CSB Olympiad Book for Class 8

CREST International Spell Bee - Summer Book (First Chapter) PDF for Class 8 (Free Download):

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The CSB ends at Class 8, so this is the last Spell Bee (Summer) workbook in the CREST series. Like Class 7, the Class 8 syllabus has no word list; all words for both levels are taken from the Wren and Martin grammar book used in Class 7. Buy the book as a PDF in colour or a printed copy on the Olympiad books page, or start with the free first chapter on this page.

Class 8 chapters:

1. Spell-o-Spell
2. Word Connection
3. Word Makeup
4. Mingle-Mangle
5. Picture Speak
6. Word Cookie
7. Word Melody
8. Word Ensemble
9. Mathlish
10. Previous Year Paper
11. Answer Key

What does a Class 8 question look like?

Spell-o-Spell lines up four words and wants the meaning of whichever one is spelt correctly, or of the one that is not. A solved example pairs chronolgy with "order of events", after the student notices the missing o. In the practice set, relinquish is the one correct spelling in a row with the misspelt discusion, exagerate and agravate, so the meaning to pick is "give up". Another row gives meluncholy, choluric, biografy and bibliography; only the last is right, and it means a list of books. There are four worked examples and 90 practice questions in this chapter alone.

How should a Class 8 student plan the last few weeks?

The paper is 80 questions in 60 minutes, so pace matters. Work one chapter at a time and time each set. Word Makeup and Word Cookie (each worth 10 questions in the paper) reward careful prefix, suffix and single-letter checks, while Word Ensemble needs idioms and proverbs you can explain. Rapid Fire has no chapter because it is an audio round, so ask someone to dictate words you collected while reading Wren and Martin.

Save the previous year paper for the end, finish it inside an hour, and check it against the answer key. Level 2 is open to Class 8 students who finish in the upper 55.56% of Level 1.

You can also practise with the free CSB practice papers for Class 8 and read the Class 8 syllabus page, then the section-wise marking scheme.