 of these questions pertaining to words from the study list and the rest from the dictionary. The results of this test were used to hone the field of spellers advancing to the semifinals to a threshold of 40 spellers. Forty-eight spellers actually advanced.

Oral Rounds 1 and 2 - All spellers competed in the first oral round during an assigned time slot with 25 to 50 spellers online at the same time concurrently. If a speller spelled his or her Round 1 word correctly, that participant advanced to Round 2 and immediately was given a Round 2 word to spell. These rounds were miss-and-out format. At this point, all spellers who correctly spelled their Round 1 and Round 2 words were eligible to advance based on their score on the preliminary test. A score of 21 or higher on the preliminary written rounds was required to advance to the semifinals.

Semifinals - There were 48 semifinalists. Round 3 kicked off the competition, and a handful of spellers were eliminated with words such as appellation and jeroboam. Nine more spellers left Round 4 on foliiform, missalette, and caplin, to name a few. Five spellers were eliminated in Round 6 on the words Krummholz, Leicester, calyculus, kanone, and piezometer. After 7 hours of spelling, the remaining 21 spellers were declared the finalists.

"The bee was very well conducted and it was very fair. Had some difficult words at the end!

The live streaming and pronouncers and the virtual confetti appeared very professional

and I felt like I was almost watching a live bee! This was the best spelling bee so far."

- Parent of NSB Champion

"Big thanks to Hexco and Kaplan for this opportunity for all spellers. It was indeed a very competitive playing field and congrats to all the awesome

spellers." - Business CEO

Tiebreaker Written Spelling and Vocabulary Test - Each of the 21 finalists took this test which contained 25 spelling words and 25 multiple-choice vocabulary questions to be completed in one hour. This was accomplished through a portal organized by Kaplan and monitored using Zoom rooms. The results of this test were to be used to break a tie at the end of the contest if it had been necessary.

Pronouncers - The pronouncers for the first two oral rounds included 2017 National Spelling Bee champion Ananya Vinay and Michelle Horton, head spelling coach for Hexco Academic. Pronouncers for the remaining 28 rounds were National Senior Spelling Bee champ David Riddle and Hexco founder and 6th-place winner of the 1987 National Spelling Bee, Valerie Tarrant Browning.

Guest Judges - The guest judges included three past National Spelling Bee Champions, Ananya Vinay (2017), Sriram Hathwar (2014), and Ned Andrews (1994), plus the 2016 National runner-up, Snehaa Ganesh Kumar. Sravanth Malla, the 2017 South Asian Spelling Bee champion, participated as a judge as well as Rahul Walia, the director and driving force behind the South Asian Spelling Bee. Aisha Randhawa, who competed at Nationals four times, ultimately placing 7th, was also a guest judge along with several members of the Hexco Academic team.

Finals - The finals were livestreamed on YouTube and hosted by Rob Simmelkjaer, founder and CEO of Persona Media. He previously spent most of his career working as a sports media executive in a number of positions with NBC Sports and ESPN. Rob established a comedic atmosphere, frequently joking with spellers and making them feel more relaxed. Nine spellers were eliminated in Round 7. Speller #24 misspelled Laocoon, and speller #43 missed the "e" in seudah. Only one speller was eliminated in Round 8 on unnilquadium. There would be six more rounds until the top three remained.

Do you know how to spell ? It is a secondary school in Germany focusing on modern languages rather than Latin or Greek. Speller #41 proved successful with a perfect spelling: oberrealschule. Some of the eliminations were heartbreaking to watch, as it was clear some participants knew they had made a mistake even before finishing the word. Speller #50 made one such error when missing the second "y" in pyrolyze. Hours into the bee, speller #42 made it to Round 12 until misspelling moroc. Half the spellers went out in Round 13 on oxirane, tepe, and Pinzgau. The top three, Zaila, Harini, and Chaitra, would compete against the dictionary for another 17 rounds.

Pronouncer Valerie Tarrant Browning and Kaplan-Hexco Online Spelling Bee Champion Zaila

Results - Each one of the competitors grew more determined with each word, but Zaila emerged victorious. The winning word was Qashqai, which is a migratory Turkic-speaking people of the Zagros Mountains. With the win, Zaila beat out 88 of the best spellers around the country and took home $10,000 along with a giant trophy. Harini was awarded $4,000, and Chaitra won $1,500. All three were also given free Kaplan test prep courses.

Both Hexco and Kaplan were pleased with the outcome of the bee and found it to be a rewarding journey for everyone involved. Linda Tarrant, president of Hexco, said, "Our Hexco team enjoyed every moment working with the Kaplan team to plan and execute this event. The spellers who participated were phenomenal. Their intensity as they fielded words showed each speller's fierce determination. Their exuberant smiles and excitement as they conquered their words was a beautiful sight to witness." Hexco is immensely proud of all the participants and remains committed to supporting spellers for years to come.

BEE FINALISTS

Congratulations to all our finalists! Zaila A. - Champion, Harini L. - 2nd Place, Chaitra T. - 3rd place, Advaith B., Nitya K., Ekansh R., Cameron K., Saharsh V., Shijay S., Maya J., Michael K., Vayun K., Srinidhi R., Ashrita G., Vikram R., Bhavana M., Akshainie K., Gage C., Dean A., Arnav K., and Teresa C.

A Note from Zaila, the Kaplan-Hexco Online Spelling Bee Champion

"The Kaplan-Hexco online spelling bee was an absolutely AWESOME experience. I still can't believe that I actually won. For me, the best thing about the bee was the intense competition. Because so many of the top spellers in the country were in attendance, I knew going in that I would have to dig really deep to achieve my goal of making the Top 10. Somehow, I was able to maintain my composure and focus long enough to come away with the win.

