Annual National Inter School Spelling Contest

1. The contest will be conducted in English but Nepali will also be used to explain the directions if necessary for public schools.
2. If any hint is heard from the audience or a teammate, then a point will be deducted from the team concerned. No one but the participant answering is to speak. If such a thing is found to happen, then a point will be deducted.
3. The rounds will proceed in such a manner that the team that gets the first question in a sub round will be the team to answer the last question in the subsequent sub round i.e., the questions, in alternate sub rounds, will be rotated in opposite direction.
4. The seating arrangement will be decided by a draw before the match and it will not be changed throughout the match. The participants must arrive at the venue at least twenty minutes before the scheduled start of the match.
5. In case of a controversy, the team captain only is allowed to lodge a complaint on the spot. In case of any dissatisfaction with the decision, a protest has to be lodged to the spelling master immediately after the match is over by the faculty advisor or the teacher. Any late protest will not be entertained.
6. The scoring procedure is:
a. Each team will start with a full mark of 100.
b. No point is awarded for a correct spelling.
c. A point is deducted for each error by the speller, checker or double checker.
d. In the Rapid Fire Round, Jumbled Round and the Spellathon Round a point will be awarded for the correct spelling and deducted for the mistake.
7. The round patterns will be modified after the preliminary rounds. The contestants will be informed about the changes in advance
8. The quarterfinals and semifinals will be knockout matches. The winner and the runner up from each match will advance to the subsequent rounds. If two teams are tied, a tiebreaker will be held.
9. If there is a tie for a position in the next round, the teams involved will be called for a tiebreaker round. They will each be asked a spelling; whoever gets a spelling wrong first will be knocked out from the contest. Or spelling master or privileged spectators could also probably ask the spelling which could be really difficult and will be a word according to the official dictionary of the contest.
10. In case of any controversy regarding the questions, only the team captain is allowed to lodge a protest before the round ends. In any case of dissatisfaction with the decision, a written protest has to be lodged to the judge within 10 minutes of the end of the match, along with a deposit of Rs 200/-, which will be refunded if the protest is found valid and necessary actions will be taken. However, if the protest is found invalid, the deposit will not be returned.
11. In case of a controversy, the team captain only is allowed to lodge a complaint on the spot. In case of any dissatisfaction with the decision, a protest has to be lodged to the spelling master immediately after the match is over by the faculty advisor or the teacher. Any late protest will not be entertained.
12. Only the first word, first meaning and the first sentence of the dictionary will be considered correct, and only British English will be used throughout the contest.
13. Only the words from the spelling list will be honored with NO exceptions.

14. The official dictionary for the contest is Oxford Advanced Learners' Dictionary, Seventh Edition.