The winner was 13-year-old eighth-grader Betty Robinson of South Bend, Indiana (who took 2nd place in the 1926 bee), correctly spelling the word knack, followed by albumen.

[1] Pauline Gray, 13, of West Salem, Ohio placed second (she spelled knack as "nack"), followed by Bessie Doig, 11, of Detroit in third, who faltered on "bacillus".

[3] The first student eliminated of the 23 contestants this year misspelled "magic" as "majic".

Other words which spellers stumbled on included "occurred", "middy", "saxophone", "gist", "valet", "illusion", "aberration", "charivari", "counsellor", "clarivoyance", "clientele".

Winner Robinson told the judges that "counsellor" could be spelled three ways, and correctly did so.