CIMA Spellmaster – Top 10 Evolve
View(s):It’s the elimination stages of this gruelling competition, where only those who could handle pressure and tension that comes with it go through. Some say there is an element of luck, but that ends only with getting an easy or difficult word, from there on the spellers have to use their knowledge and skill to stay in the competition. As the spellers say nervousness, tension, anticipation, relief, and joy are a few of the emotions experienced by them. The 12 contestants, 6 from Colombo, 2 each from Kandy and Hatton and one each from Nawalapitiya, and Balangoda are all fighting to stay in the competition, and grab the title of the Spellmaster.
Has the Spellmaster helped students improve their vocabulary, take a look when judges ask for spellings, contestants go to the extent of verifying the definition of the word although it’s the judges role to give it in case spellers ask for it.
New formats come into play at this stage and the latest is the introduction of a choice of word origin. All contestants were given three words in the 1st round. one from a selection of 5 categories, namely, Science, Culture, Nature, Business and General, the other consisted of letters of the alphabet except of course the letters, ‘W’, ‘X’, ‘Y’ and ‘Z’ as they had a limited number of words, each letter had a choice of 5 words, and contestants could choose a letter from which a word was given, and introduced this year, country of origin. Contestants were asked to select an origin from French, German, Italian or Latin, which had a choice of 5 words, from which they could select and a word that derived from the particular origin was given to them. For instance Ramith, 1st contestant up, selected German and his word was “strudel”, or Areeba who selected Latin and received the word “sebaceous”.
As said before at this stage of the competition it’s no surprise when the kids give the judges the meaning without waiting for it to be given from them like what Ramith did when he was asked to spell the word “immunodeficiency”. He had a good start to the competition, being contestant number 3, selecting the 3rd word in each format available, he got all three words right, quite the coincidence. At this point of the competition, stress begins to take a toll on the kids, Bhagya Jayasooriya, from Visakha Vidyalaya Colombo 5, who hadn’t made a mistake in the competition thus far, didn’t realise she made a blunder with her word “Vincentian”, she was so engrossed in the spelling she didn’t realise she missed out on the ‘n’ when spelling the word. Lihan Mendis now from S. Thomas’ College Mount Lavinia was an example of how unpredictable the competition could be, he almost gave up the competition last week and this week got all three words dealt to him correct, getting him through to the
next round.
Off the twelve contestants, seven got all three words right, the balance five contestants who got two words correct had to spell it out for the three remaining seats to the Top 10. The next round had all five spell their words spot on, leading to another round, wherein Rochana from Girls’ High School Kandy misspelled her word “kho-kho” and was eliminated from the competition. On bowing out she said she hadn’t misspelled a word before but this time she was confused with her 1st word “cosmogony”, wasn’t sure if it was “-gony” or “-gany”, she continued to say that the competition improved her confidence and not just her vocabulary, wishing her school mate Ruchini specially as she wanted the Central Province to take home the title this year too, but wished the other contestants the best as well.
The remaining four, Bhagya J., Areeba, Lidushan and Arkam had to go through another round of spelling. “Vaudeville” was Bhagya’s word and she spelled it right, sending her through to the Top 10. The following three misspelled their words, leading to yet another round of words. Areeba and Lidushan spelled their words “inanity” and “Jesuit”, respectively. However, Arkam misspelled his word “laird” making him the 10th competitor bowing out of the competition. Arkam who had participated in the competition in previous years said he “messed it up with the 1st and 2nd syllable in the words he received at the start”, he carried on to say that in terms of development the competition has improved with the different formats introduced at various rounds, which made it interesting. A lot of effort was put in by him and it improved his vocabulary. He concluded by saying that it was good to get this far from 8000 students who entered island wide.
Tensions are high with only three competitions to go until the Top 4 grand finalists are revealed and ultimately the Spellmaster. Watch Sirasa TV this Sunday at 6pm to find out which contestants make it a little closer to the title.
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