The fine art of spelling ...

[Mister Squiggle]

Carrying on from the "University Challenge" thread, I thought I would pop in a link for the latest form of mental torture I have found ....

http://www.timesspellingbee.co.uk/Training/SpellingBee.aspx

Apologies if link doesn't work, but if you go to the Times Online's main page you can locate it from there.

My confidence in spelling has been well and truly scuppered. Got torpedoed by "parquet" which I know is a form of flooring, but couldn't think how to spell it.

Good luck Orgers. I expect brilliant scores to come streaming in :)

[Shabbychic]

Had a go at one of everything and had a total score of 649. My biggest problem was trying to work out what they were saying. (for example packed and pact).

Might have another go tomorrow when more alert.

[dirdyweeker]

Had great fun with that! Unfortunately, some of the times I could not understand which word was being said.
Had my 15 year old trying......he needs to improve!:lol:

[Julia]

I can't make out about 10% of what is being said, using the hint option does help a bit though.

[Metalattakk]

Tried them all in order, and scored 1121 in total. Last section (Challenge - Hard) let me down big time - only 10/15 in that one. Must try harder. ;)

Some words there I'd never heard before, which was nice. :)

[Gizmo]

Tried them all in order, and scored 1121 in total. Last section (Challenge - Hard) let me down big time - only 10/15 in that one. Must try harder. ;)

Some words there I'd never heard before, which was nice. :)

Words which i'm sure you will pull out to belittle those who don't meet your high standards [disgust]

[changilass]

Your paranoia is showing Gizmo :lol:

[Gizmo]

Your paranoia is showing Gizmo :lol:

Shhhhhhhhhhh!!...They are watching me[para]

[Metalattakk]

Words which i'm sure you will pull out to belittle those who don't meet your high standards [disgust]

I do wish you wouldn't prevaricate so much, old chap. ;)

[Gizmo]

I do wish you wouldn't prevaricate so much, old chap. ;)

I speak the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth...so help me Lemmy.

[Metalattakk]

*Prays to Lemmy*

Anyway, enough of this banter - isn't anyone else going to post up their scores for the spelling bee? Surely someone can beat my measly 1121, after all, I got a third of the last section wrong!

Come on folks, put me in my place. :D

*throws down gauntlet*

[Julia]

I am not going to embarrass myself by stating my actual score but what I will say is that apparently 'I am as thick as mince' [lol]

[Bobinovich]

Tried it late last night and got just under the 1000 mark but, with a much clearer sound system and better use of the hints, have managed 1248 for the first 5 sections.

Still made some unforgivable errors tho' :roll:

[changilass]

I cannae understand what they are saying so have never managed more than 10 correct answers afore I spell sumat(correctly of course) they didnae even say lol

[Shabbychic]

Had another go today and this time got 1349. Still was shot down with some crazy words. They said lock so I put lock but it should have been LOCH. Others were form and fawn and draw and drawer. Might work better if they could pronounce the words correctly.

I didn't manage to get into any the head to heads. Don't think they are up and running.

[tootler]

But if you go straight to the spelling bee game, where you get knocked out if you get one wrong, how many can you get right in a row?

I think I'm addicted - but I can't get more than 40 in a row without getting one wrong!!:lol:

[Whitewater]

Managed to get over a thousand a couple of times, but my bigest problem is the word recognition (sound) and typing errors, otherwise I would do fine. Good fun though. Takes me back to school and that was not yesterday.

[Whitewater]

Had another go today and this time got 1349. Still was shot down with some crazy words. They said lock so I put lock but it should have been LOCH. Others were form and fawn and draw and drawer. Might work better if they could pronounce the words correctly.

I didn't manage to get into any the head to heads. Don't think they are up and running.

Have to agree with you, that is the main problem. The person pronouncing the words is not Scottish.

[Metalattakk]

Have to agree Whitewater. Even if it was the same voice for each word, it might make it less difficult to understand. I mean come on, fort or fought? Jeez...

Anyway, scored a 1248 earlier (same as Bob earlier on!) but can't get past 30 or so on the spelling bee game.

[Mister Squiggle]

If you click on "word help" and go through the tips, it will give you the origin, the type (ie verb) and a sentence in context - I found this helped on a couple of occasions with the words that sound similar, but you've got a timer so watch out.
My best score was 800+ - I have found that red wine seems to make me spell better. :eek:
If you've ever watched that brilliant film about the kids at the Spelling Bee in America (Spellbound) - I thought it looked impossible when I watched the film, but I have a new-found respect for them after trying this.

[TBH]

Decade or decayed do not have the same pronunciation nor where and wear?[disgust]