Spell Bee Competition (Winter) for Class 8

Build the confidence and skill of your Class 8 student with the International Level Language Olympiad Exam.

The standard exam for evaluating word meaning, spelling, and pronunciation in the English language is the CREST International Spell Bee (Winter). For students in class 8, the CSBW exam is organized at the national and international levels. CREST Olympiads administers only online Spell Bee International examinations. Read through the article to know about the Spelling Bee exam in detail!

The CSBW Exam for Class 8 builds confidence by having them work on hard, high-level tasks. Made by experts, this test is the key to mastering competitive English and authority.

a. Class 8 is the highest class in the competition, which covers Senior KG to Class 8. Students of any board (CBSE, ICSE, State or other) can enter from India or from abroad.

b. Enter through your school if it registers with CREST. Otherwise, sign up on your own, since CREST's aim is that every student can take its exams.

c. The Spelling Bee competition for class 8 is held at a single level. One Level 1 paper decides your rank and any award.

d. The paper is online and webcam-monitored, and you take it at home. Check your setup well before the day. The exam needs a webcam and a laptop, desktop or tablet whose screen measures more than 11.5 inches. It also needs a stable internet connection and the latest version of Google Chrome, with Edge or Firefox as alternatives; Safari is not supported. Mobile devices cannot be used, and a Windows device should be on Windows 8 or later, while a Mac or an iPad is also fine.

e. You work alone. Someone else sitting with you or accessing the test, your face slipping out of the camera view, or a phone, calculator or other device in use can each end in disqualification.

f. Each subject is Rs. 275 in India and USD 15 abroad, and two practice tests, not compulsory, come with the fee.

1. Words for the top CSBW class. Class 8 words such as conundrum, equilibrium, neophyte and philanthropist call for meanings and roots, not just letters.

2. British spelling in practice. The list includes draught, oesophagus and uncivilised, so you get used to the British English spellings CREST marks against.

3. A Spell Bee worth getting excited about. A Class 8 review on the testimonials page describes the excitement of hearing that CREST runs a Spell Bee test, and urges everyone to take it. A second Class 8 testimonial calls CREST unique because students can decide when to take their tests.

4. Rank holders to look up to. A single Hall of Fame profile appears twice in the CSBW records: International Rank 1 in Class 4 (2020-21) and International Rank 1 again in Class 8 (2023-24). See the profile.

CREST International Spell Bee (Winter) registration for class 8 can be done by students on their own or by the school.

The school has to fill in the form present here: https://www.crestolympiads.com/register-school, and it will be contacted within 48 working hours with the next steps.

Students who register separately from school & want to appear for the online Spelling Bee exam for class 8 can follow these simple steps:
1. Go to the browser and copy-paste this link: https://www.crestolympiads.com/registration
2. The registration form pops up.
3. Fill in all the registration form details.
4. Select the exam at the bottom of the details filling section in the registration form you wish to appear in.
5. Read the instructions carefully.
6. Make the payment.
7. Registration is complete.

Note:

1. Spelling Bee Individual registrations by students are accepted.

2. Students who have not done registration through school will have to take exams from home. The individual participating should have a webcam and a good internet facility. Use a laptop, desktop or tablet with a screen larger than 11.5 inches: a Windows computer or tablet running Windows 8 or above, a Mac, or an iPad. Phones cannot be used. Use the latest version of Google Chrome (Edge or Firefox also work); the exam cannot be taken on the Safari browser. The exam is monitored through a webcam.

The Class 8 paper matches Class 7 exactly: 70 questions, one hour and thirteen formats, with Get, Set, Spell! and Back to the Roots among them. The list, however, changes almost entirely; uncivilised is one of the very few words shared with Class 7.

The Spell Bee Winter syllabus for class 8 is in two parts. Part one, Spell Bee Words for Class 8, has over 600 entries from abbreviation onwards, and it supplies about 70%-80% of the questions. Part two is a listening round: the audio, read in a neutral accent, gives you a word from that list and you write its spelling.

A selection from the list: abbreviation, archaic, conundrum, draught, equilibrium, neophyte, oesophagus, philanthropist, porpoise, telepathy, backlash, culpable, demagogue, illumine, sanguine, turbulence.

Up to 20%-30% of the questions may include words you have not seen on the list. CREST checks every spelling and meaning against the Oxford Learner's Dictionary and follows British conventions; anything absent from that dictionary is treated as non-existent.