Online Spelling Bee Champion, Zaila

Winning the Kaplan-Hexco Online Spelling Bee is something that I think about every single day. Every time that I see my trophy I smile, remembering one of the absolute best and coolest days of my life to date."

What People are Saying About the Kaplan-Hexco Online Spelling Bee

"I have told people at work about Hexco as 'essential' to becoming a true contender, but also for the pure joy of learning. Your National Bee spellers are the proof. The OSB (Online Spelling Bee) is huge - and you are the very heart and soul of it. The opportunity has arisen, and I am glad that Kaplan has gained a vision for this. That cohort in the final year of eligibility must be so thankful!" - Online Spelling Bee sponsor

"Our son learned a lot and enjoyed the bee experience. Thanks for doing this. We wish all the participants the very best and hope we get to participate in any future tourneys as well. Have a wonderful day!" - Parent of participant

"Thank you so much for organizing such a well organized online bee for the kids. I appreciate all the hard work you put into organizing the bee. I am glad my girls had the opportunity to compete and after months of being home do something interesting. This was my younger daughter's first ever bee and she was very excited to be part of something her sister has been part of for couple of years. For my older daughter, this was a great opportunity to examine her knowledge of the words. She misspelled on the last round of the semifinals. As we watched the finals together I noticed that she was able to spell most words given to the finalists, and I was really pleased to see her progress. She has become a confident speller thanks to Hexco and Mrs. Horton." - Parent of a participant

"It was so much fun to participate in the prestigious Hexco Spelling Bee. It was rigorous and at the same time your team took many measures to make sure all spellers are honest by monitoring them before they spell. Hope other online spelling bees follow this in the future. Once again thank you so much for organizing the Online Bee and giving spellers like my youngster an opportunity to do their best." - Parent of a participant

"Thank you for putting on such a great bee today. It was wonderful to see so many accomplished spellers. I also really appreciated the incredibly supportive and upbeat mood of all the pronouncers and judges." - Parent of a participant

"The spelling bee was fun to watch and brought back a deluge of memories and tears." - Former NSB champion

The Return to Words of the Champions (AKA History of the Spelling Study Booklet)

One of the most frequent questions asked by customers is, "Where do you get the words for your lists?" And while the answer is always, "from the dictionary," this does not give justice to the hours of word work and research that goes into creating a word list to serve a specific range of study. Since the first Tarrant speller began cultivating her love of words to prepare for the NSB, she and her sisters continued collecting words and crafting new learning styles and platforms to make study more effective and increase retention, going outside of the normal memorization method. Over the years, Linda Tarrant has continued, enhanced, and built their legacy of learning. The collection of words in the Hexco database is staggering and constantly growing and evolving. A portion of our word lists are extracted from previous Scripps' annual spelling lists and off-list words from regional and national bees plus words that have been gleaned from the Online Merriam-Webster Dictionary to create our unique and acclaimed products, such as New Nat's Notes, Verbomania, and Blitz Lists, to name a few.

Scripps' annual study list - Words of the Champions is the current list, and it supplanted Spell It! in 2020. The list before Spell It! was the Paideia, and prior to that, the study list was also called Words of the Champions.

2020 forward - Words of the Champions repeated as the name of the annual study list for the National Spelling Bee. This volume contained 4,000 words, replacing Spell It! and the annual class and school list. This booklet was organized as three sections, Difficulty Level-One Bee, Difficulty Level-Two Bee, and Difficulty Level-Three Bee. The first 125 words of One Bee were entitled School Spelling Bee List, as were the first 225 words of Two Bee category words and the first 100 of the Three Bee level. This total of 450 words replaced the class and school bee study list that accompanied Spell It!, and these words were scattered into each of the Difficulty Levels as the first group of words.

2007 through 2019 - Spell It! - This was the annual study list prior to the new Words of the Champions booklet. It originally had 701 words, a huge drop from the 4,118 the prior year. This number slowly grew each year with added words until it had 1,155 words in 2009. It didn't change for 11 years. Along the way, Scripps instituted a class and school bee word list with 450 words in lists by grade. Each grade had words in somewhat of a difficulty sequence, and each grade had their last 25 words overlapping with the first 25 words of the next grade.

Marching backward, at the 1994 National Bee, Scripps announced that the following year, a new booklet named Paideia would be available for spellers to study. The word paideia originally meant education or rearing of a child in ancient Greece. The word has come to mean educating both the physical and mental faculties of children in order to produce a competent, capable adult with strong social and cultural abilities.

1995 through 2006 - Paideia - This study booklet first contained a list of only 3,177 words. These were printed in somewhat a difficulty sequence on each page, and the words were splintered into 29 categories. Categories included topics, such as drama, elements, architecture, musical terms, etc. Annually, Scripps replaced 5 categories of words with new categories, which was 15 to 20% of the words. By 2006, Paideia contained 4,118 words. The predecessor for Paideia was the original Words of the Champions.

In 1953, Scripps offered a small booklet with 3,000 words called the Words of the Champions. These were distributed through newspapers which sold them to schools or spellers.

1953 through 1994 - The Words of the Champions was used by spellers for 42 years. Originally, the booklet contained 3,000 words (later this grew to 3,240 words), and these were listed in alphabetical order in three sections: First Round Words (later changed to Beginning Words), Intermediate Words, and Advanced Words. Originally, the first three rounds of the National Spelling Bee used words from these three categories before going "offlist" for the rest of the bee. For the study booklet, annually Scripps replaced 540 words in the booklet, or about 16% of the words.

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