The North-South contests held in the U.S. were founded by Dr. Murali Gavini in 1993. The primary goal is to encourage academic excellence for Indian-American children and assist in their preparation for further education. Some students have gone on to attend Harvard, MIT, Stanford, and other top-ranking schools while other have had great success in other academic contests such as the Scripps Howard National Spelling Bee.

HEXCO ACADEMIC offers products for Indian- American students participating in all of the following contests at North South Foundation's National educational competitions:

Spelling
Vocabulary
Math
Geography
Essay Writing

Spelling

Annual products to learn all the words from the Scripps list plus more:
Valerie's Spelling Bee Supplement - is a booklet with all the words from the Spell It! list, plus related words that follow the spelling tips and languages of origin from the Scripps list for a total of 2,500+ words, a respectable number to start your spelling foundation. Words are in a sequence of difficulty as in all Hexco products.
Spelling Mentor software - works interactively with students who are learning the annual Scripps list and our related words. Each word is pronounced while the screen shows definitions, parts of speech, a sentence, and alternate pronunciations, and etymology is shown when words are correctly spelled. History records of problem words are kept so that students can hone session to words with which they are having problems.
Talking Webster - presents the pronunciation of each word from the Scripps list and our related word list from CDs, so that students can listen anywhere to a correct pronunciation of each word as they check their spelling from a list or from Valerie's Supplement.
Natalie's Spelling Bee Organizers - are used to conduct bees or to be a printed companion to the Spelling Mentor software. All information for each word in printed (phonetic pronunciations, parts of speech, definitions, sentence, and etymology). Words are in a sequence of difficulty.

Advanced spelling products for those aiming at the higher reaches of competition:

Spelling Rules Book - explains all the old spelling rules and gives conventions of using these and identifying and recognizing exceptions. It has an encyclopedic list of Latin and Greek elements with their meaning, plus several words derived from each element. Then it explains the spelling of words from many foreign languages that are common in our dictionaries, as Spanish, Japanese, French, German, etc. Beyond that are several interesting lists, such as words with a silent first letter, words from mythology, words from other languages, and much, much more.
Verbomania - has a list of 13,000+ words that are requisite for a strong vocabulary and high SAT score. This type of word is often encountered in bees when they go "off-list" to those words that have not been on an annual study list. With a two-fold purpose, this list will expand a student's spelling vocabulary and flesh out his or her reading vocabulary, and ultimately writing and speaking vocabulary. Study this book all the way up to SAT test taking time.
New Nat's Notes - contains 18,000+ words that have been used in prior spelling bees or are of the same ilk. All the difficult words from the CWL are included, along with phonetic pronunciations, definitions, parts of speech, and even etymology. Now available in either difficulty sequence or alphabetic sequence. This is a big step into spreading a students' spelling foundation to a very competitive level.
Etyma Mentor software & Etyma Notes - teach Latin and Greek elements either with software or the printed book. The software works interactively to keep a student on task, actively learning the elements. Each root is accompanied by a definition and 4 words using the root with their own definitions.
NEW "Bee Prepared"- contains most of what we have learned about spelling and the National Spelling Bee in the 25+ years that we have followed the bee and produced study materials. We attended for 10 years, and we've kept up and analyzed the working all along the way. A list of 30,000 words is included, but fair warning, none have pronunciations or definitions, and these range from the simplest words in our file to very, very difficult ones.
Surprise Word Mentor - consists of six sets of 500 words for a total of 3,000 words. All are in Nat's Notes, but this teaches the words by working interactively with students and keeping up with history records so that they sessions can be honed to words that are uniquely difficult for each student. Eventually, this will be supplanted by a grander set of software that encompasses all the words in Nat's Notes and/or all the words in Verbomania, but that is a gargantuan task.

Vocabulary

Verbomania - has a list of 13,000+ words that are requisite for a strong vocabulary and high SAT score. This type of word is often encountered in bees when they go "off-list" to those words that have not been on an annual study list. With a two-fold purpose, this list will expand a student's spelling vocabulary and flesh out his or her reading vocabulary, and ultimately writing and speaking vocabulary. Study this book all the way up to SAT test taking time.
Vocabulary Mentor - will present 500 strong vocabulary words, including such categories of words as frequently confused words, descriptive words, positive words, negative words, people-related words, etc. Working interactively, students actively learn vocabulary using multiple choice questions, and history records are kept so that sessions may be honed.

Math

Mental Math Mentor software - works interactively with students to teach some 70 shortcuts for doing math in your head. It enables students to do math without pencil and paper and estimate answers. An invaluable tool for taking standardized tests, the program also teaches a student to look at an answer and know if it is in the "ballpark." With calculators so available in our world, students never learn the mental skills for mathematics.

Geography

Visualize World Geography - teaches all the continents and countries of the world using clever mnemonic devices, and encourages mental images of maps.
GeoMentor software - present 1,000 multiple choice questions on geography. Sets of questions include such categories as terms, waterways, state capitals, world capitals, mental maps, advanced questions, and many more. Working interactively, students actively learn geography, and history records are kept so that sessions may be honed as facts are mastered.

Essay Writing

Expository Writing for high school - carefully teaches students structure of strong essays, tools to use in writing, positive approaches, and even pitfalls to avoid. Exercises for improving writing styles are includes and prompts for essays are suggested.
Expository Writing for middle/elementary school - is much like the book for high school students, but at a level easily understood by younger writers. It carefully teaches students structure of strong essays, tools to use in writing, positive approaches, and even pitfalls to avoid. Exercises for improving writing styles are includes and prompts for essays are suggested.