It is always encouraging to see students bustling around in any competition. And when you have an event to buzz the spellings of words, it is even the more joyful.
The Spell Bee competition by Deccan Herald in Education (DHiE) at Bal Bhavan on Wednesday gave exactly this experience.
Ace master Arul Mani, English professor, St Joseph's College and also the vice president of The Karnataka Quiz Association set the content for the contest and also compered the event.
The competition had a common preliminary questionnaire for both the junior and senior category.
It was split into four sections — Checking the spellings for errors; Kangaroo words, where each word had a synonym hidden among its letters; Anagrams, rearrangement of words with the clue given; and Recognition, providing the words that match the pictures shown on screen.
"Compared to the last three years, this year, I had set a bit tough the questions. Despite the difficulty level, the response has been very good," said Professor Arul Mani.
"Kids are ready to try spell bee in the new form, which was a problem-solving pattern than to spell difficult words. They seem to enjoy it this way. The audience was also able to answer all the questions," Mani added.
In the written round, there was a stiff competition leading to ties among the kids fording the judges to have nine students each in the senior and junior category instead of eight to the finals.
"I enjoyed it. Even if I would not have got the prize, I would still enjoy it as I love challenges," said Anushree.
"It is the first time I am in a spell bee competition. When I first entered the hall, I was nervous as I am crowd sick. My friends had belief in me. Since I managed the first round, I got my confidence back, and that is the only reason I won the second prize as well," said Mrinalini.
" I have attended many spell bee competition. But I loved this one as it had questions on Biology. It was not just about spellings, it also gave work to our brain," said Gauri, another student.
The students were more content as it helped them to broaden the horizon and perspective towards approaching an event like this.
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