Can you spell plethora, renaissance, tetrahedron or whimsical? Chances are Otumoetai College Year 10 student Nicole Cameron can.

The 14-year-old is one of 17 Year 9-10 Otumoetai College students who have advanced to the 2015 New Zealand Spelling Bee regional semi-finals in Hamilton on August 20.

Otumoetai College Spelling Bee representatives Nicole Cameron, 14, Shannara Hill, 14, Holly Lander, 13, and Danielle Reyes, 14. Photo by Tracy Hardy.

Each student had to correctly spell 77 or more words in the 2015 NZ Spelling Bee Classroom Pronouncer's Guide to be accepted as one of the top 217 spellers countrywide in the semi-final round.

The written test includes 50 words from the NZ Spelling Bee wordlist and 50 words the spellers haven't seen before. Nicole penned 90 out of 100 words correctly.

'The hardest word I had to spell was ‘eschew',” says Nicole. Eschew is to deliberately avoid using, or to abstain from something. Nicole now knows what eschew means and how to spell it.

Nicole received the second equal highest score, with Year 10 student Danielle Reyes and Year 9 student Aria Smart receiving top scores at the school of 92 out of 100.

Nicole puts her good spelling down to 'good memory”. She reads sometimes too, which helps.

'Sometimes when I read and I don't know a word, I'll look it up in the dictionary.”

The teen was accepted into the semi-finals in 2014 and she's excited to go again this year. The next step is the 2015 NZ Spelling Bee Final in Wellington on October 17.

'That'll be pretty cool because I haven't been down to Wellington and it will be a new experience,” says Nicole. Plus she's got her eye on the $5000 prize.

Teacher in charge Julie Richards will prepare the 17 students for the semi-finals in August.

'They've only done written test so far,” says Julie. 'They haven't done any oral testing, which is a whole different skillset in itself.”

Julie says sometimes students who receive high marks in the written test will muddle their letters in the oral test.

'It's quite a different thing to spell out a word orally to a large crowd. You've got nerves and you've got to think on the spot and you haven't got a pen and paper, so it's quite a different story.”

Until the regional semi-finals in August, Julie will be testing her 17 top spellers with quick-fire questions on how to spell synagogue, melliferous, silhouette and impromptu.