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National Contents FAQ

General Contest FAQ

What is the purpose behind the North South Foundation contests?
North South Foundation encourages excellence in education among children in the US and Canada by conducting educational contests. North South Foundation also encourages excellence in education among the poor in India by providing college scholarships. North South Foundation believes that every child can excel given an opportunity.
The Foundation was established as a non-profit organization in 1989. Since inception, North South Foundation has provided more than 3,100 scholarships in India. Since 1993, North South Foundation has been conducting contests in the US. Thousands of families across the US and Canada participate in the North South Foundation contests every year. All contributions to North South Foundation are tax-deductible.
No. The goal of the Foundation is to help every participating child. The focus is on learning and not on ranking. We also encourage learning the basics in a structured way. We believe that this is a better approach than learning by sheer memorization. In the North South Foundation contests, every child is recognized as a winner. North South Foundation believes that every child can improve his or her skills over time through practice and hard work. North South Foundation has seen enough evidence to demonstrate that an average child can rise to the top given the right motivation and opportunity.
No. There are only a few who get ranked. That is the nature of all contests. We give participation medals and certificates to all contestants to recognize that everyone is a winner by participation.
A contest provides an incentive and a goal to work towards within a specific time-frame. Second, a child needs to learn to accept failure, just like in any sport. Both success and failure are an integral part of life. Failure gives an opportunity to learn from mistakes and do better next time. Even Thomas Edison had more failures than successes. In reality, the real contest is whether a child is improving over time or not. For example, even if a child learns one word a day, that is 365 words in a year.
The bees are conducted once a year, at two levels. First, the bees are conducted at the regional level in more than 80 North South Foundation centers in the US during March-May. Based on a national cut-off score for each contest, the top scorers (who meet this cut-off score) from all centers are invited to participate in the North South Foundation National Finals event during August-September.
In general, the contests are open to all children of grades 1 through 12, residing in the US. You should consult the section on contest specific rules, which apply to the contest you are interested in. The North South Foundation contests are conducted as a community event for the families. They are all run by volunteers without any compensation. Because of the limited resources, the contests are limited due to varying factors like capacity limits etc. as determined by each chapter.
Yes. Your child in KG can participate in any contests that start with grade 1 on an equal basis without any special privileges. You should bring your child into the contest with the aim of getting him/her acquainted with the bee. Learning can start at any age
See the “Rules” section for each contest under the Regional Contests page to see the details on the specific contest you are interested in.
See the “Preparation” section for each contest under the Regional Contests page to see the preparation tips for the contest you are interested in.
See the “Preparation” section for each contest under the Regional Contests page to see the preparation tips for the contest you are interested in.
The registration fees are in the $20 – 40 range. They are not high when you compare with fees charged with other competitions such as chess tournaments. Further, 2/3 rd of the registration fees are tax-deductible contributions, which are used to fund noble causes like awarding college scholarships to the poor, but meritorious, children in India. Also, part of the fee contributes to Scholarships here.
No. The fees are not refundable, but they can be treated as tax-deductible donation in full to the North South Foundation in case your child cannot participate in the contest for any reason. If the donation is more than $50, you can request for access to a game, spelling or vocabulary, for one year for one child.
No. Given the limited volunteer resources, North South Foundation is not in a position to handle discounts. North South Foundation does recognize that some families might find it difficult to pay for multiple contests and/or for multiple children. North South Foundation strongly believes that a child should never be denied to participate in a contest for lack of funds. If a family has hardship in paying the fees, North South Foundation is prepared to reduce or waive the fees on a case by case basis. If applicable, please send an email to [email protected] with a detailed explanation.
North South Foundation supports on-line registration for various contests. The on-line registration generally begins during the early part of January. Please visit www.northsouth.org for the latest information.
Not necessarily. The contest offerings in a Chapter can vary depending on the resources available. Consult the contest calendar on-line or contact your chapter coordinator for the specific contests being offered at your location.
At the regional level, all participating children will be awarded certificates of participation. In addition, winners get certificates of excellence and rank medals or trophies. Participation in the North South Foundation National Finals event is only by invitation. This invitation is based on a national cut-off score determined from the pool of all regional scores. There will not be a contest at the national level, if the cut-off score as well as the number of children, is below the predefined limits. At the North South Foundation National Finals event, 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place winners will be awarded $1000, $500 and $250 in scholarships, respectively. In addition, the foundation recognizes the top ten rank holders in each contest based on the number of finalists. There are no monetary awards for the Brain Bee. All scholarships are redeemable during the winner’s freshman year of college.
Your scholarship is redeemable when you enter college. North South Foundation makes payment to the student. The payment is made when a parent or student produces the invoice for tuition. If you have already paid for the current semester, you can wait for the next semester.
When you are eligible to redeem, please send a copy of the invoice, along with a letter with the following details, to [email protected]:
  1. Your personal details including full name, mailing address, email and phone number
  2. Details of the event when and where you earned the scholarship (year, location, contest, rank, etc.)
  3. Most recent student bio/resume and a recent photograph (headshot preferred) in digital format. With the student’s permission, North South would like to feature a summary of your student’s accomplishments and their photograph in our newsletter and/or NorthSouth social media.
  4. For contest winners starting in 2024, if the student doesn’t claim their scholarship by age 25, the scholarship award will be used to fund college scholarships for deserving students in India.
If a child wins multiple North South Foundation scholarships, there is a lifetime cap of $3,000 for each child. There is also a cap of $1,000 on each contest.

