Can you spell that for me?

So Lilian wrote a post about this South Australian spelling test which tests the spelling abilities of children aged 6 to 16. My immediate reaction was nooooooo, not gonna let my kids try it cos as far as I know, spelling has never been my kids' strong trait.

But after a while, couldn't tahan any more. I'm the type who can never pass up a quiz no matter how inane. I think those pointless Facebook quizzes are designed with people like me in mind. "Which Lord of the Rings character are you?" I mean, who cares, right? (It's Eowyn, by the way.)

A little about the spelling test - adapted from an earlier UK test, it's designed to measure the spelling ability of students, aimed at helping teachers identify kids who might need extra help. The test comprises 2 different forms of 70 words each. Each form may be used interchangeably but each has its own score table. You can find it here.

So I made Lesley-Anne and Andre take Form A. At first, both were quite reluctant but to my surprise, after that, they volunteered to take Form B as well. I think they were curious to see how they matched up.

I'll be perfectly honest, if their scores had been embarrassingly low, this post wouldn't have happened! See lah, so ai bin... As it turned out, Lesley-Anne did better than I expected. For Form A, she scored 65/70 and for Form B, 63/70. This exceeds the maximum limit for both tables which are 54 words (Form A) and 58 words (Form B) for age 16 years. This was quite a pleasant surprise as I've been nagging Lesley-Anne over her spelling for years. Looks like the school drills for PSLE are paying off!

Andre didn't do as badly as I feared either, although he was stumped by most of the longer words, scoring 41 (Form A) and 46 (Form B). This puts his approximate spelling age at 10.11 and 11.2 years respectively. Ok lah, not too bad for his actual 8.9 years. I was quite amused by the way he attacked the words without hesitation, even when he hadn't a clue what some of them meant, let alone how they were spelt. Like:

efishion (efficient)
matirialy (materially)
semmitery (cemetery)
modgadge (mortgage)
subbteranient (subterranean)
pollitecen (politician)
propyatere (proprietor)
exxergerate (exaggerate)
geranty (guarantee)

and two of my favourites:

adour lessons (adolescence)
vexination (vaccination)

I know in Singapore, lots of kids will be able to spell better than mine, since so many of them seem to be advanced readers at a very young age. Like when Lesley-Anne read Lilian's post, she said in mock horror, "I'm only spelling as well as a 6-year-old!" Yes, if that 6-year-old is brainy Sean Leong.

For me, I'm content with their scores. Afterall, spelling can be quite a vexination.