Inter-School Scrabble Championship

Partner: Mattel Southeast Asia

Put your wits to the test! Over 1000 primary and secondary students battled it out in the 2nd Inter-school Scrabble Championship 2003 – “The Battle of Wits”, organised in conjunction with the Speak Good English Movement (SGEM) to promote the use of good English amongst students in a fun and educational manner.

In the preliminary rounds of the Scrabble Competition, Primary schools fielded teams of 3 players to play a total of 3 games with other contestants, while Secondary schools sent teams of 3 to compete in 4 rounds of the board game. Schools could submit up to 6 teams. The team with the highest overall score would be the winner.

In the Essay Writing & Reading leg of the championship, 1 student from each school was given 1 hour to write an essay using the words formed on the Scrabble boards during the preliminary rounds. Essays could not exceed 300 words, and each additional word would cost the student 1 point up to a maximum of 50 points. The stories were then orally presented to the judges and they were assessed based on:

• language & grammar (25%)
• delivery and engagement of the audience’s attention (35%)
• content (organization and coherence) (20%)
• usage of words on the Scrabble board (20%)

The Grand Final of the Scrabble Competition as well as the Prize Giving Ceremony was held at the Suntec City Tropics Atrium from 19 – 20 July 2003. Winning teams received cash prizes of S$100 – S$300, hampers and book vouchers. Winners of the Essay Writing & Reading Competition were also invited to read their essays to the public.

In 2002, some 364 students participated in both the Scrabble Competition (Part 1) and Essay Writing and Reading competitions (Part 2).