If you do well enough in your School Bee, you will qualify for the District Bee. You’ll compete against other spellers from your area/county, and most of the time it will be held in late January or early February. Just like the school bee, it will be up to the coordinator of the bee whether or not to include vocabulary. Find this out as soon as possible. With that being said: To prepare for your District Bee,
IF the bee is spelling only:
- Be able to spell everything on your school list
- Be able to spell everything on Spell-It!
- Be aware of general spelling/language patterns so you are able to deal with Additional Words* that you are not familiar with
IF the bee includes vocabulary:
- Be able to spell everything already listed for spelling only
- Consider getting a Word Club from spellingbee.com. This resource will provide a convenient way to study every vocabulary word you can be asked at Classroom, School, District or Regional Bees. If this is too pricey, peruse both lists (the school list and Spell-It!) and make sure you know the definitions of all 1,605 words you could be asked.
*Additional Words at District Bees usually try to test how well you can logically piece together words that you have not memorized off of a list. The words are definitely harder than those at the Classroom or School levels, but most of the time they are still relatively commonplace. Of course, the difficulty will increase the further into the bee you get. A large percentage of them are also in the Consolidated Word List. Tough examples: prescience, neoprene, ibex, sachet, clientele, luminaria