Registration FAQ​

From the Home Page, click the ‘Register Now’ button on top of the page. Once you login, you can add / verify your children information and register them for various contests.
You can change your old email to the new one under the “Personal Preferences” section. If you encounter a problem, click here to send an email to [email protected]. Act quickly so that you can get practice words for your children.
Practice words will be provided for Vocab & Spelling bees only upon completing the payment. Syllabus for the rest are posted on the web. There might be workshops being organized at your chapter. Check with your coordinator.
< Right click on the link and save a copy of the pdf or doc file.
Use your frequently used PRIVATE e-mail so that you can continue to receive updates about contests.
  1. clicked on “part of North South Foundation family”…
  2. login/password — typed in, accepted
  3. Required to enter details about myself and my spouse
  4. After entering those, I get the message “your primary email address is already in our database…”…. and this cycle repeats, if I try again…

It appears that you are trying to create your profile again, although one already exists. If you moved, you should retrieve the old profile and update it. If you forgot your password, you can retrieve it from the login page. If your email is no longer valid, you can change it from the login page. If these measures fail, send an e-mail to [email protected] with your old e-mail that you used in the previous year(s) and new e-mail address.

We have tested Online Registration many times over. If you still get any technical errors during online registration, send a mail to [email protected] giving details of the error you encountered. We will rectify the errors at the earliest.
If you receive errors like “SQL ODBC Error” check your data. Please do not use single or double quotes while entering registration data. e.g. Andrew’s Elementary School can be changed to Andrews Elementary School while entering registration data.
Yes, you can still register online even though the center is not yet finalized. You will see contest venue and date on the site as soon as the information is available. Remember that once registered, no refunds will be made. It is your responsibility to have your child(ren) participate at the venue on the date and time chosen by your chapter.
Online registration generally closes two weeks before the contest date. Because of this rule, registration deadline is different for each chapter. Check contest calendar for deadline of each chapter.
Yes, you can – From the Home Page, use Parent Login to check status. A pending status indicates registration fee has not yet been received by our system. If you see pending status, but if you had already paid by credit card, please contact your coordinator. Paid status indicates that registration process is complete.
While you are making a registration payment for the contest, you can also avail the opportunity to make a donation, if you like. A $250 donation will send a top ranking poor child in India to college for one year. North South Foundation urges each parent to consider helping a poor, but bright, child go to college in India by donating $250. It is noble if each NRI family can help one deserving child back home.
If you make any mistakes during online registration, send e-mail to [email protected]. Based on the nature of the mistake you did, you will be advised accordingly.
Examples of mistakes can be: selecting wrong chapter, incorrect address, wrong email addrss, etc. If you have selected wrong chapter during registration, inform [email protected] immediately.
You will not be able to register if a chapter has become inactive. You cannot also register once deadline for registration is over. Contact your chapter coordinator, if you need help. No onsite registration is permitted on the day of contest.
Yes, if your child participated during last year, you can re-register your child quickly for this year’s contests. From the Home Page, use Parent Login to fetch last year’s profile and complete this year’s registration.
You can pay the fee using Credit Card. During registration, you will be prompted to enter credit card information. Once you complete your registration including payment, you will be able to download contest practice words immediately. No checks are accepted for payment.
Registration fee cannot be refunded if you decide to cancel your registration or if you cannot attend the contest for any reason. The fee can be considered as 100 percent tax-deductible donation to the North South Foundation.
Step 1: Go through login like you did during registration. Navigate to Regional Contests tab, click on Contests Status – Current Year option.
Step 2: On the Contests Status – Current Year page, click on ‘Download Materials’ button to download the practice words.
Step 3: Sign off and load the relevant software: Acrobat Reader for pdf file and MS Word for the Word file. After loading, open the file to see the words. You can print them for practice.
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