KUALA LUMPUR: The RHB-New Straits Times Spell-It-Right (SIR) Preliminary State Challenge (written test) took place at Universiti Malaya here today with 416 participants from primary school and 569 from secondary school.
New Straits Times Press marketing coordinator Mohamad Anuar Alias said the competition, which is being held for the ninth consecutive year, was seeing an encouraging increase in participants.
"Last year, we had 374 primary school students and 479 secondary school students taking part in Kuala Lumpur.
"This increase is due to the competition being successful in the previous years," he said.
The students, accompanied by their parents and teachers, arrived at the university's Examination Building hours before the tests commenced with hopes that they would be in the top 100 list.
For the preliminary challenge, the participants had about an hour to spell 10 words in three rounds.
The best 100 participants from the preliminary challenge will proceed to the State Challenge Final in Berjaya Times Square on August 27 for primary schools and August 28 for secondary schools.
The winner in each category will represent the state in the National Challenge Final scheduled on October 1 at Connexion@Nexus in Bangsar South.