In a word with 1 syllable, double the final consonant ONLY if the word ends in 1 vowel + 1 consonant, excluding w, x, y (e.g. stop - stopped/ slam - slammed/ ban - banned) .
In a word with 2 or more syllables, double the final consonant ONLY if the word ends in 1 vowel + 1 consonant AND the final syllable is stressed (e.g. regret - regretted/ admit -admitted/ prefer - preferred).