How to Practice for a Spelling Bee at Home

To practice for a spelling bee at home, quiz yourself on your official study list in short sessions most days, and come back to each word several times over the weeks before the bee instead of cramming. Each week, add a mock bee run like the real thing: someone reads you a word, you say it, ask any questions you need, spell it aloud once without changing letters, and say the word again. Learning research backs both habits. The mock bee covers what a list can’t, since a spelling bee is a performance as well as a test.

Start with the right list

Which list you study depends on the level of your bee. Scripps says the 450-word School Spelling Bee Study List is the one to learn for a school bee, and spellers who move past the school level should study Words of the Champions, which has 4,000 words (Scripps Study Tips). Both have 2027 editions for the 2026-2027 season (Scripps FAQ). Our guide to spelling bee word lists explains where each list comes from and how to get it.

A daily practice routine

Test yourself instead of rereading

Rereading a list feels productive, but the research favors testing yourself. A 2013 review of ten study techniques gave practice testing and distributed practice (spreading study out over time) its highest rating, “high utility.” Rereading and highlighting were rated low utility, and the authors suggest practice testing in place of rereading (Dunlosky et al., 2013).

Testing helps even when no one grades it. In a 2006 experiment, students who restudied a passage did better on a test five minutes later. On tests two days and one week later, though, the students who had practiced recalling the material remembered substantially more (Roediger & Karpicke, 2006).

Spelling has been studied directly too. In three small classroom experiments with first and second graders, words practiced by recalling the spelling were spelled correctly more often than words practiced with “rainbow writing,” another common classroom method. In the first experiment the gap held on a test five weeks later. The children also said they liked retrieval practice at least as much (Jones et al., 2016).

Spread practice out

Spreading study over many days works better than doing it all at once. A 2006 analysis of 317 experiments found that the best gap between study sessions grows with how long you need to remember the material (Cepeda et al., 2006). For a bee that’s weeks away, review words over several days and keep coming back to them, rather than learning them all in one evening.

Putting it together

1. Warm up with yesterday’s misses. Have someone read them to you, or cover the spelling, and spell each one before you look.
2. Add a small batch of new words. Look at each word, its definition and its pronunciation, then hide the word and spell it from memory.
3. Test, then check. Spell every word in the batch aloud or on paper without looking, and only then check your answers.
4. Keep a misses list. Any word you got wrong goes on tomorrow’s warm-up. Drop a word once you’ve spelled it correctly on several different days.
5. Go back to older words. Every few days, mix in words you learned earlier so they don’t fade.

Run a mock bee at home

Scripps’s official pronouncer, Dr. Jacques Bailly, calls a spelling bee a performance and suggests practicing like one: find a friend or family member to be the pronouncer, stand up as if you’re at a microphone, ask your questions and spell the word just as you would at the bee (Scripps, How to Study for a Spelling Bee). Use the rules your bee will actually use. Local bees are encouraged, but not required, to follow the Scripps Suggested Rules, and for this season that means the 2027 edition (Scripps 2027 Suggested Rules).

Say the word, spell it, say it again

Under the 2027 Suggested Rules, a speller should make an effort to face the judges, pronounce the word before and after spelling it, and say each letter clearly and loudly enough to be understood (Scripps 2027 Suggested Rules). Judges may not disqualify you for skipping the pronunciation, but saying the word first lets your pronouncer catch it if you misheard. You don’t need to say capital letters, accent marks, hyphens or spaces. Only the letters and their order count (same source).

Don’t change letters once you’ve said them

Scripps’s quick guide for school bees says a speller may ask to start over, but can’t change the letters already said or the order they were said in (Scripps Rules). The 2027 Suggested Rules disqualify a speller who changes letters or their order while retracing a spelling, or who makes unintelligible sounds while spelling (Scripps 2027 Suggested Rules). In your mock bee, the first letters you say are final. If you aren’t sure, take your time before you say the first letter.

Ask the questions the rules allow

You may ask the pronouncer to say the word again, define it, use it in a sentence, give the part of speech, give the language or languages of origin, or give an alternate pronunciation if one is listed. The pronouncer won’t answer questions about root words, give a different definition or say the word more slowly (Scripps 2027 Suggested Rules). At a classroom bee, the language of origin may not be available. Scripps’s quick guide lists it only for school-level bees (Scripps Rules). Practice asking out loud until it feels routine. Our guide to what you can ask in a spelling bee shows how each answer can help.

Treat a miss like the real thing

In the suggested rules, a misspelled word means you’re out (Scripps 2027 Suggested Rules). In practice, stop the round there and add the word to your misses list. Bailly even suggests getting a bell to ring when you misspell (Scripps, How to Study for a Spelling Bee). Hearing it at home may make it less startling on the day. If performing still makes you nervous, see how to handle spelling bee nerves.

Learn patterns as well as lists

Scripps warns that bees begin with words from the study list but often end with words you haven’t studied (Scripps Study Tips). Bailly’s advice for those words is to collect patterns. Learn Greek and Latin roots, such as tele- meaning “far,” keep lists of words that come from the same language, list the different ways one sound can be spelled, and learn the pronunciation symbols dictionaries use (Scripps, How to Study for a Spelling Bee). He also says to keep notes on the exceptions, since those words can be asked too.

Our guides to Greek and Latin roots, spelling by language of origin and spelling words you’ve never seen go into each approach.

Check your bee’s own rules

The Scripps Suggested Rules are guidance. Local officials can adapt them, and Scripps tells spellers, parents and teachers to check with their local bee officials for the rules in effect (Scripps 2027 Suggested Rules). Ask your teacher or coordinator for a copy before the bee, and set up your mock bees to match it. When the day itself gets close, our competition day guide covers what to expect.