Scrabble at Xishan Primary School: Our Inaugural Scrabble Camp

This year, Scrabble embarked on quite a few initiatives. One of it is sending a junior team and a senior team for he ISNSC 2012. The other is taking part in the Individual Event in ISNSC. The third would be Scrabble Camp 2012.

I had a wonderful experience in this camp. It provides me with the experience to learn more about my Xishan Scrabblers who started off as Baby Scrabblers and now playing competitively in competitions. For this camp, I'm sure our Scrabblers have learnt a lot from our guest coach, Mr Kenny who is kind enough to come to our school to coach all of you at the expense of his free time. I am very thankful to him for agreeing to this request and I must thank Mr Addy for doing the liaising. For me, I learnt quite a bit on the resources available online and what aps I can have in my IPhone so that word checking is a breeze for us. I do hope all of you remember the strategies shared by me on the first night. They really help!

I can also see the improvement made by all of you over the course of 2 days and really hope to see efforts put into mastering the 2-Letter words and front & back hooks. These are compulsory knowledge to help you secure a victory. It was fun to see the Juniors "battling it out" with the Seniors and how everyone remained competitive and motivated to beat their opponents. Well done!

Following are some comments I have for all the players:
Senior Team
1. Shu Hui: You need to spend more time on Scrabble. Your vocabulary is extensive, but your stacking skill is lacking and you need to know what are the best squares to play all the time.

2. Jade: This year, you spent too little time on Scrabble and you are still not familiar with your word lists. That's why you find it tough to win the stronger juniors. You used to be much stronger in Scrabble.

3. Dai Fei: Frequent plays really help you and you have definitely emerged stronger. Well done!

4. Wei Long: You possess excellent stacking skills which only a few in our school can match. However, it's your mental strength and resilience. Learn to accept losses and look upon every game as though it is the first game.

5. Clara: You need to master your word lists. They are so important to you. Although you are making small improvement, more efforts and time will help you to advance further. Study the lists!

6. Pradeep: You possess above average vocabulary and stacking skills. However, you need to spend more time on Scrabble to advance further.

7. Patricia: You need to be more regular in your Scrabble attendance. You must have realised that both your vocabularly and stacking have deteriorated. Well... Hope to see you making progress.

Junior Team
1. Jimmy: Well done! I enjoy observing all your gameplay and seeing how you stood steadfast even though you are lagging. Quickly master your words in the word list and go for victory! You are capable of leading your team to victory in the Grand Finals. I know you have been spending a lot of time on Scrabble, but you need to balance out your time for other stuff.

2. Keanen: You are one of the fastest learner, but your pace had slowed down. Please...... Master your 2-letter words and front & back hooks. They are the compulsory ingredient to secure a nice plate of victory.

3. Eason: You need to stay focused throughout the competition. Even if you are lagging behind, you try. Well done for learning the words. Don't forget that one of our school values is resilience.

4. Ethan: You have to work on your 2-letter words. You know that 2-letter words and hooking list are very important, but you did not invest sufficient effort in knowing them. I hope you will work on these, together with your wide vocabulary, you will be a good player.

5. Evan: It's great to see that you have prepared your 2-letter words. However, memorizing is not enough, you need to know how to use them. I said this because you are still forming non-existing 2-letter words. Strategy wise: Take all triple word if possible. The moment it's opened, think of a possible way to get it. You can still make your move later if your opponent did not take the triple word. However, it's almost 100% that he will take the triple word if you do not take it.

6. Piraphon: Great efforts on 2-letter words. Well done! However, you need to think by looking at the entire board, not just at the place where you intend to make a move. You must also look at your entire rack, not just the word you have formulated cause it's an ever-changing game. You only store aside letters when u are going to score a bingo. If not, use the entire rack.

7. Wen Jie: One of the better players in Xishan. However, you must never let your opponent's high scores affect you. Stay resilient and play with confidence. Master your hooking lists and you will certainly get better.

8. Mingxian: Though you were not selected for competitions, it's good to have you in the camp. Hope that you have learnt a lot from it. Word lists are essential tools to make you a good player. Invest some time and efforts into them and you will realize that your skills have improved. Keep up with the learning and it's good that you have the attitude for it.

Let's see some of the camp photos: