Imperial Exam

High up in the mountainous reaches of northern Neopia lies the mist-covered land of Shenkuu, an empire bound by the virtues of honor, discipline, and wisdom. As it is once again time for Shenkuu's imperial examination, citizens have come from far and wide to participate and receive the accolades given to the land's highest-rated scholars. Only the most qualified Neopians are allowed in, however, and if the examiner himself proves unable to tell the difference, he could be looking for a new job...

Don't woory, I'm a professunal!

How to Play

The gameplay of Imperial Exam is straightforward and easy to control. Once you've selected your language and difficulty level, you will be presented with a line of examination hopefuls. As each steps forward, they spell a word; if the word is spelled correctly, press the up arrow key to let them through. If the word is spelled incorrectly, press the down arrow key to turn them away. You must admit a certain number of qualified Neopians within the time limit (60 seconds) to clear each stage. If you let an incorrect spelling through, you will lose one of your chances, of which you have only three throughout the game. Turning away correct spellings won't affect your chances, but it will cost you 5 points. If you use up all of your chances or the time runs out, it will be Game Over.

University? Yes, I daresay that you should attend one.

Scoring

While playing on the higher difficulty settings will give you longer words with less obvious spelling errors, this does not affect the score at all. If you're trying to get a high score as easily as possible, whether it's for a trophy or a gaming event, play on the Basic difficulty.

Each correct judgment, whether you're admitting someone or turning them away, is worth 5 points on every difficulty level. Conversely, incorrect judgments will deduct 5 points from your score. Due to this, while you will finish with a base score of 675 points (5 points multiplied by 135 Neopians throughout the course of the game), the number of incorrect spellings you turn away can sometimes double your points earned.

Each applicant has a 70% chance of presenting a correct spelling, but there's no way to predict or affect the number of incorrect spellings that will appear overall, so to get a high score you will have to play repeatedly and hope to get lucky. It's sort of like flipping a coin and hoping that, by chance, you will get more heads than tails!

Strategy

There are four types of spelling errors in Imperial Exam: letters being added, letters being removed, two letters in a word switching place, and letters being changed. While the majority of these changes are obvious, there are some that are easily overlooked, such as thier instead of their, or cheif instead of chief. The game contains several words that are spelled similarly to the incorrect spellings of other words, such as boundary being incorrectly spelled boundry, and foundry being spelled foundary. Given how inconsistent English is about such spelling rules, the only way to avoid these traps is by learning the proper spellings of the words in your difficulty of choice.

Spelling Solutions

Each of the game's 150 words has only one incorrect spelling. If you see develop spelled as develope, that is the only misspelling of the word you will see. Select a difficulty level and language below to see the correct and incorrect spellings of all words used in that game mode. Due to how the game handles Asian languages internally, we are currently unable to collect information on them; if you would like to assist us in adding an Asian language to this guide, please contact us through the feedback form at the bottom of this page.

English Solutions: Basic

Hismelf, Fonetic... Yuonger? No, no and NO!

Quick Tips

• Each word has just one misspelled version.
• Imperial Exam uses the American spelling of English words.
• If you're unsure of a spelling, turn them away; you may lose points, but you won't lose a chance.
• The number of participants you must admit increases with each stage, but the time limit does not.
• Difficulty doesn't affect the points given, so play on Basic when going for a high score.
• Each species of Neopet featured in the game has two animations that will play when the cursor is hovered over them during gameplay. While this serves no purpose, it can be fun to watch them impatiently waiting for you to make your decision.

Weepit Was Here

Like several Flash games on this site, this game was worked on by Weepit. You will very rarely see a piece of paper reading "Weepit was here" plastered over the Imperial Exam sign in the top-left corner of the screen before blowing away. The chance of this happening is just 1 in 10,000 levels!

For a full list of Weepit's note appearances (as well as the original Easter Egg hider, Ollie), check out our article!

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