The paper carries 70 marks at one mark per question, with no negative marking:

• Get, Set, Spell!: 10
• Word Champ: 8
• Spellacadabra: 8
• Jumble Tumble: 6
• Spell Spies: 6
• Word Tally: 6
• Word Fusion: 5
• Word Puzzle: 5
• Spell-probe: 4
• Back to the Roots: 3
• Pictospell: 3
• Sound Check: 3
• Word Twins: 3

The exam dates for CREST International Spell Bee Competition (Winter) (CSBW) for Class 8 for the Academic year 2026-27 are as given below:

Note: Check Olympiad exam dates for other CREST Olympiads subjects as well.

The exam fee is INR 275 for students studying and enrolling from India. For students studying and residing outside of India, the fee is USD 15.

At about 51 seconds a question, there is no time to puzzle over spellings in the exam itself. Most of the thinking has to be done beforehand, so start ten weeks out if you can.

Weeks one to seven: roughly 90 words a week. For each word, learn the spelling, the meaning, the root and one example sentence, because Back to the Roots, Spell-probe and Word Twins test exactly those. Read the CREST word pages as you go, for instance buoyant and dilapidated, which add usage examples and associated words.

Watch the British forms. Draught, oesophagus and uncivilised are all on your list, and the Oxford Learner's Dictionary is the reference CREST uses, so settle any doubtful spelling there rather than trusting autocorrect.

Weeks eight and nine: sit the class 8 Spell Bee sample papers against the clock and score them format by format. If Word Puzzle or Word Tally keeps costing you, go back to meanings and synonyms for a few days.

Week ten: one last dictation round with a friend or parent reading, a revision pass through your notebook, and the free trial test on your exam laptop or tablet so the camera and sound are already set up.

In order for students to be aware of the minimal marking requirements, the CREST International Spell Bee cut-off and rankings are typically made accessible. These cut-off marks are offered so that students are aware of the minimal standard marks to qualify for the exam. After completing the Spell Bee Winter exam the cut-off will be revealed.

The CREST Olympiads will release the Spell Bee answer key for the CREST International Spell Bee Winter exam on the answer key dates shown on the exam schedule. Students can find out their likely scores by checking answer keys. The Spell Bee answer key contains the correct answers to each question of the exam.

Once the final answer key date has passed, give it up to a month: that is when the class 8 Spell Bee results come out, in the Performance section of your dashboard.

Class 8 is the last CSBW class, and because there is one level only, this result completes your Spell Bee Winter. If you finish in the top 3 overall for Class 8, you receive an Achiever's Trophy.

Medals go to the top 15% of students, Merit Certificates to the top 25% and Honourable Mention certificates to the top 60%. See Awards & Recognition for the full criteria.

Meet more than one criterion and the higher award is yours. Awards are delivered to the school or home address you registered with, and your digital participation certificate stays in the dashboard.

The students are recognized for their performance and it’s one of the great ways to encourage them to do such great things again and again. CREST Olympiads awards top performers of Classes 2 to 8 with trophies, medals and certificates based on their international, school and percentile ranks in the CREST Spelling Bee (Winter) competition exam. Senior KG and Class 1 students are not ranked; those scoring 60% or more receive a Star Medal and Merit Certificate, and every participant receives a digital participation certificate. Students can check the Olympiad awards & recognition in detail.

1. Can a class 8 student obtain sample papers if this is his or her first time participating in the CREST Spell Bee Olympiads?

Yes definitely. Students can access the sample papers on the CREST Olympiads website for Spell Bee preparation.

2. In what pattern the CREST Spell Bee Winter Olympiad examination is conducted?

For classes 1 to 8 Spell Bee exam duration is 60 minutes.

The exam consists of two sections:

Section-1: Spell Bee (55 minutes) - Multiple Choice Questions
Section-2: Get, Set, Spell! (5 minutes) - Audio-based questions. The student needs to hear the sentence and write the spelling asked.

3. Which is the best Olympiad exam for class 8?

As students enter high school, parents' and teachers' expectations rise. They are expected to perform well in school exams while also planning their future careers. Olympiad exams for class 8 shape children and prepare them for future challenges. This is the class that determines the child's interests and opens up a variety of career options. Olympiad exams assess student aptitude and assist students in deciding on an area of specialization. They may select one or more of the subjects listed below;

a. CREST Mathematics Olympiad (CMO)

b. CREST Science Olympiad (CSO)

c. CREST English Olympiad (CEO)

d. CREST Reasoning Olympiad (CRO)

e. CREST Cyber Olympiad (CCO)

f. CREST International Spell Bee Summer (CSB)

g. CREST International Spell Bee Winter (CSBW)